UEFA Champions League 2012-2013

[Arnold Von Winkelried]

it was too easy for messi, he didn't want to play more than 30 minutes :icon_lol:
barcelona have a very weak defense this season, but it makes things more exciting, will they win champions league without a defense?

I don't think so. IMO the Bayern is the team which is clearly favorite now. I would love to see a final between Dortmund and the Bayern.

BTW I've been a bit too bigot : Maxwell is white enough, but I still find Pastore a bit racially-suspicious.

 

[frederic38]

I don't think so. IMO the Bayern is the team which is clearly favorite now. I would love to see a final between Dortmund and the Bayern.

in my opinion barcelona will win it
messi is just too good
i see no team that can beat them left, none have a great defense

 

[Porthos]

My bet is on Real. They have been the most impressive team for now. Barca lacks consistency (lost to Celtic, lost to Milan, then came back, two draws against PSG etc.) and without Messi is 30-40% weaker, while Bayern is racially too diverse (Alaba, Dante, Boateng, Luiz Gustavo). Dortmund is better, but they struggled against Malaga which is not exactly a superpower. This may be the year of Real.

 

[Arnold Von Winkelried]

My bet is on Real... while Bayern is racially too diverse (Alaba, Dante, Boateng, Luiz Gustavo).

The Real started 6 non-whites (Varane, Pepe, Essien, Khedira, Özil, Di Maria) against Galatasaray and finished with five (with Benzema, but without Essien and Özil)...

I still think the Bayern will win even if I'd be very pleased to see the Borussia champion.

 

[amoeba man]

I would like to see one of the German teams win it either Bayern or Dortmund but would prefer Dortmund.The Spanish and Italian teams have had alot of sucess in recent years where as its been over ten years since a German team won the competition.Madrid were lucky against United so hopefully they dont win.

 

[frederic38]

real madrid, bayern, dortmund, it doesn't matter, barcelona can make any of these defense explode

remember what they did 2 matches ago against AC milan after having lost 2-0 in the first leg:

[video=youtube_share;32YclIvzt2w]http://youtu.be/32YclIvzt2w[/video]

messi is on another planet
and the rest of the team is built for him
xavi had 100% completed passes yesterday against PSG, for the first time ever since these kind of stats are compiled (2003)
the only weak point is the defense but i see no strong defense left, no team that would be able to do what chelsea did last year

the 4-0 against AC milan after having lost the 1st leg is historic, i have almost never seen something as impressive
even if milan had scored the away goal, barcelona was so strong that they would have won 7-1

and they are the whitest team, one of the whitest teams in champions legue from the start of the competition

 

[Europe]

"xavi had 100% completed passes yesterday against PSG,

How come teams don't put more pressure on the ball when playing Barca? It seems like they have it too easy. I know their players are good with the ball, but I wouldn't let them have all those easy passes in the build up.

Why not have one guy play Messi one on one ? Didn't Phil Jones do that to Ronaldo in the first game?

 

[Rebajlo]

So, the semi-finals shall be Bayern Munich vs Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid. Hmmm, I wonder why those particular pairings don't surprise me... :lightbulb:

Barcelona have reached their sixth straight semi-final. Real Madrid have reached their third straight semi-final. Bayern Munich have reached their second straight semi-final (and third in four years...). And therein lies the problem with international club football - the sheer inevitability of it all translates to disillusioned boredom (well, at least for me...), for why bother to watch countless matches when the same big-money teams from the same big-money leagues are always there at the end...

 

[Matra2]

As good as Dortmund are they are the weakest team remaining. Galatasaray were the weakest in the last round. Real Madrid have got lucky twice now, though in fairness they did have to play the two Manchester teams earlier on. I predict a Super Classico final.

 

[Europe]

So, the semi-finals shall be Bayern Munich vs Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid. Hmmm, I wonder why those particular pairings don't surprise me... :lightbulb:

Barcelona have reached their sixth straight semi-final. Real Madrid have reached their third straight semi-final. Bayern Munich have reached their second straight semi-final (and third in four years...). And therein lies the problem with international club football - the sheer inevitability of it all translates to disillusioned boredom (well, at least for me...), for why bother to watch countless matches when the same big-money teams from the same big-money leagues are always there at the end...

Under the old system Barcelono wouldn't even be in the competition this year.

Chelsea have made a ton of semis in the last 10 years too.

They need salary caps and they need to limit the foreign players. Even just limiting the foreign players would spread the talent out more.

Real Madrid might sign Bale. Or maybe it will be MU. You can't keep allowing these big teams to sign players like Van Persie and Bale away from teams. It's not like Arsenal and Tottenham are Swindon, but yet they can't keep players.

Neymar will go to one of the biggest teams. I don't know how good he is, but Real Etc shouldn't be allowed to sign him. He would stay in Brazil if I had my way.

 

[frederic38]

i can't wait to see these matches, it will be awesome
it has been a great champions league so far

 

[Matra2]

i can't wait to see these matches, it will be awesome
it has been a great champions league so far

Too bad about the refereeing. Muller's goal, Bayern's second, might have been offside, then Muller blocked Jordi Alba thus assisting Robben in scoring the third.

 

[amoeba man]

Bayern are 3-0 up against Barcelona in the first leg of the semi final.Hopefully they dont concede a goal.Its never over as the return leg at the Nou camp is still to come.

 

[Matra2]

The goal-line official could not have been more than 4 metres from the Muller block on Jordi Alba - who probably didn't help his cause by exaggerating.

Now it's 4-0. A team with two black defenders could be heading for the Champions League final.

 

[frederic38]

The goal-line official could not have been more than 4 metres from the Muller block on Jordi Alba - who probably didn't help his cause by exaggerating.

Now it's 4-0. A team with two black defenders could be heading for the Champions League final.

i'm still hoping for a miracle to happen in the second leg, like when they kicked ac milan out ray2:

 

[Europe]

i'm still hoping for a miracle to happen in the second leg, like when they kicked ac milan out ray2:

Why was Messi playing? He couldn't do much out there. Messi certainly should have been taken off at halftime. Barca's coach handicapped his team by playing Messi.

I'll give the 2nd goal a pass because it looked like he was pretty much even. Until they get instant replay it was close enough.

Every game there seems to be offside calls that are close. MU had a couple against Aston villa. I'll give the benefit of the doubt to the offense.

 

[TBProdigy]

The goal-line official could not have been more than 4 metres from the Muller block on Jordi Alba - who probably didn't help his cause by exaggerating.

Now it's 4-0. A team with two black defenders could be heading for the Champions League final.

Real Madrid are playing Varane and Pepe too

Dortmund starting 11 white players? Lewandovski is on fire tonight, Reus is electric, Gotze smart on the ball, Blasykowski??? solid too.

Good result

 

[frederic38]

yes, good result
varane and pepe :yuck:

 

[Matra2]

I'm very impressed with the German teams. Assuming they both go to the final - though 3-0 for Real at the Bernabeu is not unimaginable - I'll cheer for Borussia Dortmund. Barca and Real looked tired and out of ideas.

Now the big one - Basel v Chelsea in the Europa League semi-finals tomorrow.:icon_wink:

 

[amoeba man]

Two German clubs in the final represents a seismic shift this season.Only two German clubs have won the champions league/European cup over the last 30 years.Over the last ten years the winners by country have been English teams x3,Spanish teams x3 and Italian teams x2.So its good to see other teams in it.

From the early to mid seventies German club sides dominated European football,then from 1976 English sides took over as the dominant power until they were banned from European competition for six years in 1985 after the Heysel disaster.From the late eighties and throughout the nineties Italian clubs were the dominant power and over the last ten to 15 years Barcelona and Real have been the most sucessful.Is this the era for German club football?I like that they field Whiter teams on average than some other European leagues and the clubs are well managed.Dortmund show that clubs dont have to spend ludicrous amounts of money on transfer fees and wages.Its all about scouting and developing the right players and for Dortmund they field a team of strong anthletic White guys Germans and ethnic Poles.Save for some scullduggery in Spain they should be in the final.

 

[Rebajlo]

Bayern Munich 4 Barcelona 0

BAYERN MUNICH:

Started: 8 Whites (5 Germans), 3 blacks
Finished: 6 Whites (3 Germans), 4 blacks, 1 Albanian

BARCELONA:

Started: 9 Whites (8 Spaniards), 1 black, 1 mestizo
Finished: Unchanged ratio

Borussia Dortmund 4 Real Madrid 1

BORUSSIA DORTMUND:

Started: 9 Whites (6 Germans), 1 Turk
Finished: 11 Whites (9 Germans)

REAL MADRID:

Started: 7 Whites (3 Spaniards), 2 blacks, 1 Turk, 1 half-Tunisian
Finished: 5 Whites (2 Spaniards), 2 blacks, 1 Turk, 1 half-Tunisian, 1 Arab, 1 mestizo

Incidentally, the two German teams started a total of 11 Germans between them - while the two Spanish teams started 11 Spaniards between them...

 

[Matra2]

Over the last ten years the winners by country have been English teams x3,Spanish teams x3 and Italian teams x2

It's kind of shocking to me to think that Real Madrid haven't been to the European Cup final since 2002. Even Liverpool have been in two finals since then.

BTW why are they holding it at Wembley again? It was played there two years ago. That's the shortest gap ever between hosting a European Cup final. Stade de France had it in 2000 and 2006 and the old Munich stadium had it twice in the 90s but there's never been a case of one stadium or city having it two out of three years.

 

[Freethinker]

What a result for Dortmund! I'm all-in for this team. They are a very likeable mix of young budding German and Polish talent. I hope Robert Lewandowski is finally recognized as one of the premier strikers in the world. What a talent.

Only complaint is that Mario Götze is chasing the big bucks and transferring to Bayern München, of all teams, this summer. If Dortmund beats Bayern, how can any "star" player justify transferring to an inferior squad if their goal is "to win championships"?

 

[frederic38]

i can't imagine a team with 2 black defenders winning champions league so if barcelona doesn't win the second whitest defense is dortmund
it goes to show how good malaga was: remember that they won't play champions league in the next years, but they were good enough to beat dortmund
malaga has proven to be superior to real madrid this season yet real madrid s in semi final and malaga is not

now i'm going to watch benfica vs fenerbahce in the europa league and hopefully i get a break from all the controversial refereeing decisions

 

[amoeba man]

It's kind of shocking to me to think that Real Madrid haven't been to the European Cup final since 2002. Even Liverpool have been in two finals since then.

BTW why are they holding it at Wembley again? It was played there two years ago. That's the shortest gap ever between hosting a European Cup final. Stade de France had it in 2000 and 2006 and the old Munich stadium had it twice in the 90s but there's never been a case of one stadium or city having it two out of three years.

I think its being held at Wembley as a gesture from UEFA to celebrate 150 years of the FA.