Post Match Reaction - Round 5

[Nick@ManCity]

Missing

Errors

[AB@Juventus]

Juventus 1 - 0 Bayer Leverkusen


A game against a team who beat us home and away last season…while under new management, the scars were still there for the lads and a less ‘sledgehammer’ approach was needed and thus we opted for a passing tactic knowing we’d still end up on the wrong side of the tactics with enough belief in the squad that we could do what it took to win the game despite being without star midfielder E_Camavinga through injury.

The game was a boring, non event and it looked like our visitors would squeak out a point on the road, until the 87th minute when substitute T_Beason popped up with the winner with just minutes remaining.

Statistically we were the better team and deserved the points, but our lack of goals is worrying me so far this season.


Good game Stocko

[Ian]

Real Madrid 5-4 Atletico Madrid

A humdinger of a game that became very close towards the closing stages. The two set up very similar to start with and it took 25 minutes plus a change of tactic by us to get the breakthrough although from that point with both teams opening up the goals began to flow for both sides. We soon extended the lead only for Atletico to peg us back to 2-1. By the half way point we lead 3-1 and that went to 4-1 shortly after the break. Credit to our opponents though who also created lots of opportunities thanks to their adventurous ways and eventually pulled the lead back to just a single goal in the 90th minute and with six minutes of time added on could have snatched a leveller. Great game for the neutral.

[Ed@PSG]

PSG 2 - 0 Lazio

Dominant performance against a team we struggled against last season under a different manager. Fortunately, they didnt play it mega defensive and stick 2xdms in front of the back five, else we may have struggled somewhat. Good shot count but 60% were off target and we had to settle for 2 goals from our 28 shots, which is disappointing given our quality in front of goal. Another clean sheet after the momentary lapse by Costa in the previous game conceding 3 goals from 6 shots faced.

GG and unlucky Ryan

[Neil@Fiorentina]

Fiorentina 0-1 Roma

I guess it's an indication of how far we've come that I'm disappointed to lose to Roma
We started with TA and created some decent chances in the first half, but couldn't score. They then had a man sent off just before half time, and I thought we might snatch it, however Pellegrini had other ideas and netted for the visitors.
We had plenty of chances, including 9 v 4 shots on target, but couldn't get past the inspired Courtois. GG dude
I'm starting to wonder if we might need to make further changes, and things aren't quite clicking.

[Marshy@Atletico]

Real Madrid 5 Atletico Madrid 4

We never got much out of Talbots Madrid and we havent started with getting anything from Ians Madrid. It seems that winning game will once again be difficult for Atletico this season. On the day the home side deserved their three points with a 25-18 shot count but it seems to have been a long time since Atletico won a game against the grain. Martinez has started the season with weetibix wrists and so far things are distinctly average.

Manager Simon Marsh commented "Its felt like we have needed two shots to our opponents one for some time now just to get a result. This isnt frustration at this result in isolation but in general over last season and what seems to be a continuation of it. We look on in envy of those teams who manage to win games against the grain".

Next up for Atletico is a foray into the DPT cup where they are heavily fancied to go long.

Good game Ian and good luck in the battle v PSG.

[Sam@Bilbao]

Barcelona 2-1 Inter Milan

"Its obviously been a great start for us, this result moves us up to 2nd, but we are under no illusion that this is above the current quality of our squad, we have a lot of young guys learning and building up their quality levels but this is something that will take time, to beat a very strong Inter side only keeps that development well on track, young full back Kayode getting the winner is obviously a very special occasion for the lad, im sure it will be a very different result when PSG roll into town on Friday, but again even if we lose that 4 wins 1 draw and 1 loss in the first 6 games is nothing to be disappointed about."