Banter 2009/2010

Watching Barca tonight, I'm glad I was right when I was talking about their midfield and influence of pressing play on it, when many of you called me mad or "strange"...

Originally Posted by Revolver

Watching Barca tonight, I'm glad I was right when I was talking about their midfield and influence of pressing play on it, when many of you called me mad or "strange"...

I don't remember anyone calling you mad or strange, and the players who put Barcelona in trouble weren't the most physical ones but the most technical and fastest ones of Stuttgart ...

Anyway, Barcelona can be such a boring team sometimes, like these long minutes when Pique and Milito touched at least 20 times the ball ...

I was all for Stuttgart about the way both teams played, but I was all for Barcelona because of the fact that Stuttgart is in Germany (no way Stuttgart qualifies, because if Bayern does it too, Italy will be almost sure to lose a spot in 2 years !!).

I also tried to watch Bordeaux, well, it was a quite boring game, Bordeaux just made the job and would have deserved to draw or lose**. They are not in the best of forms as a team (it is easy to say by watching their results in Ligue 1 in 2010) because some of their key players are far to be in form too (Gourcuff has recently been the shadow of the amazing playmaker he was last year, even if it was a bit better today, idem for the defenders).

** Which maybe means a lot about the potential of this team ...

UEFA should proclaim next CL finalist right now so they do not have to fix games anymore!! Yesterday Barca should have lost 3-1 at least! As there were 2 penaltys, foul on 16m, and they scored from an offside. Later on Molinaro deserved red and coz he played with his hand on the line!

Disgracefull...

Originally Posted by mrki

UEFA should proclaim next CL finalist right now so they do not have to fix games anymore!! Yesterday Barca should have lost 3-1 at least! As there were 2 penaltys, foul on 16m, and they scored from an offside. Later on Molinaro deserved red and coz he played with his hand on the line!

Disgracefull...

Maybe they want Barcelona-Bayern in final ...

Originally Posted by GeoTav

Actually, to make the ranking for next year (2010-2011), you have to do it this way:
2008-2009 + 2007-2008 + 2006-2007 + 2005-2006 + 2004-2005

In bold is the best season of Italian clubs ...

So, for next season, Italy is already 3rd.
It would be too difficult for countries and for UEFA to organize competitions depending on the current coefficient (as the first rounds for CL and Europa League are in July if I'm not wrong).

It's in 2011-2012 that Italy could be in trouble because of the current season:
2009-2010 + 2008-2009 + 2007-2008 + 2006-2007 + 2005-2006

And it could be worse then if the Italian clubs don't start winning again as the country will lose its best coefficient ...

Anyway, a possible scenario for the next 4-5 years is to have each year a different country obtaining the 4 spots ...

Well alot of it has to do with the performances in Europa League, actually more so than getting to the Quarter finals in the CL.

The Italian teams need to take the competition seriously, since it gives almost as many points as the Champions League. And to be honost, I don't understand why they don't, since I don't see why a fully commited Genoa or Napoli couldn't win the whole thing. Also the points are averaged out, so teams with poor performances in the Europa League, like this year from Lazio and Genoa, is a big burden for the coefficient.

Also check out the stats from 2009, the top earner isn't Spain or England, but Ukraine since all of their teams did respectable in the UEFA Cup. Juve or Roma really need to step up so we can get some of those big coefficient points.

Anyway, I don't think there were some glaring referee's mistakes last night, Pique's handball was a correct call, the hand was in natural position, except Molinaro's handball should've been penalty and yellow card.

Talking about Molinaro, he was impressive last night imho. I don't know why he was a subject of jokes in Italy. He totally closed Messi, he was always up, only he's crossing was awful, but his crossing was always awful.

IMO, I think when it comes to European Competitions, all teams should play their hearts out. On top of that, I support all IT teams when it comes to Europe, even if that means Inter, as it is much better for an IT team to do well in Europe than a German or French, esp those English and Spanish teams.

Originally Posted by Revolver

Anyway, I don't think there were some glaring referee's mistakes last night, Pique's handball was a correct call, the hand was in natural position, except Molinaro's handball should've been penalty and yellow card.

Talking about Molinaro, he was impressive last night imho. I don't know why he was a subject of jokes in Italy. He totally closed Messi, he was always up, only he's crossing was awful, but his crossing was always awful.

Think Pique's hand looked like it was in an unnatural position, since he 'extended' the frame of his body with it. If the ref had given a penalty for Molinaro's handball then it's not a yellow, but a straight red, I'm not sure if Zlatan had handled the ball first though.

Originally Posted by Christian

Think Pique's hand looked like it was in an unnatural position, since he 'extended' the frame of his body with it. If the ref had given a penalty for Molinaro's handball then it's not a yellow, but a straight red, I'm not sure if Zlatan had handled the ball first though.

Yes, when I look at the replays, Pique's hand was not in natural position, and from that perspective, it was a clear penalty. Ibrahimovic held the ball with his hand it seems, but Molinaro didn't play with his hand intentionally so I don't think it's a straight red, but penalty for sure, because he saved a goal with his hand.

Originally Posted by Revolver

Anyway, I don't think there were some glaring referee's mistakes last night, Pique's handball was a correct call, the hand was in natural position, except Molinaro's handball should've been penalty and yellow card.

Talking about Molinaro, he was impressive last night imho. I don't know why he was a subject of jokes in Italy. He totally closed Messi, he was always up, only he's crossing was awful, but his crossing was always awful.

No. It was a penalty. Later on Marquez made illegal elbow on Stutthart player in the box also. In the beggining of the 2nd half Stutthart had CLEAr foul on 16m. Then Barca scored and Pique was in offside!! LATER on Molinaro deserved red and a pen, yes.

But 3-1 is better then 1-1. Disgusting!

New UEFA rule: If you spend more then 100mln in the summer, you get to pick 3 refs for the CL!!

Originally Posted by mrki

No. It was a penalty. Later on Marquez made illegal elbow on Stutthart player in the box also. In the beggining of the 2nd half Stutthart had CLEAr foul on 16m. Then Barca scored and Pique was in offside!! LATER on Molinaro deserved red and a pen, yes.

But 3-1 is better then 1-1. Disgusting!

New UEFA rule: If you spend more then 100mln in the summer, you get to pick 3 refs for the CL!!

Let's not let the facts get in the way of a rant! I suggest you read the Fifa rulebook. Pique's was never a pen as hand was in natural position. Didn't see the other pen incident as was ding some work but as you are clearly biased I'm not saying anything. Pique is not offside as it was the 1st phase when he was offside. The defender then heads it making it the 2nd phase andtherefore he is onside. The rule may not be great but it is there. The Molinaro one was blatant and you can't just dismiss it because it happened later on and doesn't support you're arguement. Barca, Milan, Man U and the likes will always get more decisions than smaller teams due to human nature but you have picked a really poor game t highlight this to be fair. And you don't complain when it happens to Milan.

Originally Posted by JuanShoe

Let's not let the facts get in the way of a rant! I suggest you read the Fifa rulebook. Pique's was never a pen as hand was in natural position. Didn't see the other pen incident as was ding some work but as you are clearly biased I'm not saying anything. Pique is not offside as it was the 1st phase when he was offside. The defender then heads it making it the 2nd phase andtherefore he is onside. The rule may not be great but it is there. The Molinaro one was blatant and you can't just dismiss it because it happened later on and doesn't support you're arguement. Barca, Milan, Man U and the likes will always get more decisions than smaller teams due to human nature but you have picked a really poor game t highlight this to be fair. And you don't complain when it happens to Milan.

Pique's handball was a penalty. Try to look better at the replays. His hand was at least 30 cm from his body and moving out. Marquez elbow was imo too harsh to call a penalty. Foul on 16 meter was clear. Pique wasn't offside for Barca's goal.

For tonight's CL match, damn Inter's defense is strong! The strongest back for in the world surely! Anyway, Chelsea scored away goal, with the crappiest match they could ever play. Inter is really good this season, but imho Chelsea is too much for them.

After watching this game (average game between Inter and Chelsea, where were their midfielders ?! Useless, they should have played 7 vs 7: GK, 4 defenders, 2 strikers), I want Inter to qualify against Chelsea ...

BUT I want more than all that Milan qualifies against Manchester (wow, just imagine that: we eliminate Manchester at Old Trafford, and we take the first place of Serie A the following W-E !!).

If Fiorentina can do it too ...

This way, it could be funny to have another derby and eliminate them from CL after taking "their" first place in Serie A ?!

From all the CL games of this week and last week, I didn't see any outstanding player ...

I did. Ronaldinho.