Post Match Reaction - Round 13

[Nick@ManCity]

Missing Sheets
N/A

Errors

 Acm - Error: Player C_Under wasn't found in the roster
byl - Error: The PK taker, R_Jimenez wasn't listed in the teamsheet, Line 1 space needed before SCORE
mon - Error: Player D_Cataldi wasn't found in the roster

Error Points
Lazio = 1
Rangers = 3 T SHEET IF ERROR IN NEXT SHEET
AC Milan = 2
Leverkusen = 2
Monaco = 2

[Derek]

Napoli 2 3 Roma

Rookie error from the Roma boss sending Muniesa up front as a replacement for the injured Coman which affected the team's rythym. A confused Muniesa contributed no key tackles, passes or shots in his 80 minutes as he wandered around looking lost.

Napoli looked to take advantage of the Roma confusion and thought they had squeezed a draw until Nacho popped up in the 88th minute and rescued the Galaticos.

Despite another poor performance from Szczesny we are now within striking distance of top spot.

gg Chris

[Steve@Chelsea]

Real Madrid 2 - 0 Sevilla

Sevilla are always a tricky side to play and they made us wait until late on in the game when we was down to 10 men to get the first goal from Sterling, before Rodrygo made the game safe. Mendy gets his 2nd red card in as many starts which is worrying, as a few more yellows and he will miss 3 more games ontop of the 2 he will miss this time which includes the vital away trip to Spurs in the Champions League and the away trip to rivals Roma, who got a little lucky fading their injury to Coman who will not miss any action. It's a shame that Madrid will not be at full strength for their next two games but we do have a strong replacement in the form of Varane who has been benched a little recently and will be looking to prove himself. Let's just hope we do not get another injury or suspension in the next game as we will be down to playing 16 rater Yoshida.

GG Rainman.

[AB@Juventus]

Juventus 7 - 1 Marseille

Finally, a convincing win against a poor team in the league! We won't get carried away however...this time last week we were celebrating a 8-0 win against Atletico Madrid but then went on to lose in the cup and then in the league to Frankfurt.

We knew Marseille would play A, so we decided to do that too and as expected, Marseille took the lead on 24 minutes.....

6 minutes later, the visitors switched tactics to E, gifting us TA and 10 minutes later, M_Odegaard pulled us level.

Going into half time, Marseille switched again to L but less than 15 minutes after the restart, C_DeKetelaere put us ahead for the first time in the game and we never looked back.

Another Y_Adli goal 4 minutes later seemed to seal the points but we weren't done there. Marseille came back at us with A and on 74 minutes R_Leao made it 4-1 followed by Adli's 2nd of the game less than 10 minutes later.

With 3 minutes left of normal time, Marseille were reduced to 10 men and we put them to the sword even more following this with 2 quick goals from Odegaard & Isak to round off the scoring at 7-1.

Statistically we smashed them as the scoreline suggests and earned a lot of abs. Good game Euan.

[JasonH@Wolfsburg]

Celtic 1-3 Leverkusen

Going 1-0 down in the first 10 minutes made me the fear the worst, business as usual, but we turned it around and this was probably one of our most convincing displays. It could have been a lot more.

We are now 12th, had we lost we would be 20th. Need some consistency now to get ourselves up the table and cement our place as top German side, Dortmund have emerged as our rivals in this as Munich find themselves in a relegation battle.

Good game derek. (Dazzler! I think)

[Dazzler]

Celtic 1 - 3 Leverkusen

Another disappointing afternoon. Took the lead but that the last of the positives. Looks like we are out of our depth at this level. We are definitely going to have some fortune, determination, energy and much better tactics.

On the afternoon Leverkusen were much the better team and once they were level then they were the only team that was going to go on and win it.

Well played Jason

[Marshy@Atletico]

Monaco 0 Atletico Madrid 2

GG Johnboy

Very complete performance this one. 7-21 shot count with goals from Saint-Maximin and Romagnoli winning the three points.
No bookings. No injuries. Minutes for those needing some so pretty much everything went well.

Manager Simon Marsh commented "That was one of those nights we just played very well and we could have won by a few more. Monaco can be a sticky opponent with the top class keeper and are a constant menace for pulling off victories against better sides so we are really happy to come through this one. 4 of the top 10 drew and 1 lost so it was a decent gain / pull back on some sides around us".

Atletico continue their season with a trip to Man Urenited in the champions league.

[Drum@Villa]

Inter Milan 4 - 1 Lazio

what do I actually say about this crap.

went in front, and was playing ok, as soon as inter changed tactic my lot decided that was it for our game.

we will roll over and let a team glory hole us completely.

Osimhen scored again and that tbh was the only thing we did. 26 minutes,,,,,,

not happy. And not pleased but is what it is.

stats = crap

didn’t deserve anything.

gg.

[JasonH@Wolfsburg]

Inter didn’t change tactic, you did though

[Drum@Villa]

Not sure why I wrote inter, was meant to read as soon as I changed tactic…..

[Ray@Wolves]

Rangers 2
T_Lamptey (25), A_Hlozek (56)
Booked: A_Elustondo (81)

Eintracht Frankfurt 1
C_Kouame (40)
Booked: T_Hazard (68), J_Henderson (86)

MotM: A_Hlozek (Rangers)
HT: 1-1

Oh so close to keeping our winning run going, but at home Rangers just had that bit too much for us to cope with. Very proud of the way these players have responded since I came here and hopefully we can bounce back from this disappointment to keep moving forward up the table away from the drop zone. Stats wise Rangers had the better of the game and deserved the three points, but a draw here would have been good for us. Unfortunately we picked up a couple of bookings which may hurt us further down the line.

Well played Aaron.

Next game is a trip to Anfield to play Liverpool in the Dave Phillips Trophy.

[Ed@PSG]

Bayern Munich 3 PSG 3
Yet again we have to make do with a point away to a weaker team. We came from behind twice, but were unable to hold onto the lead once we got in front. Another goal and another MoM performance from Jaoa Felix, making it 11 from 18 games, which is pretty amazing. Stats suggested an even game, so maybe a draw was the correct result. We continue our good fortune of being yet to suffer a single injury or suspension. I imagine things will even up and we will suffer later in the season. Roma and RM already pulling away, and i suspect we may be fighting for 3rd come the end of the season

[Livi@Liverpool]

Lyon 2 Barcelona 2

Lyon set up well and raced into an early two goal lead, but they then changed tactic and by the half hour mark we had levelled the scores. Disappointed that we didn't then go on to find a winner but in fairness the draw was definitely the right result on the overall balance of play.

Jesus with another double, he's been a lot more like we expected of late after that long lean spell. We remain unbeaten in the league and top of the table by the proverbial baw hair but the big guns are circling behind, as you would expect.

Played Jase, good game mate.

[JB@Norwich]

Bayern 3-3 PSG
"To take a point from the strongest team and most technical manager in the league is good on paper but we were good enough for the win so we will be again disappointed. We play like that vs a small team like Leverkusen and we SMASH them. We have two more games this week and the lads are excited and ready to try something new. Good game Robert"

[Johnboy]

Monaco 0 - Atletico Madrid 2

Back to earth to bump, after a sketchy victory over Celtic we welcomed high-flying Atletico to the Stade Louis II.

In terms of possession of the football we were reasonably matched but the difference in class showed when attacking prowess was looked at, it's clear that Atletico are on different plane to us with 21 shots compared to our 7, it says a lot that Hradecky recorded 8 saves while Henderson in the Atletico goal only had 4 shots to save.

One slightly curious thing from this match saw Cataldi named as a substitute for both Monaco and Atletico Madrid due to an administrative error on my part and at late notice he was replaced on the Monaco bench by Hedenstad

Good game Marshy, good luck for the rest of the season

[Gary@Millwall]

AC Milan 1 Sporting Lisbon 1

Sporting Lisbon came into yet another tough opponent trying to bounce back from the disappointing defeat against Real Madrid in game 12.

Knocked off the summit and with the big boys closing the point advantage Sporting Lisbon had rapidly it was imperative that this game did not end in defeat.

This game was not for the faint hearted as both teams came to play football and partisan fans and neutrals alike must have really enjoyed the footballing spectacle on show in what was a great advert for the EFL League.

Sporting Lisbon had tactical advantage playing Attacking to AC Milan European and Rick Karsdorp delivered a great throw to Robert Lewandowski who scored his 11th goal of the season to give the Portuguese outfit a 5th minute lead.

Mati instructed his charges to go on the attack with Windebank ordering his players to retain possession that turned this game into a end to end affair.

Despite both sides carving out endless chances it was AC Milan that got the 2nd goal in the 21st minute when Hernandez chipped the ball over Lopes to bring the game all square.

With both teams passing from just before half time the chances kept coming with both Goalkeepers saving everything thrown at them when the shots were on target.

In the 60th minute Windebank told his team to go for it and Sporting Lisbon started to get the better of the game and chances, however they could not make the chances count. Mati instructed his team to go on the attack from the 70th minute as both sides really wanted to win this game.

Neither sides could get the winning goal and the game ended 1-1 as Sporting Lisbon shared the points for the first time this season in a League draw.

Sporting Lisbon had more possession with 55% with Lisbon creating 21 chances to AC Milan's 20 and Sporting Lisbon having 11 shots on target to AC Milan's 10.

Barcelona drew their match and Inter Milan got back to winning ways with Sporting Lisbon dropping to 3rd again on goal difference one point off of the Spanish giants Barcelona who are sitting at the summit with 29 points.

Steve Talbot and Derek Hughes are starting to get a bit more lairy which is quite difficult to believe as Roma sit 4th and Real Madrid 5th with 27 and 26 points respectively.

Things are now really heating up in EFL as the season is nearly a 3rd of the way through.

Windebank's Post Match Comments

This was a really great point today against a great side and brings to an a run of six very tough games where we have managed to earn 10 points out of a possible 18 with five of the sides being in the top 9 teams in the current league table.

The point today was a fair reflection of the game in which both managers got their teams playing exciting football, not many sides have or are going to take many points off of Mati's side especially in the San Siro.

However we need to get a winning run going again as soon as possible if we are going to stay in the mix throughout the season.

Good game Mati pleasure as always

[Guest]

Real Madrid 2 - 0 Sevilla

Sevilla are always a tricky side to play and they made us wait until late on in the game when we was down to 10 men to get the first goal from Sterling, before Rodrygo made the game safe. Mendy gets his 2nd red card in as many starts which is worrying, as a few more yellows and he will miss 3 more games ontop of the 2 he will miss this time which includes the vital away trip to Spurs in the Champions League and the away trip to rivals Roma, who got a little lucky fading their injury to Coman who will not miss any action. It's a shame that Madrid will not be at full strength for their next two games but we do have a strong replacement in the form of Varane who has been benched a little recently and will be looking to prove himself. Let's just hope we do not get another injury or suspension in the next game as we will be down to playing 16 rater Yoshida.

GG Rainman.

It shows how far we have come in a season and a half that we can go and dominate possession away at a top side ...

We expected the 1 in midfield and A approach from Madrid so opted for a midfield 5 and C ...

We more than held our own until minute 72 when Mendy was sent off for a horrific challenge ... however in the melee we lost our concentration and Real went straight up and scored!

Minutes later they made it 2!

Steve panicked in the last 10 - being unable to decide where to play certain players - but this disrupted the flow and we came away with nothing

Gg Steve!