Champions League Group Game 5 Post Match Reaction

[Johnboy]

No Missing

No Errors

Good job everyone!

[Derek]

Atletico Madrid 1 2 Roma

The Italian Giants are back from the dead.

Dead and buried after some unlucky results. Roma traveled to Madrid to face the TK's biggest fan. Who played for a draw (even though they had already qualified!)

Roma showed their class again giving away TA & HA to gain 3 precious points.

But the FFO gods again shone on Mr S Outten as Man Utd scored an injury-time goal to scrape a lucky draw and stay ahead of Roma in the table.

gg Marshy
'

[Ian]

Aston Villa 0-0 Chelsea

A very close encounter with nothing between the two teams but also an encounter in which neither side was brave enough to make an attempt in taking the initiative and go for a positive result. We actually thought about switching tactics in the second half if it was still a stalemate but bottled it, probably due to so much being at stake. At least the group is still open, I had visions of PSG and RM running away with it at the start and although those two are probably still favourites to get through it has been extremely close.

[Guest]

Inter Milan 2 - 1 Barcelona

A must win game for both sides who came to play attacking football, both sides had players out but enough strength to compete with each other and that’s exactly what happened, the game seen plenty of chances for both sides in a surprising first half drought considering the chances, the second half we took a 2-0 lead but Barcelona scored soon afterwards to make it a sketchy affair but we got the needed 3 points and perhaps just edged it on stats and now head into the last Champions League game needing to beat Arsenal as I suspect as Barca as they are entitled to do will play some squaddies in a meaningless game against city so we have to win and hope we have enough GD if we do win but that’s no easy ask against an Arsenal side who have went undefeated in the group since we stuffed them game one and I’m sure they will want revenge for that. Up next, we face Barcelona at home again in the league, but I suspect it will be a different game from today, Barcelona are back to full strength but we have a defender out so there is decisions to make for that tie. Gg mate, see you Friday.

[Ed@PSG]

Real Madrid 2 - 1 PSG
We went into this game knowing a win would see us through to the quarter finals. We got our tactics spot on, but unfortunately we found ourselves on the end of a bad beat. We certainly did enough to earn a draw, and given the fact we were playing against a 22 goalkeeper, and had 33% more shots, on many days we would have won this game. However, we have no doubt been fortunate in the 3 previous games against Real Madrid earlier in the season, so i guess this is payback or karma or whatever you want to call it. Ramos got our only goal from his 8 shots and was awarded the Man of the Match Award.
Good game Steve
The group is now wide open, with all 4 teams able to qualify or fail. Despite leapfrogging to the top of the group, Real Madrid can still fail with 9 points if both Villa and PSG win their final games. Additionally, a draw could be enough to see us through if Real Madrid manage to beat Villa. Chelsea must 3win to have any chance of going through, so it will be interesting to see whether they continue with their 5 man Counter attack, or whether they risk being a little more daring.

[Si@Burnley]

Burnley 1 - 4 Leeds United

This is ridiculous. We were the better team dominating the game for the majority of match. 15 shots on target, we hit the post twice and scored just one goal, Seems Alisson had a magical day while Agirrezabala was in a terrible form - let 4 in out of 11 shots. With only a slight chance of getting to the play off now this match will hurt for some time.

[Steve@ManUtd]

MANCHESTER UNITED 3-3 Southampton

Frustrating result, we knew they'd throw bodies forward or play with them high up the pitch and we hoped home advantage would be beneficial to us. In the end it wasn't no sooner had we took the lead we threw it away. We then trailed 3-1 and required a very late stoppage time goal to salvage the draw. It was an odd, odd game and we are happy with the result, but we need a win in the last game which isn't what we needed. We can't rely on others to do us a job so we will go into the last round with expectations and realities on needing 3 points.

Atletico did put out a strong squad against Roma, and we have to expect and rely on the same.

[Marshy@Atletico]

Atletico Madrid 1 Roma 2

After a good run of form in league and cup Atletico tested their renewed confidence against arguably the best side in FFO. Atletico played for tactical advantage to add to their home advantage in the hope that it would negate the skill difference between the two sides. With a shot count of 11-12 it was a decent job well done but Roma had an extraordinary shot on target ratio to Atleticos woeful and so the gods went with the away side. It was difficult for the home side to get back in the game twice against the 7-man defence of Roma. They were not helped when losing their 22-rated Muani to be replaced by 15-rated Nainggolan so all the breaks went for Roma.

Manager Simon Marsh commented "I was more than satisfied with the performance that should have seen us draw the game and put us in control of finishing top of the league. As it is results elsewhere mean we have now won the league anyway, which may give us a more favourable draw in the quarters finals, although you can never plan these things".

Atletico are now without Muani for 3 games missing Marseille, Lazio and Manchester United.

GG Derek

[Andy@Berlin]

Aston Villa 0 - 0 Chelsea

A totally fair result on the day as the stats prove, it was a very even game. Were still in the hunt. but realistically it will be very difficult to qualify from this group of death. Good game Ian and good luck in the run in.

[AB@Juventus]

Juventus 2 - 1 Bayern Munich

Heading into this game, we knew that we were in a commanding position at the top of the group with two home games left to play. Looking to avoid defeat, we set up to be hard to beat and looked to hit Bayern on the counter.

Bayern did the same, despite their manager labelling this competition as boring due to managers using C all the time (They've used it 3 out of 5 games so far)

Onto the game and in a first half where both teams had spells of dominance, it was us shortly after the half hour mark who put our stamp on the game and took the lead through captain S_Gimenez on 34 minutes.

Neither team changed their approach to the game and 11 minutes later, Gimenez doubled his tally for the game and our lead as we headed into the break 2 goals to the good.

Into the second half and it was all Juventus, up until the 79th minute when our goalkeeper, M_Carnesecchi, was stretchered off. Bayern instantly halved our advantage and we looked to be in for a rough final 11 minutes however the second Bayern goal never came and if anything, it was us who looked more likely to score and we ran out 2-1 winners.

Statistically we were the better team, and after 2 defeats to JB's Bayern team already this season this is exactly what we needed.

Good game JB.

We're now through top of our group with a game to go with the rest of the teams in Group B all on 6 points. Looking at some of the groups it might have been a better idea to finish 2nd....

[Livi@Liverpool]

Inter 2 Barcelona 1

Both sides desperately needed a win to stay in the hunt and both manager's set up to have a go. Definitely required a bravery pill for me to play A away from home but I felt we would really need the 1st goal but despite creating plenty we just couldn't get the all important opener.

Inter scored just after HT and then added a 2nd after the hour mark to really take command. We threw on Aubameyang and he quickly fired one in but we couldn't find a leveller and Inter were probably just about worth the win.

Really disappointing CL campaign from us I have to say. The final game is irrelevant to us in terms of qualification but we want to try and finish on a high and regain a little bit of pride so Inter can be sure we won't be rolling over and letting City have a field day.

Played GS, see you again tomorrow night, hopefully we can come away with a better result.

[Steve@Chelsea]

Real Madrid 2 - 1 PSG

This was a bit of a shot in the dark for us. We laboured over two different tactical options for this game. The one we chose was a bit brave, it was our biggest shot to get a result against the various options considering our circumstances with our keeper and one of our best defenders out - but it was also risky as there was a good chance Ed would counter us if he plumped right. We stuck in some war-game scenarios into our sheet, some secret sauce if you will, and hoped for the best but expected the worst with a 22 rated keeper between the sticks.

The game kicked off and I didn't like what I was seeing. PSG had set up to initially counter us and I thought we was too rigid at the back. So in what turned out to be a bit of a tactical masterstroke, I decided to sub off our 18 rated DM that we took a chance playing in the very first minute and throw on Tadic to exploit the space I had spotted. Jose eat your heart out!

Who knows, that change, could have changed the course of the match, and perhaps history. We went on to lead 2-0 before we decided to shut up shop, but PSG made things nervy reducing the defecit to just one in the second half. We then pulled down the shop shutters as well late in the game to secure a famous and important win, and one that will give us much confidence. Not many teams have defeated PSG over the last 40-50 games.

Donnarumma who is back for the next game but has underperformed this season, could find his spot in the team under threat now from the sub keeper S_Burchert who has performed well when called upon in the last two games against PSG and Juve.

This was do or die for us though in the CL and we live to fight another day. The group has been extremely tough and competative though, so we will need to be at our best and at full strength if we are to get anything from our visit to Villa Park for the final game.

[Darren]

Arsenal 1 - 0 Man City

We went into this one in a really strong position in the table after some good performances following the first game thumping by Inter and this win sees us not only secure the double over Man City, but also confirms our place in the knockout rounds, finishing the group stage in first place with a game to go which is superb given the quality of sides in the group and after we were well and truly beaten in the first group game, I didn't expect this to happen but we've played well since and deserve it.

A big last game of the group with us facing Inter while City face Barca who have nothing to play for so its between Inter and City for second place.

Played Nick.