UEFA Champions League 16/17

[yuppie]

City would like the 4th goal.

Then all the problems belong to Barca.

[budgetmeansbudget]

No one has fully explained what Pep sees in Stones yet.

Can someone explain why Pep spent 50 mil on him?

I can't see anything at all.

I'm still unconvinced by Sterling, decision making is dire at times, just been subbed!

People have said stones is like a young Rio, personally i just can not see it.

Lascelles will go on and be better than Stones. Though that could be my blinkered Forest eyes looking at that.

He was singled out at a very early age when at Everton without ever doing that much, and his price tag kept rising even when he was making mistakes and overplaying around his penalty area.

So what has Pep seen then?

He clearly thinks he's a player on the ball. I'm not convinced that he is, time will tell.

[Aidan11]

A good night for the Brits.

[budgetmeansbudget]

A good night for the Brits.

Yep, Arsenal come from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and qualify for the last 16.

[yuppie]

A good result for Celtic as well.

[yuppie]

Just had a look at Ozils third goal, wonderful

[budgetmeansbudget]

Just had a look at Ozils third goal, wonderful

Yes he was cool as a cucumber.

Celtic's result helped Man C aswell.

[The Professor]

Lot of talk about City last night but very little attention being paid to the makeshift nature of Barca's back four.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Lot of talk about City last night but very little attention being paid to the makeshift nature of Barca's back four.

It was mentioned on the TV coverage a fair bit last night and in the posts on this forum too.

But I guess when Barcelona are beaten with Suarez, Messi and Neymar in the side it is a pretty noteworthy achievement.

Of course Iniesta missing and a different back four helped Man C a fair bit, but the 4-0 result in the reverse fixture wasn't really a fair reflection of how that game went, so maybe a bit of complacency snuck into Enrique's thinking when deciding on the lineup last night.

[sussexpob]

Lot of talk about City last night but very little attention being paid to the makeshift nature of Barca's back four.

Mascherano won Barcelona player of the year in 2015 as a CB...... and has made the team of the tournaments in the 2014 WC, and the 2015/16 Copa America. He has played CB since he arrived at Barcelona, and id suggest that he is a better player than Otamendi.

Umtiti is pretty similar to Stones.... both new purchases in their younger 20's getting opportunties in the first team, stepping up to the top level. Both considered potentially great future players. Pretty equal here.

Sergio Roberto played virtually all of Barcelona's season last year (31 la liga games) so he isnt a B team player. And his opposite number, Zabaleta, has hardly played since picking up his injury at the start of the 2015 season. And Kolarov has turned into a make shift centre back for Guardiola, but before that he wasnt really first choice when Glichy was fit.

I dont think this is an excuse. All teams miss key players at certain times, if Barcelona get 3 injuries and turn into a leaky bag of rubbish, then Id question how much squad depth they have. Its part and parcel of football, you need a good squad.

In fact Barcelona have ever since arguably Guardiola left, neglected the squad depth in certain key areas. Since Marquez/Abidal and Milito all faded with injury, and Puyol with age (all around the same time) Barcelona have had very little interest in spending money on defenders, even converting Mascherano and Roberto from the current team into defenders (they both started as midfielders).

If you have no interest in buying defenders and take the risk of two injuries leading to catastrophe, then you deserve to be punished. Last time they lost the league it was because they left the squad so bare of back up, 3 or 4 injuries utterly trashed the team.

[yuppie]

This evenings viewing is Leicester v Copenhagen.

Hard to believe that Leicester have 3 champions league wins after 3 games.

Point tonight should make them go through.

[Aidan11]

Going to plan so far then. 0-0 at HT.

[yuppie]

Yep, the game plan is working.

Now starting to look like they will hit them on the break.

[sussexpob]

Tottenham look so blunt up front at the moment... Im going to switch to paint drying

[yuppie]

Could be a nothing season for spurs.

Still unbeaten in the league, but with out Kanes goals, they really don't look to much of a threat.