mickee, Iâll defer to your tactical acumen given how youâve called the round of 16 games so far but do you not think the away leg will suit Walcott? Didnât they go 1-0 up over there last season when he outpaced them on the right and squared for Bendtner (similar to Lennon/Crouch last night)? Surely Barca will force Arsenal back and Arsenal will be defending deeper than what they seemed to be tonight - Walcott will have plenty of space to run into on the break.
that was last year tho Bandage, im not happy at all with Walcott this season and tonight i thought he was v inefective tonight.
i remember the game you are talking about and also a similar siituation in Anfield in 2008 when Liverpool were pressing and he ran the length of the pitch with liverpool back 4 in his wake down the right and squared for Adebayor to score.
i would definitly start Bendtner next week, he fucked up Pique good and proper tonight and he will not like facing him w/o Puyol in tow,
id start Arshavin also, and try and use his trickery to expose maxwell who didnt inspire me at all tonight,
Walcott can be sprung from the bench i think, but you are correct it is a good option to have
I believe Piqué is suspended for the return leg Michael.
ok !! wow, i wasnt aware
so are we talking a Barca back 4 minus puyol and pique�?
Puyol will be back.
Iâd agree with Mickee, start Bendtner, Walcott coming off the bench around the 65 min mark.
Yep, can see the logic behind springing him from the bench too.
eircom league games are played on a friday night in the Summer .
champions league games are played on⊠ah FFS
its the GAA and Rugby you are thinking of mateâŠ
Glad the second leg isnât for three weeks as we are going through a bit of a mini-blip at the moment and as I said at the weekend itâs a mentally tired team between league, cup and internationals over the last month - Leo especially has been clocking up the air miles in the last week, didnât think Iniesta had a great game either.
Poor decision to take Villa off - the whole team just seemed to ease up after that - it was quite similar to last years match where they came late with two goals after being out of it for most of the game. Puyol is badly needed back.
:blink:
Youâre not serious?
I think they took their foot off the pedal as they were passing it round Arsenal with such ease.
I was right myself, fancied Arsenal to pip them by a goal.
Didnât see much of the match last night but thought it was really superb play by Nasri for Arsenalâs second goal. That guy is a class act.
Yeah it would have been easy to blast that wide himself or to just square it as a percentage ball but he picked a lovely pass. He was very poor in the first half but Wenger got rewarded for leaving his quality on and taking off Walcott and Song. Guardiola went the opposite way and paid the price.
Good run by RVP in that play also, you could see him sprint to the goals, pointing backwards at the same time into the space Arshavin was coming into. Also did anyone else notice what was on the Russians shirt? Am pretty sure it was a picture of himself :lol:
While the switching of iniesta and teh introduction of Keita lead to Barca dropping the pace and losing their grip on midfield I actually thought he was right to take Villa off at the time as he was on the periphery for most of the game and was struggling to make an impactâŠTook his goal very well and tracked back to the edge of his own box on a few occasions in the first half but didnât do much offensively and Messi and Pedro looked far bigger threatsâŠ
I had fancied arsenal to get something from the game beforehand and it is well set up for the second leg but I still think Barca will go through, but should be another excellent game hopefully
Yeah the one thing that struck me about the goal was quality. Even the finish from Arshavin was quality. He was coming onto it at pace, could have driven it over but his technique was excellent. Arsenal do have quality players undoubtedly that can hurt any team. But Arshavinâs general play off the ball is generally very poor.
Chelsea are playing 4-4-2 in Copenhagen tonight with Torres and Anelka upfront and Drogba on the bench. The Copenhagen striker NâDoye has scored a lot of goals domestically and in Europe over the past couple of seasons so itâll be interesting to see if he causes any damage. Jos Hooiveld on the bench for them and ex-Chelsea player Jesper Gronkjaer will start on the left wing.
I think Iâll watch the Lyon-Real Madrid game. Mourinho has left Kaka and Benzema on the bench and Adebayor gets the start upfront with Di Maria and Ronaldo on the flanks and Oezil in behind. Lyon have some good players in Gourcuff, Bastos and Toulalan to name a few. Should be a decent game - Lyon eliminated them in the knock-out stages last season too.
Lyon have a very good record against Madrid over the last 6 or 7 yearsâŠEspecially at home, could all change tonight though
have a Real/Chelsea double tonight @ 3.64. Tough games, but both are clearly superior to their opposition.
Good opening 10 minutes from Lyon, plenty of energyâŠCris going close with a bicycle kickâŠThe Stade Gerland is rocking
Lovely strike from Anelka
Benzema scores against his former club