I wouldn't take City's banter seriously, it's just banter. It's a tough draw, but the wild card for me is Tata and what he's going to bring to the table. With Pep and Tito is was pretty straightforward. I will hold judgement on the team once we get everyone back and healthy, the one positive for me at least is that Barca hasn't it full flight yet and is still improving.
Barca draws Man City
- Thread starter Barcaman
- Start date
Ron Weasley
New member
I was reading some of comments on the Blue-something forum (City supporters') and they're astonishingly and rather annoyingly Over-confident.
Here's a comment some imbecile posted there:
We should win it. It's a must win.:barca scarf:
Please don't take us too seriously - it's only banter on our own forum. Especially the buying your best players nonsense LOL.
There's a load of us who are just so excited having got here for the 1st time in our lives. Of course we are "hoping" that we might go through, but we all know how tough a task it will be.
As I implied before, I think it will come down to who wins by most at home. I am sure you will win your home leg. Can we win ours? And if so, can we win it by a bigger margin?
Cule4life
The Culest
People on both sides seem to be overly confident.
Lets face it. We are not the team of 2 years ago. Against physical and counter attacking sides we do struggle. Plus we have no depth in the defense department. A defender has to be bought in January.
On the other hand. City are monsters at home but jackals away. Their defense is poor. An injury to Kompany and they might as well surrender the tie.
The contest which will decide the tie are : Aguero/Negredo vs Pique/Masch. If our defence doent implode we can win this easily
Lets face it. We are not the team of 2 years ago. Against physical and counter attacking sides we do struggle. Plus we have no depth in the defense department. A defender has to be bought in January.
On the other hand. City are monsters at home but jackals away. Their defense is poor. An injury to Kompany and they might as well surrender the tie.
The contest which will decide the tie are : Aguero/Negredo vs Pique/Masch. If our defence doent implode we can win this easily
darthvader7888
Banned
ZenI
Professor Balthazar
Seriously, he said that? Wow, this is just going to make us stronger - Pellegrini better think before he speaks...
ThwiX
Best midfielder around
With that line-up we wouldn't score a goal. Playing Messi and Neymar in positions where they are not comfortable. It's okay playing Neymar there against a weak team when Messi is injured, but it won't do much good against one of the best teams in the world. Neymar's finishing is just not good enough and we shouldn't waste Messi on the wing again like against Real Madrid. Also, the useless midget Mascherano against City's tall and strong players?
te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
Oh, and I hope Pellegrini will start Demichelis vs us because he is a complete joke, gets dribbled really easily, not Nastacic, who is a beast, especially with Kompany
lol at you if you think Messi was wasted on the wing vs Madrid and could have helped Barca to score more if he played a centre-striker. I'm not going to tell you every tactic aspect, but in general if Messi played the false 9 in that match, he would have been surrouned by 3 players minimum. That basically means that Messi wouldn't have had time and space to receive the ball between Madrid's defense and midfield. That is because Ancelotti put Ramos as a holding midfielder that game to stop Messi, but when Tata saw it he moved Leo to the right flank and told him to switch positions with Cesc, and that worked. Ramos was lost and clueless, not knowing what to do, that's why he started fouling everybody.With that line-up we wouldn't score a goal. Playing Messi and Neymar in positions where they are not comfortable. It's okay playing Neymar there against a weak team when Messi is injured, but it won't do much good against one of the best teams in the world. Neymar's finishing is just not good enough and we shouldn't waste Messi on the wing again like against Real Madrid. Also, the useless midget Mascherano against City's tall and strong players?
Last edited:
darthvader7888
Banned
With that line-up we wouldn't score a goal. Playing Messi and Neymar in positions where they are not comfortable. It's okay playing Neymar there against a weak team when Messi is injured, but it won't do much good against one of the best teams in the world. Neymar's finishing is just not good enough and we shouldn't waste Messi on the wing again like against Real Madrid. Also, the useless midget Mascherano against City's tall and strong players?
And Pedro
B
BrianSwan
Guest
Barcelona are the favourites..
It's 60-40 in your favour.
It's 60-40 in your favour.
ceefoo
New member
My Team for 1st Leg in Manchester
DEFENCE
We will need a strong defensive unit as we will encounter heavy pressure in Manchester. That's why I have Puyol at Right-Back. He aerial ability at defending high balls into our box will vital against a physically powerful City team. Plus he will "stay at home" more, providing defensive stability, unlike Dani Alves.
MIDFIELD
I gone with Song because I don't believe we can play X&I together against the best teams in the CL anymore. They just don't work hard enough when we lose possession, and if they were to play, I fear a repeat of the Bayern tie from last season. Again, Song will perform a disciplined role and bring some muscle to counter the likes of Yaya Toure.
ATTACK
Alexis is the man in possession of the RW slot right now. His creativity, pace and workrate is going to be required for a proper test at this early stage.
Valdes
Puyol--Bartra--Pique--Alba
Busquets
Xavi---Song
Alexis--Messi--Neymar
Puyol--Bartra--Pique--Alba
Busquets
Xavi---Song
Alexis--Messi--Neymar
DEFENCE
We will need a strong defensive unit as we will encounter heavy pressure in Manchester. That's why I have Puyol at Right-Back. He aerial ability at defending high balls into our box will vital against a physically powerful City team. Plus he will "stay at home" more, providing defensive stability, unlike Dani Alves.
MIDFIELD
I gone with Song because I don't believe we can play X&I together against the best teams in the CL anymore. They just don't work hard enough when we lose possession, and if they were to play, I fear a repeat of the Bayern tie from last season. Again, Song will perform a disciplined role and bring some muscle to counter the likes of Yaya Toure.
ATTACK
Alexis is the man in possession of the RW slot right now. His creativity, pace and workrate is going to be required for a proper test at this early stage.
te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
Puyol has lost his pace and won't have good times vs Nasri/Silva, I tell you. I also doubt Song's ability to play a ball-winning midfielder, because he sucks even at it. Agreed on Sanchez, the guy is on fire and hopefully he can destroy Clichy.
darthvader7888
Banned
Puyol at RB? He was shit there against Ajax.
My lineup for the first leg:
Valdes
Alves-Bartra-Pique-Alba
Masch
Busquets-Xavi
Alexis-Messi-Neymar
Alves and Alba HAVE to be disciplined though. One has to stay back when the other is attacking. And I'm also not sure about returning Masch to CDM after so long. Maybe Song would be better.
Last edited:
When have we not struggled against physical and counter attacking sides?
Pep only won like 2 or 3 out of 12 K.O games away from home in his 3 year tenure. We were destroyed by counter attacking against Inter in 2009 and Chelsea in 2008, Arsenal deservedly beat us at emirates, and they were one (Bendtner) kick away from knocking us out at Nou camp, a shit chelsea team in 2011 also beat us at Stamford bridge.
We were NEVER good away from home in the K.O rounds, the fact is our game has ALWAYS depended on the home game at the Camp Nou, and this wont be different.
We shouldn't go to CIty aiming for a draw in my opinion, we have what it takes to beat them there. Arsenal, United, And Spurs are considerably inferior teams to Barca so I don't see the relevance of that in this tie. City's form has always been imperious at home ever since Mancini's time. But every tactically aware and technically good European team in the C.L that has gone to city has got something from there more often than not, I present to you; Madrid, Dortmund, Bayern, Ajax.
We don't need to win at their ground, A draw or even a narrow loss with us scoring will be good enough as our record overwhelmingly suggests.
Personally, I wanted this tie, we need to build our form into April. Beating Minnows won't help us with the confidence we need to win this competition.
Home of Barca Fans
