Dog's Football Thread Part Seven.

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City were ecstatic after going up 2 nil, they thought they had it in the bag, title wrapped up, everything. If there was ever a game of 2 halves!!

Our next match is at home to W Brom who have nowt to play for, they won't be bursting a gut.
City play away to Spurs who have everything to play for! We know they'll get the title eventually, but they can wait!!

[VelvetCat]

City were ecstatic after going up 2 nil, they thought they had it in the bag, title wrapped up, everything. If there was ever a game of 2 halves!!

Our next match is at home to W Brom who have nowt to play for, they won't be bursting a gut.
City play away to Spurs who have everything to play for! We know they'll get the title eventually, but they can wait!!

I think we will have something to play for, even if we are about to be relegated.

[Trapper John]

City were ecstatic after going up 2 nil, they thought they had it in the bag, title wrapped up, everything. If there was ever a game of 2 halves!!

Our next match is at home to W Brom who have nowt to play for, they won't be bursting a gut.
City play away to Spurs who have everything to play for! We know they'll get the title eventually, but they can wait!!

I think we will have something to play for, even if we are about to be relegated.

Yes I've seen West Brom, Stoke, Southampton, Palace etc., play in recent weeks. It's not for the want of trying that they've found themsleves where they are now - does beg the question though, why haven't they played like that all season.

[Trapper John]

So the wheels on mighty Man City juggernaut have well and truly come off. It's now three back to back defeats and two have been at home.

Just a few shorts weeks ago the pundits were telling us how Pep Guardiola and his team were going to be lording it over English and European football for years to come, they are the best team in Europe and no-one can hold a candle to them. It appears the players and manager swallowed the hype just as easily as the MotD punter.

Yes there was that decision at a pivitol moment which could have changed last night's result, thats the price you pay for being in a competition with poor officials - I wish I had a pound for every poor decision that went against Arsenal in their 20 years of Champions league football and no-one gave a damn - the fact is City lost this quarter final at Liverpool last week when they failed to score.

The moment Salah equalised last night was the moment all hope drained from City's manager and players along with their spirit. As much as I hate the scousers it was nice to see City fall from the grace I've been saying all season was theirs as much by the weak mental character of their opponents as it was their often devestating play on the pitch.

And Guardiola the master tactition? you have to ask why Aguero sat on the bench for half the game? a player with half his reputation would have been a vital mental advantage just by being out there - Gabriel Jesus is not on the same planet.

Guardiola is learning now that total attacking football doesn't work all the time against premier league opposition, something that is now dawning on Jurgen Klopp and is the reason why Arsene Wenger will be leaving Arsenal this summer.

[Trapper John]

To be fair to Liverpool, they did what they needed to do and deserve their place in the semi finals, how much further they can go is anyone's guess.

They have been helped immensely by the failure of Barcelona to hold on to a 4-1 advantage which they took to Rome last night, again failure to score an away goal did for them as it did for Man City. With the two hot favourites to lift the trophy now out the odds have shortened considerably for the scousers.

Despite Liverpool's performance you'd still say Real Madrid were favourites. After a poor domestic season by their standards and a jittery path through the Champions league group stages, they now seem to have found their rhythm and should be in the semi's later tonight after coming away from Juventus 3 goals to the good last week.

Once again the pundits are feeding the punters poor advice by saying Liverpool need to avoid Madrid at all costs in the semi's - anyone but Madrid - they say. The team they need to avoid is Roma. Over two legs they have proved to be the Lazarus side this whole competition and they have seen off top clubs over 180 minutes and they'll continue to do that. Much rather you face them in a one off game like the final.

I hope Arsenal players have taken note from Barcelona's exit last night, I hope they have seen how easy it is to go away with a 4-1 advantage and still come back defeated. Away goals for or against have always pivitol in European competition and Arsenal allowed one to get through last week. You can be sure CSKA Moscow players will have taken heart from that result last night.

[Trapper John]

There was a full Championship fixture list played last night, with the exception of leaders Wolves who entertain Derby tonight. A win will put them 11 points clear at the top and almost guarantee their promotion to the Premier league as champions.

The second automatic place is still up for grabs as are the play-off spots, all of which are far from settled. Fulham did themselves a heap of good last night with their narrow 1-0 victory over Reading particularly as their main rival for the automatic place, Cardiff, went down 1-0 at Aston Villa last night. Villa are of course in the play-off mix so it was a good win for them and they will be hoping Wolves see off their nearest rivals tonight too.

Fairytale story of the division has to be Millwall They came up from division one and had a shaky start with highs and lows. Since their defeat by Norwich 2-1 on New Years Day however, they haven't lost a game in 16 league outings, winning 12 and drawing 4, two of which were against their immediate rivals.

Their 0-2 away victory last night against Bolton Wanderers has catapulted them into the play-off contention places. On level points now with 5th placed Derby County, they too will be hoping for a Wolves victory tonight.

It will be a big ask for the south Londoners to get into the play-offs, Derby at this moment have two games in hand and both side are considerably below 4th placed Villa 8 points above them. It's the trailing pack Millwall need to worry about just as much, any slip ups from now on could allow any 1 of 5 clubs all with the potential to snatch away their 6th placed play off spot.

In other news for Dogs football thread readers, Birmingham City continued their miserable season last light with a 3-1 defeat to Bristol City leaving them just 3 points above the drop zone.

[Rockstar]

Buffon

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City were ecstatic after going up 2 nil, they thought they had it in the bag, title wrapped up, everything. If there was ever a game of 2 halves!!

Our next match is at home to W Brom who have nowt to play for, they won't be bursting a gut.
City play away to Spurs who have everything to play for! We know they'll get the title eventually, but they can wait!!

I think we will have something to play for, even if we are about to be relegated.

I think you may be right, VC, theoretically you could nick the 17th spot, but you'd have to play out of your skins for the next 4 or 5 games and hope everyone else keeps losing. Long shot. But yes, even when all is lost people should play for pride.

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I have never spoken to you before now, VC, but you were the one who had Cyrile Regis in your sig, right?
I was so relieved when I saw that there are still people here old enough to remember all those old 80's/90's names & faces. I thought I was the only one. :(
Different era altogether.
Footy was more interesting and more spiritually pure - now the players are taking the piss with exorbitant wages.

[Trapper John]

Usually if Arsenal are not involved I'll have the TV showing football and fiddle about on the laptop, I'll rarely stop and watch a game no matter whose involved. Even more so on European nights where I flick over channels every now and again to check results. Thats what I thought I'd be doing last night, I didn't.

Juventus had gone to Real Madrid already dead and buried after conceding three goals at home with no reply. As they kicked off, I started to watch as Juve began immediately to batter Real and I thought at least they are going to make a game of it, two minutes later they scored and I realised this was going to get interesting.

That thought proved to be an understatment, Juve were in this for the duration and they menaced Real to the point where their only answer was to keep the ball out of Juve's reach which they did with only moderate success. After 20 mins I'd put away all thoughts of just scanning the game and was watching the whole thing, finding myself rooting for the Italians to score another, on 37 minutes they did.

At half time with Juve two goals to the good I wondered, could we see another turnaround like the one in Rome the night before? surely not. Juventus began the second half much the same way as they finished the first, Real seemed to have no answer to the Italians game and were hanging on to their slim lead now with little thought of attack. On 60 minutes the game exploded as Juve levelled the score at 3-3 on aggregate, game on wasn't the right expression, it had been game on since the first kick of the ball.

This was fairytale stuff again, only ever seen in films or Roy of the Rovers storylines, Juve were going for broke and Real were broke. To be fair, the Spanish side began to pull themselves together in the last 10 minutes and for the first time started to look dangerous, the effort and pressure was beginning to tell on the Italians.

As the game went into added time it looked for all the world we'd get another 30 minutes of nerve tingling football, this was never going to penalties. Then it happened!

Almost as referee Michael Oliver was going to blow, Real put a ball over to Ronaldo who headed it down to one of his players with the goal gaping wide and a Juve player took down the recipient from behind, A PENALTY!

Then it really did all kick off, Juve players went ballistic, maybe understandablly but nevertheless several orders of magnitude over the top, the resulting fracas seeing veteren and legendary Juve keeper Buffon get his marching orders.

The spot kick was eventually taken by who else? Ronaldo and he converted it with power and conviction into the top right corner, winning Real a place in the semi's and breaking every Italian heart.

My Verdict? - that was some fucking game of football.

[Trapper John]

After the game Juve keeper Buffon was unrepentent saying that only a man with 'garbage for a heart' would award a penalty at that stage, taking away the prospect of extra time as he said their performance on the night demanded that at least.

I can understand his and his teams feelings, Juve certainly deserved at least that - unfortunately football is a game without empathy it's about rules and laws - his player did foul the Real player, he shoved from behind before wrapping his knee around him.

For what it's worth, though it appeared an odds on goal if he hadn't been fouled, I doubt the striker would have buried it as he was surprised it ended up in front of him and he appeared at a loss as to how he should play the ball - I think those few moments of indecision would have given Juve the chance to collect or scuffle the ball away and the extra time their performance on the night warranted.

Again people expect sympathy for Buffon, sending off one of the legendary keepers of the game in his last ever Champions league match, as much as I don't like Michael Oliver he was 100% correct to give him a red card, Buffon was right in his face with some considerable amount of venom.

Real now wait for Friday to see who they draw in the semi finals, along with Liverpool, Roma and Bayern Munich whose game against Seville last night was the complete opposite of the other as they bored themselves into a 0-0 draw and 2-1 aggregate win.

[Trapper John]

The Gunners are in Moscow now ahead of their Europa league quarter final second leg tie against CSKA tonight. I hope everything is ok for them and the travelling fans with whats been going on.

Arsenal have a 4-1 lead over the Russians but as we've seen just in these last few days, you can't rely on that lead to take you through. Like I said yesterday CSKA will have taken heart form Roma's defeat of Barcelona after facing the same scoreline and again from Juventus superb comeback from a 3-0 deficit against Real Madrid.

It's reported Wenger has told his team exactly that, they can take nothing for granted and they need to be at their best.

Petr Cech will play in goal again as Ospina is still reportedly unfit and Henrik Mykhtarian is out after suffering a knee injury in the corresponding tie last week. Other than those we have a fully fit squad and hopefully will be in the semi final draw on Friday.

COYG!

[Red Okktober]

Hopefully should be fairly straightforward tonight, although you can't count your chickens and all that. The semi finals beckon, it seems to have come round fairly quickly.

If we make it, I'd rather play main dangers Atletico in a one-off final that a two-legged semi-final.

Although he's cup tied for tonight, I'm delighted with the start Auba has made - his positional play in the box is superb - the ball seems to come to him like a magnet, and he seems to find lots of space.

TJ - who would you rather take the penalties if both him and Lacazette are on the pitch? Against Stoke everyone was saying Auba 'gave' the chance to Lacazette, as if he (Auba) was the main man. Personally I'd rather see Lacazette take them.

[Trapper John]

Hopefully should be fairly straightforward tonight, although you can't count your chickens and all that. The semi finals beckon, it seems to have come round fairly quickly.

If we make it, I'd rather play main dangers Atletico in a one-off final that a two-legged semi-final.

Although he's cup tied for tonight, I'm delighted with the start Auba has made - his positional play in the box is superb - the ball seems to come to him like a magnet, and he seems to find lots of space.

TJ - who would you rather take the penalties if both him and Lacazette are on the pitch? Against Stoke everyone was saying Auba 'gave' the chance to Lacazette, as if he (Auba) was the main man. Personally I'd rather see Lacazette take them.

Yeah I'd rather Lacazette take them but with power because he can really hit a ball, whereas I don't think Auba can as much. I hate those stop, start, chip penalties, drives me nuts - power everytime for me.

I think about that penalty, it was rather Auba not taking the chance of his hat-trick was what they meant by that - not that he had any superiority over Lacazette, that sort of unwritten rule where the team-mate on a hat-trick is expected to take it.

The fact that Auba didn't press to take it and rather let Lacazette who had been suffering low confidence before his injury, was a nice touch and what was meant by that he gave it to Lacazette whereas no-one would expect him to pass over the opportunity of an HT.

If that lot makes any sense.

[Red Okktober]

Yeah I'd rather Lacazette take them but with power because he can really hit a ball, whereas I don't think Auba can as much. I hate those stop, start, chip penalties, drives me nuts - power everytime for me.

I think about that penalty, it was rather Auba not taking the chance of his hat-trick was what they meant by that - not that he had any superiority over Lacazette, that sort of unwritten rule where the team-mate on a hat-trick is expected to take it.

The fact that Auba didn't press to take it and rather let Lacazette who had been suffering low confidence before his injury, was a nice touch and what was meant by that he gave it to Lacazette whereas no-one would expect him to pass over the opportunity of an HT.

If that lot makes any sense.

I think the hat-trick thing was why people assumed he gave it to Lacazette, especially with Lacazette needing a confidence booster. it could have been that, or it could have been AW has Lacazette down to take them regardless of who else is on the pitch. I'm not sure, but I wouldn't have thought he leaves it to the players to decide amongst themselves.

I saw the stats recently, off the top of my head - Auba has missed 7 from 28 and Laca has missed 5 from 31/32, so Laca has the better record as well.

Sods law now we get one tonight and Lacazette blasts it over the bar!