I know people think Man U shouldn't take it to Barcelona as normally that is devastating but i still reckon they should field the same side as they did V Schalke and play normally like it's any other game cos if you change your whole play to counter the other team then players can become in awe of the opposition
Barcelona V Real Madrid: 7.45 ITV 1
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People hype up Barca way too much. They are good with the ball - but what if United can break up their play and take it to them? Its got the potential to be an open game, but they might not even play eachother yet!!
Fletcher has the quality to hound their attack in the same way Pepe has done, which effectively stops Barca from playing.
matyfatymole
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If Manchester United play Barcelona in the champions league they should play 4 at the back with 2 in defensive midfeild to prevent Barcelona gettin space in the gap between Defence and Midfeild. They should then play with two atacking wingers who are looking to gain possesion as quickly as possible so they can do a counter attack. They should then do low crosses for Hernandez and Rooney to try and get. This will make Barcelona have to keep people back so they are outnumbered and as a consiquence there usual short passes will be stopped and they will have to resort to long balls which 9 times out of 10 Vidic and Ferdinand will sweep up. Barcelona will soon become frustrated and try and play there way out but if Man United push up enough they will retain possesion and will soon to put Barcelona on the back foot again. For me this is the only way I can see Man United winning this by keeping Barcelona on the back foot they can have Messi loytering round the edge of the area and won't be able to feed balls through to Villa. They will have to be very alert but putting pressure on Barcelona will force them to hitting the ball long and not bein able to get the idilic one twos and through balls in.
United would beat Barcelona, judging by those two games.. I know Schalke aren't anywhere near as good as Real Madrid but they way United played it was like watching the first El Classico of the season. If Giggs and Rooney start (which they will), they will cut open Barcas defence and Hernandez will be there to finish. I'm gonna put money on United with a 2 goal margin. But, as others have pointed out, these ties aren't over and a lot of you have forgotten that United will be playing at Wembley if they go through, home turf in terms of the Champions league.
luke the blanco
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It is disgusting to see how Barce killed the game, yea you thinking what on earth am i taking about, but it is infact true madrid went with a game plan to disrupt Barce just payed with it at back and when they did get forward they would act and cause trouble... an absolute disgrace..I praise them for the football in past but any team can pass it to Valdes and back to Pique over and over... not to mention if Pepe's was a red card then Messi's goal was just luck...we all know both statements are true...mark my words had Pepe stayed on messi would have cried his way home...he was non existent when Pepe was on
Well done Stark you are a weak ref influenced by Barces theatrics then you knew you where wrong and to avoid embarrasment sent the only man with the balls to say it to you to the stands... wouldn't be suprised if Barce do dope and bribe...unfortunately it will be the two cheaters of football at wembly what a shame
Well done Stark you are a weak ref influenced by Barces theatrics then you knew you where wrong and to avoid embarrasment sent the only man with the balls to say it to you to the stands... wouldn't be suprised if Barce do dope and bribe...unfortunately it will be the two cheaters of football at wembly what a shame
Wellm i just pointed out how many game changin decisions they had in the biggest cup in Europe.. Not hypocrisy, i just pointed how every time opposition are down to 10 men and Madrid had a player sent off in 4 consecutive games..
Messi > Ronaldo. Slightly better. Thats not at all arguable.
But he doesn't go missing in the big games. Would like to see how can Messi perform when he plays for the team that barely touched the ball. Ronaldo has scored in every possible big game and big teams. Dont know why people always say that..
bitter much, both sides were as bad as each other, embarrassing from the so called two best sides in the world. dont pretend that real were a clean side, Jose played the game with his comments and it backfired on him tonight. Probabaly should have tried to offer some form of attack rather than purely contain
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Did you even bother reading my post? I'm not saying Messi is the only thing that makes Barcelona better than Arsenal.. I said: "they're generally a better side but Messi can change a game in an instant - on his own"
I just meant that on the simplest level - Messi is what separates Barcelona's general keep-ball game plan from Arsenal. If Utd (or Schalke) deny him time and space, they can shut out Barcelona and can certainly beat them. But it's different to shutting out Arsenal - OBVIOUSLY Barca are the better side, but even if Utd press their midfield and force them backwards, they always have that option in Messi who can do something magical to win a game without anyone else's help!
Exactly both sides got so wrapped up in histrionics instead of showcasing their immense skills
luke the blanco
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Yes i'm bitter and reason for it is the fact that had we walked away with 11 men i am almost certein we would be heading into the camp nou with a nil nil scoreline
we weren't the better side nor where we as you would say "clean" but what we did do was restrict them to long shots and nothing of any threat, thats more than any other team can claim...we executed our gameplan flawlessly, Barce came out there with anger after they saw there coach lose it.. this was evident by the fact that Puyol hardly even looked at Iker,his good friend when they tossed...the goal of barce was to pressure the ref and get the advantage..yes madrid used aspects of this but nowhere near the heights of the Barce players i mean Javier could have got a straight red for his lunge at Pepe, don't you agree?
The tie is effectively over thanks to a couple of poor decisions by the ref...but in the words of Jose the boys can still hold their heads high well done madrid...HALA Madrid
Jose wound up the atmosphere before the game, and have n complaints it backfired on him, red card was harsh,but given the fractious nature of the match it was going to happen.
You didnt execute it perfectly, Madrid should have started with Adebayor, when you play contain, you need to hold the ball up the oppositions end to relieve some pressure. If jose hadnt wound everything up the gameplan might have worked
---------- Post added at 09:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 AM ----------
Tell you what, that game need Collina, he would have taken no ****
This article echoes a lot of points made by several people in this thread, slightly better put 
Barcelona beat Real Madrid but at a cost to the beauty of the game
The dark side of football emerged as tensions ran high between the two great Spanish sides
Players and officials from Real Madrid and Barcelona clash during their Champions League tie.
The best match-up in club football is blessed by majesty and cursed by histrionics. As the heat rises in the corporate and cultural rivalry between these two great institutions we see a reversion to a child-like state, in which players exaggerate the impact of tackles, roll around clutching unhurt faces, mob the referee and brawl on the way to the dressing rooms at half-time.
This is not a pious Premier League interpretation. Goodness knows English football has its dark sides. But the theatricality in these Real Madrid-Barcelona games is now too widespread to ignore, even after Lionel Messi has implanted a final memory of beauty with one of his slaloming, goalscoring runs.
Two goals from the world's best player when Real were down to 10 men set up a likely peach of a final: Manchester United v Barcelona, Wembley, 28 May.
Never mind the stampede for 2012 Olympic tickets, how would they meet the demand for the rematch of Rome 2009? Both United and Barça take two-goal leads home with them for next week's second legs. Unlike the Schalke tie at Old Trafford, this one will be wreathed in acrimony and recrimination.
When all the poison has washed down the drains, the truth is that Real's fightback against Catalan dominance looks broken. Unless Barça collapse at the Camp Nou, José Mourinho, who staked his reputation on this most complex of managerial tasks, will enter the summer recess with only the Copa del Rey to cuddle. Barça will almost certainly win La Liga and the Champions League trophy looks destined for either the team Mourinho would one day like to coach (United) or the club who have blocked his ascent in Spain.
This was the kind of spectacle that appeals to fans of televised, live mayhem, and it was a violation of talent and many of the laws of the game, however uplifting Messi's second goal. Shortly before the interval Pedro was struck in the chest by Alvaro Arbeloa and went down as if smashed in the face, and our old friend from the Catalan Old Vic, Sergio Busquets, hit the deck after being caught by Marcelo, an escalation in tension that produced a mêlée as the teams left the field for refreshments.
The headline moment in that disturbance was José Pinto, Barça's reserve keeper, slapping Arbeloa. This 18-day, four-match marathon was bound to boil over one day, because both sides have routinely tried to con match officials and Barcelona have sought sanctuary from Real's raised aggression with a kind of wincing hyper-sensitivity.
When the teams came back out, chaos descended with Pepe's risky jab at the knee of Dani Alves, who reacted as if an unscheduled amputation had taken place, and Mourinho was sent to the stands after seeing his team reduced to 10 men for the fourth consecutive time in clashes between these clubs (following the same thing happening to his Internazionale team against Barcelona a year ago).
At the heart of all this was Madrid's desperation to escape Barcelona's artistic shadow. Mourinho said before Round 3 of the series: "I am the same boss that lost 5-0 to Barça [in November]. Exactly the same. I don't have a magic trick." There m'lud, is incontrovertible proof of his gift for dissemination. Same boss? Don't have a magic potion? Every hour since that dark night was a quest for retribution.
European football's most persistent agent provocateur was not built to be humiliated. To him the game is an exercise in power, in subjugation, which is what made his appointment at Real so compelling. Sparks were bound to fly as Mourinho sought a way to reconcile his highly organised and cautious style with the demand in these parts for entertainment. The 5-0 defeat at the Camp Nou last year, then, was an insult he has tried to avenge with ceaseless tactical and psychological pressure.
On the field Real found to their cost that fire-fighting on every blade of grass was an invitation to the enemy to inflict death by triangular passing. A new method was required: more attacking pressure, higher up the pitch, an extra dose of venom in the tackle, more hounding of referees and a beefed-up list of insinuations about Barcelona's influence over match officials.
In this first leg Mourinho the arch pragmatist retook the stage. Real, on their own turf, lined up with two lines of fortifications – a traditional back four, plus Xabi Alonso, Pepe and Lassana Diarra packed into three defensive midfield positions, to stop the antics of Messi, Pedro and Xavi, while Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil and Angel di María roamed in counterattacking roles. This was Mourinho not caring about aesthetics or public opinion beyond Spain's borders.
An ex‑Camp Nou employee himself, Mourinho has always played up Barça's sinister side. This week the Real coach turned his rhetorical fire on Pep Guardiola, to no avail. In each of the season's first three clashes a Real player had left the pitch early. The dismissals of Sergio Ramos in November and, this month, Raúl Albiol (La Liga) and Di María (Copa del Rey final) had all been rolled into Mourinho's conspiracy theories about Barcelona's political influence and now he has a fresh disciplinary problem to confront with his own reaction to Pepe's ejection.
As Messi brightened up a blighted scene, the stadium seethed, controversies lined up to run and run and the two sets of fans denounced each other as "whores". This was not really a football match. It was warped political theatre and there is more to come next week.
Barcelona beat Real Madrid but at a cost to the beauty of the game | Paul Hayward | Football | The Guardian
Barcelona beat Real Madrid but at a cost to the beauty of the game
The dark side of football emerged as tensions ran high between the two great Spanish sides
Players and officials from Real Madrid and Barcelona clash during their Champions League tie.
The best match-up in club football is blessed by majesty and cursed by histrionics. As the heat rises in the corporate and cultural rivalry between these two great institutions we see a reversion to a child-like state, in which players exaggerate the impact of tackles, roll around clutching unhurt faces, mob the referee and brawl on the way to the dressing rooms at half-time.
This is not a pious Premier League interpretation. Goodness knows English football has its dark sides. But the theatricality in these Real Madrid-Barcelona games is now too widespread to ignore, even after Lionel Messi has implanted a final memory of beauty with one of his slaloming, goalscoring runs.
Two goals from the world's best player when Real were down to 10 men set up a likely peach of a final: Manchester United v Barcelona, Wembley, 28 May.
Never mind the stampede for 2012 Olympic tickets, how would they meet the demand for the rematch of Rome 2009? Both United and Barça take two-goal leads home with them for next week's second legs. Unlike the Schalke tie at Old Trafford, this one will be wreathed in acrimony and recrimination.
When all the poison has washed down the drains, the truth is that Real's fightback against Catalan dominance looks broken. Unless Barça collapse at the Camp Nou, José Mourinho, who staked his reputation on this most complex of managerial tasks, will enter the summer recess with only the Copa del Rey to cuddle. Barça will almost certainly win La Liga and the Champions League trophy looks destined for either the team Mourinho would one day like to coach (United) or the club who have blocked his ascent in Spain.
This was the kind of spectacle that appeals to fans of televised, live mayhem, and it was a violation of talent and many of the laws of the game, however uplifting Messi's second goal. Shortly before the interval Pedro was struck in the chest by Alvaro Arbeloa and went down as if smashed in the face, and our old friend from the Catalan Old Vic, Sergio Busquets, hit the deck after being caught by Marcelo, an escalation in tension that produced a mêlée as the teams left the field for refreshments.
The headline moment in that disturbance was José Pinto, Barça's reserve keeper, slapping Arbeloa. This 18-day, four-match marathon was bound to boil over one day, because both sides have routinely tried to con match officials and Barcelona have sought sanctuary from Real's raised aggression with a kind of wincing hyper-sensitivity.
When the teams came back out, chaos descended with Pepe's risky jab at the knee of Dani Alves, who reacted as if an unscheduled amputation had taken place, and Mourinho was sent to the stands after seeing his team reduced to 10 men for the fourth consecutive time in clashes between these clubs (following the same thing happening to his Internazionale team against Barcelona a year ago).
At the heart of all this was Madrid's desperation to escape Barcelona's artistic shadow. Mourinho said before Round 3 of the series: "I am the same boss that lost 5-0 to Barça [in November]. Exactly the same. I don't have a magic trick." There m'lud, is incontrovertible proof of his gift for dissemination. Same boss? Don't have a magic potion? Every hour since that dark night was a quest for retribution.
European football's most persistent agent provocateur was not built to be humiliated. To him the game is an exercise in power, in subjugation, which is what made his appointment at Real so compelling. Sparks were bound to fly as Mourinho sought a way to reconcile his highly organised and cautious style with the demand in these parts for entertainment. The 5-0 defeat at the Camp Nou last year, then, was an insult he has tried to avenge with ceaseless tactical and psychological pressure.
On the field Real found to their cost that fire-fighting on every blade of grass was an invitation to the enemy to inflict death by triangular passing. A new method was required: more attacking pressure, higher up the pitch, an extra dose of venom in the tackle, more hounding of referees and a beefed-up list of insinuations about Barcelona's influence over match officials.
In this first leg Mourinho the arch pragmatist retook the stage. Real, on their own turf, lined up with two lines of fortifications – a traditional back four, plus Xabi Alonso, Pepe and Lassana Diarra packed into three defensive midfield positions, to stop the antics of Messi, Pedro and Xavi, while Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil and Angel di María roamed in counterattacking roles. This was Mourinho not caring about aesthetics or public opinion beyond Spain's borders.
An ex‑Camp Nou employee himself, Mourinho has always played up Barça's sinister side. This week the Real coach turned his rhetorical fire on Pep Guardiola, to no avail. In each of the season's first three clashes a Real player had left the pitch early. The dismissals of Sergio Ramos in November and, this month, Raúl Albiol (La Liga) and Di María (Copa del Rey final) had all been rolled into Mourinho's conspiracy theories about Barcelona's political influence and now he has a fresh disciplinary problem to confront with his own reaction to Pepe's ejection.
As Messi brightened up a blighted scene, the stadium seethed, controversies lined up to run and run and the two sets of fans denounced each other as "whores". This was not really a football match. It was warped political theatre and there is more to come next week.
Barcelona beat Real Madrid but at a cost to the beauty of the game | Paul Hayward | Football | The Guardian
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urgh hate him with a passion. hayward is too flowerly which is normally what annoys me, but williams just writes utter drivel. Sid Lowe and Daniel Taylor ftw
Sid Lowe is pretty much the only writer anywhere that I never seem to have a problem with.
Williams just jumps on bandwagons & seems to hate Arsenal =P
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