Post Match Reaction - Round 13

[Nick@ManCity]

Missing

Errors
Celtic -Zeleny not in roster


Error Points
mrs = 2
cel = 2

[JasonH@Wolfsburg]

AC Milan 1-4 PSG

Most of the stats fall in my favour, except the big one that counts, goals scored. If I see the ref check for VAR one more tint this season I’ll go mad…

Got my tactics spot on today, but Lady Luck favoured Ed. Well played Ed

[Ed@PSG]

A C Milan 1 - 4 PSG

Our hosts were one of the few teams that managed to beat us last season, so we were expecting a tough game. We were confident that they would start Counter attack, but were prepared to yield both home advantage and tactical advantage rather than change our gameplan and risk the often unpredictable European tactic. We managed to get two first half goals, courtesy of VAR. Messi managed to pull one back just before the hour mark, and memories of our home game against Lazio, where we squandered a 2 goal lead, came flooding back. However, the cushion was restored within 5 minutes, and we went on to add another shortly afterwards, again , courtesy of VAR. Vitinha was the man of the moment, scoring a brace, getting the Man of the Match award, picking up his 4th yellow of the season, before being stretchered off injured.

The stats suggest a relatively even game, but our hosts keeper had a very poor game, conceding 4 goals from 7 on target, whilst our guy managed to stop 90% of shots faced. Our hosts can probably feel that we got the rub of the green, but maybe it came down to the quality of our attacking play.

I had been critical of our opponents recently, questionning their ability to finish in the top 8. I stand by my thoughts at that time, as i simply couldnt see whom they could displace. However, given the poor starts by top 8 regulars, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, and Bayern Munich, I will happily change my outlook, as i think it will be tough for all three of those teams to outperform AC Milan by 14 points over 25 games.
Good Game JHop, and good luck against Real Madrid and Roma!

Next up is the only team to beat us so far this season. Our keeper has taken 3 games to get back up to 25 rated, and hopefully he can put in a better performance this time, in our make or break Champions League fourth round tie.

[AB@Juventus]

Juventus 2 - 0 Barcelona

A huge victory for us against the GOAT and a Barcelona team that seem to always beat us. We predicted the visitors would play P with a 5 man back line and 3 strikers and they did, so our decision to play C with a similar formation seemed like the way to go.

Usually this is the case, we have HA, TA etc and somehow, Livi finds a way to beat us so despite holding all of the advantages, we weren't too confident.

The first half was very frustrating for us as we shaded the first 30 minutes and just after the half hour mark, thought we'd gone ahead in the game through M_Simakan but the officials ruled that the ball didn't cross the line fully.
This was then followed by us dominating the rest of the half and on the stroke of half time, we thought we'd gone ahead yet again through Nuno_Mendes only for the goal to be ruled out for offside.

We went into the break level, wondering what we had to do to score a legal goal and questioning if we'd had our chances and blown them.

Into the second half and Barcelona came into the game more and I was just waiting on them scoring, however it was US who took the lead just after the hour mark through Joao_Felix and we were in an unfamiliar position....Winning vs Barcelona.

The visitors changed tactics to A shortly after and came at us time and time again but with just 9 minutes left to play we were awarded a penalty, which Felix scored to double our lead and send us on our way to a very important win.

A win that sees us looking much better in the league and just 1 point and 1 place behind our opponents today. After the start we had, this wasn't expected.

Statistically we were the better team and the win was deserved. Maybe not by 2 goals but we'll take it.

Good game Livi.

[Derek]

Roma 6 1 Sociedad

Our defenders had a lot of fun roaming forward and scoring 4 goals here. Some odd tactics from Freddie (starting E away?). But we are happy with how we approached the match.

With it looking likely Ben Yedder will be staying in Rome. He celebrated with a well taken goal.

The big 2 now occupy the top 2 spots.

And so it begins...

[Steve@Chelsea]

EFL1 - Round 13 - RB Leipzig 0 - 5 Real Madrid

This was a potentially tricky game due to the news coming in at the 11th hour that Matt Buxton had resigned from RBL on the day of the game. We had worked all week in training towards one way of playing and had set up as such. That late in the day, it was too late to make big changes, so just a small change was made and I expected us to face some much different tactics than we had prepared for, and with Gaz being in charge I predicted a C or a N. We got the N but at the end of the day, we refound our Galatico form and made an easy game of it. Towards the end we got some good mins for our squaddies in and we making good progress towards those goals. Next up Chelsea in the Champs League!

[Marshy@Atletico]

Atletico Madrid 4 Celtic 4

Celtic have played counter attacking football the majority of the season so Sam Bradwell surprised the home side with attacking tactics that evened up the game. Perhaps Bradwell thought Atletico would stick with the European tactic that had brought them three points in the last game, maybe he only looked at the last game but Atletico themselves have generally attacked or countered. Maybe Bradwell just wanted an open game and abs. Who knows? Maybe it was just an inspired choice

The game itself was therefore open with both sides amounting 19 attempts on goal. These are the games one then hopes that the higher skilled sides nick but with Musso continuing his struggles this season the game became a 4-4 goal-fest, and on balance a fair result.

Manager Simon Marsh commented "We are disappointed with this. Tactically we got badly done and we lost to a Celtic side that have recently worsened through player sales. It was a game we needed to win but we did at least move up one place to 12th. The top-8 have broken away and its going to take a massive change in form to chase some of the teams down ahead of us".

Next up for Atletico is a trip to Southampton in the Champions League. Victory will see Atletico through to the quarter finals.

Good game Sam

[Livi@Liverpool]

Juventus 2 Barcelona 0

We were well beaten here in all honesty. Juve set up 52003C and did a job on us and our usual passing approach. Tough to win away to strong opposition in these circumstances.

We've started to unravel a bit and clearly rolling out P every game isn't cutting the mustard. We're going to have to start being a lot more creative to arrest the slide.

Back to full strength for our must win Champions League clash with Arsenal and only a much improved performance by both manager and players will do.

Played AB, well deserved mate.

[Guest]

Lazio 3 - 0 Inter Milan

https://x.com/muthanjujr/status/1753507088813212159?s=20

not much to say we got beat, we keep facing C and im reluctant to use the erratic E but we open up where as Lazio did not and we paid the price, i dont think we deserved to lose 3-0 but there you go we did and join Atletico Madrid in the whats going on game 14 cup . gg mate well deserved win

[Johnboy]

Monaco 5 - Bayern Munich 1

I honestly don't know how to explain this result, we were in good league shape going into the match with 3 wins from 3 in the league but still after the start we made with 2 wins from our first 10 matches I was fully expecting the bubble to burst!

Incredibly we took the lead as Ciro Immobile put two past Maignan in the Bayern goal inside the first 3 minutes and the Monaco fans were in dreamland.

Bayern defender Hutchinson got his third of the season in the 7th minute but from there it was the Taiwo Awoniyi show. He scored his fourth goal of the season in the 10th minute to restore our two goal cushion and we got to half time still with a 3-1 lead.

We made 3 changes on the hour mark but 2 goals in 3 minutes from Awoniyi scorhis first hat-trick of the season and condemned Bayern to a 5-1 defeat which would be good enough for me to retire on, especially as it puts us 10th in the table above big-hitters including Bayern and Atletico Madrid.

A shock result but one that I'm very pleased with.

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

[Drum@Villa]

Lazio 3 - 0 Inter Milan

https://x.com/muthanjujr/status/1753507088813212159?s=20

not much to say we got beat, we keep facing C and im reluctant to use the erratic E but we open up where as Lazio did not and we paid the price, i dont think we deserved to lose 3-0 but there you go we did and join Atletico Madrid in the whats going on game 14 cup . gg mate well deserved win

Beating inter is never an easy thing, and if im honest an unpredictable thing, sets up strong and plays hard, dont get much of a run against the angry scot, (scotland is blue lol),,,

however we have found a small pocket of confidence,, picked off real madrid, and whoever thinks they are in decline is madness, will always be there to wreck it and leave,

So we set up negatively, 5 at the back as we expected an onslaught, C so we could try and break out from there attacks,

Yes GS you faced a C again, same as tye last 2 games.... didnt you play C somewhere in there??

but you have only faced C twice more than you have played,,,,, and CL played 4, C x4 ??

it is a strong tactice for our game, but we will need to be clever, overusing it and being Hamza - bot predictable,

match stats had inter with more shots on target, but were more dangerous on 11 fouls (filthy)

anyway, we take the points comfotably,

#goodgameGS