Post Match Reaction - Round 18

[Nick@ManCity]

Missing Sheets
N/A

Errors

Error Points
Lazio = 3
Frankfurt = 1
Marseille = 1

[Derek]

Roma 4 0 Frankfurt

Another C, another win.

Despite all our shots it took us until the latter parts of the game to put the game to bed though.

Muniesa enjoyed his game and rating up.

gg Ray

[JasonH@Wolfsburg]

Barcelona 2-0 Leverkusen

I am out of ideas with C, read livi like a book and in return created no chances and got battered.

Barca had their keeper injured early doors and I did nothing to capitalise on this. Very solid Barca performance and probably their most comfortable win of the season

Frustrated by this result. Well played livi

[Drum@Villa]

Lazio 3 - 5 Atletico Madrid

wrote this game off Tuesday, and true to form, got nothing, but surprisingly quite pleased,

to return 3 goals when on a hiding, was ok,

mbappe on the sheet again.

have found a new approach and the thinking is less serious so the outcome is working for now.

I’ll obviously lose my marbles soon lol.

we move on to the next league game, see if we can continue to score goals.
the results should follow. I hope.

gg,

[Steve@Chelsea]

Real Madrid 6 - 0 Valencia

"Say, we are top of the league! Say, we are top of the league! Ok, ok, we won't get carried away. Still early days, but we're right on track. This was the round I projected we would take the top spot and we have. A big home win over Valencia gets us there, with two goals each from Diaz, Rodrygo and Sterling. Apart from picking up lots of bookings it was almost the perfect game. Valencia did there best, and lots of credit to Sanchez for his work chipping away with them this season, but today we were too good. GG.

Lots of work left though. We will keep our head down, keep on grinding, keep on working. Things will only get harder and we will be tested, so we know we must be at our absolute best each and every round, we will continue our methodical approach to preparations and we will show no mercy."

[Eduardo]

There’s? a mutal agreement inside EFL playing the most offensive formation/tactic there is to maximize abs won and gain advantage of rest of FFO after restart? Goals flying, formations flying, abs flying.

Big difference in how to play FFO and want to play FFO.

[Derek]

There’s? a mutal agreement inside EFL playing the most offensive formation/tactic there is to maximize abs won and gain advantage of rest of FFO after restart? Goals flying, formations flying, abs flying.

Big difference in how to play FFO and want to play FFO.

Are you asking whether all these experienced managers are copying the brilliance of the TK and The Roma Way?

Simple answer is yes.

[Ed@PSG]

PSG 2 Lisbon 1
A goal at the end of each half gets us the points after going behind. Other than the result not a great game for us. An AM gets the only tackle, A DM gets a goal, and the player needing one action to level up has a 0 0 0 game. Even stats so Gary can feel unlucky. Our home form is carrying us this season with 7 wins from 9, with only 1 win on our travels, which is crazy given the minor value of home advantage.
Good game Gary and good luck with the title challenge.

[Ray@Wolves]

Roma 4
R_Firmino (29,66), K_Coman (73), L_Pellegrini (91)

Eintracht Frankfurt 0

Sent Off: J_Henderson (78)
Booked: S_Reguilon (5)

MotM: K_Coman (Roma)
HT: 1-0

Had tactical advantage throughout the game (that's if C can be classed as a bona fide tactic any longer) but all to no avail. At half time and only one goal down we were feeling reasonably happy. But the steam roller that is Roma wore us down and we conceded a further three goals. I think the worst point for us was our most experienced player Jordan Henderson losing his head and getting sent off when he should have been encouraging those around him with a better work ethic and standard of discipline. You wonder whether he is really up for the fight here and now misses the next two games? Amazingly there was an upside to this game and that was in the display from our Belgian keeper Koen Casteels who made 13 saves from a very strong Roma strikeforce. He now creeps closer to rating up

Very well played Derek.

Next game in our relentless pursuit of those above to try to claw our way back out of the relegation zone is the visit of Lazio. Along with Valencia we are being tailed off at the bottom and we need to start picking up some points if we are to stand any chance of survival.

[Sanchez@Cardiff]

Real Madrid 6 - 0 Valencia

Well we got well and truly picked apart by, as it stands, the best team in the league. I think sometimes you can approach a game with all the will in the world but this was most definitely a David vs Goliath moment, unfortunately we just didn't have any stones..... or a slingshot!

GG Steve and thanks for the kind words, I'll cherish them when I'm plying my trade in the Conference next season

[Marshy@Atletico]

Lazio 3 Atletico Madrid 5

Nice to run into a contending side like Lazio with a 13-rated goalkeeper. Atletico simply had to attack and put Gabriel under pressure. To his credit Gabriel managed 9 saves but Madrid beat him 5 times in the match.

Manager Simon Marsh commented "Its nice to get some luck every now and again although we feared Lazio may well play for the draw. In the end Drum clearly felt they would lose either way and went out to entertain the fans and probably came off in a better situation that had they gone defensive. Without the penalty in the game we could have been looking a share of the points with a late leveler. It was good to see two of the strikers scoring the goals as our front lads have been a little dry this season".

Atletico move up to 5th position in the league approaching the half way stage.

We asked Marsh whether he felt the side were in the hunt for a league title. Marsh added "Goal difference is usually a good indicator of how good your side is and its no surprise to see Real Madrid +32, Roma +30 and PSG +25. Barcelona have had a really good season and also stand at +25. These are the sides with the potential to keep the results ticking over for the rest of the campaign. Ourselves, Lisbon, Ac Milan and Inter Milan are likely to have too many negative results to maintain a challenge over this even longer season but with a lot of luck maybe one of the teams can stay somewhere close".

GG Drum and get your reserve keeper sorted!

[AB@Juventus]

Bayern Munich 5 - 1 Juventus

Another spanking from Bayern, countered from the off (Predictable) and it only took 7 minutes for the hosts to take the lead, quickly followed by a second on 18 minutes.

With this, the game was over for us so we went for it and a 3rd just before half time and 4th just after half time made the points safe for the German outfit quickly followed by a 5th.

We managed to pull a goal back on 55 minutes but we never looked like scoring more.

Statistically it was a fairly even game, Bayern got way more of their shots on target than we did and it shows with the scoreline. This season has gotten away from us, a abs haul might be the way to go in the second half of the season.

Good game JB.

[Livi@Liverpool]

Barcelona 2 Leverkusen 0

With a good win against PSG in their previous fixture I expected Leverkusen to set up in a similar vein but no doubt knowing we'd play P they switched things up to C - a tactic we seem to be playing on a regular basis.

Only 3 mins into the match we lost our starting GK to injury but thankfully the boys responded with a very good display and a deserved victory. Our back up keeper is no mug and what little he had to do he did well.

The news from the physio room is that our keeper will miss the next 2 games which is a massive blow with those being tough fixtures against 3rd place Lisbon (a) and an EFL Cup semi against Roma (n). We seem to be jinxed injury wise season after season in that particular cup.

Hard lines Jase - your set up looked better than the performance you got.

[JB@Norwich]

Bayern 5 (five) - 1 Juve
"We finally clicked today. We did a bit extra prep work before this game and the high of moving into the knockouts in the CL carried over and we smashed Juve today. Again. We gave them a F-5 and they didnt kick out. Both clubs have had a poor adjustment to thier new homes and I am sure we will both be back at the right end of the table next season. Good game little brother, you have a really bright young team and I am sure we will have a good encounter next time"

[Johnboy]

Borussia Dortmund 2 - Monaco 2

A game that had just about everything. We took the lead twice only for Dortmund to equalise twice.

Amadou Haidara opened the scoring for Monaco in the 9th minute before Dortmund equalised 10 minutes later and the game progressed to half time with the scores level.

5 minutes into the second half Immobile restored the advantage for Monaco as he slipped through the Dortmund offside trap to place the ball under the goalkeeper. The lasted less time than it did in the first half as Dortmund equalised 5 minutes later with a similar goal to that of Immobile!

Both sides pushed for a winner but both goalkeepers kept them out for the last half hour and on balance a draw is a fair result for both teams. It doesn't immediately help our league position but it does keep us very much in touch with the DPT places for the end of the season and on the back of the result against Barcelona we've started to put together a small run of form!

Good game Niall, good luck for the rest of the season.