Bayern v Barca

[KelvinsRightGlove]

Surprised there is no thread on this.

 

Personally had bayern down as serious contenders prior to the Arsenal game.

 

Watched tonight with some Catalan colleagues from our Barca office.

 

Wow.

 

Stunning performance. Barca fans left open mouthed. Been a long time since they have been done like that.

 

FWIW, they were also extremely complimentary about MP and his time in charge of Espanyol. They seem to have a high opinion of him.

[Andy Durman]

Sorry but first 3 goals should not have counted. Top European match, but where was the top European Referee & Assisitants. A disgrace.

 

Bayern were far better and worthy of a 2-0 lead, but lets play to to the rules. Why bother having a 5th official when he's also blind.

[Turkish]

The third one was a blatant foul and right in front of that goal line official, who as usual did nothing. What is the point of them of its not for decisions like that? Have they ever actually given a decision which has influenced the match?

[Sour Mash]

Sorry but first 3 goals should not have counted. Top European match, but where was the top European Referee & Assisitants. A disgrace.

 

Bayern were far better and worthy of a 2-0 lead, but lets play to to the rules. Why bother having a 5th official when he's also blind.

Exactly that. Plus Bayern had lots of little 50/50 decisions go their way. Pity Messi didn't get in the game more, definitely not fully fit.

[alpine_saint]

The third one was a blatant foul and right in front of that goal line official, who as usual did nothing. What is the point of them of its not for decisions like that? Have they ever actually given a decision which has influenced the match?

 

I thought that they only contribute to the refs decision-making on goal-line issues, and have no influence over decision-making on other aspects of the game ?

[adrian lord]

The referees errors don't disguise how Barca have faded. Granted, Messi was unfit,but the whole display had a Brazil France 98 feel.

 

End of an era?

[skintsaint]

With or without the ref decisions on the 2nd/3rd goal Barca were never in the game at any stage, didnt create one decent chance. Bayern could have had a pen go their way too.

[KelvinsRightGlove]

They may have got a couple of decisions.

 

But be fair to Bayern. They were brilliant.

 

Feeling rather vindicated in tipping them to win the tournament a while back

[Saint Garrett]

Barca just can't defend from set pieces. They normally can't but especially without Puyol they struggled. Normally they just keep the ball and don't give away any corners, but they really struggled last night against the more powerful and high pressing Bayern side. Everytime Messi and Iniesta got on the ball, Bayern just ruffled them up and got physical with them. Normally they can pass their way out and Messi normally gets away from players trying to break his runs, but he couldn't last night and looked half fit. Shame about the score though as it makes the 2nd leg pretty pointless.

[View From The Top]

Personally I was delighted to see Barca get stuffed but as I've CL final tickets my nipper really wanted a Barca/Real final.

[stevegrant]

Sorry but first 3 goals should not have counted.

What was wrong with the first goal?

 

Second and third goals definitely dubious, but Bayern could/should have had 3 penalties for handball over the course of the evening. Despite the controversial nature of two of the goals, I'm not sure I could argue that Bayern weren't fully deserving of such a big winning margin.

 

Barca basically played with 10 men from the start, Messi barely got a kick and shouldn't have played.

 

The most startling thing for me was how mature a performance Arjen Robben put in, I don't think I've ever seen him (and Ribery on the other side, tbf) work so hard defensively, nor be as unselfish when on the attack.

[Hatch]

you could have walked into a bookies and named your own price for both Spanish teams to concede 4.

 

Amazing.