It’s a shame Inter v Barcelona can’t be the final.
But it gives us a game at the San Siro, followed by a game at the Nou Camp.
Two fascinating contests. I can’t wait to see them.
Please can we have a Spanish TV director who can keep the ball on my screen?That director must have been on heavy medication last night.His vision-mixing was hopeless.
In Moscow, typical Mourinho : CSKA 0 Inter 1.
Clean sheet, 1-0, next !
Barcelona’s little guys were magisterial last night.
Xavi controlled the game.
And Messi won the game by scoring a hat-trick in 21 minutes in the first half.
Barcelona completed 687 passes against Arsenal’s 323.What an amazing stat that is. Outpassed by 687 to 323.
The proud captain of a team whose movement is far superior to any other side in the Champions League, Xavi has a black belt in keep-ball. His side are a well-drilled bunch of savvy players who are so well-versed in the theory and practice of keep-ball that they are masters of dispossession, as well as masters of possession.
Seven of last week’s Barcelona team came up through their academy – that’s what I call player development.
What Barcelona actually do isn’t rocket science. It’s very simple.
They press in pairs and trios to win the ball back. The first player holds his man up till the second man gets there to help and they win it or force a passing error. When you try to press them, they knock it off first time and one-touch their way out of trouble by grouping round the ball. The last defender always has a man square to pass to, and the keeper always has a defender wide and wanting the ball from him. They are drilled and schooled and their work ethic is phenomenal. If you hustle them, they just one-touch it sideways and backwards. And they can do that all night long, home and away.
Barcelona ended the game with ONE first choice defender on the pitch but Arsenal still never got near them, except for an offside header by Bendtner which hit the post.
Wenger said Arsenal lost to Messi, the best player in the world by a distance.
But, in fact, they were overwhelmed by Barcelona in the first game, and last night they were outpassed and outclassed after Bendtner scored the first goal after a good breakaway in 18 minutes
Fleet-footed and big-hearted, Messi showed power on the first goal, sharpness on the second with his right foot, finesse on the chip over Almunia for the third, after Keita’s header released him from the halfway line, and perseverance on the fourth. With Eboue playing him onside, he turned Vermaelen inside out, and when his first shot came back off Almunia, Messi buried his second between the keeper’s legs for 4-1 in the 84th minute.
Louis Van Gaal said, “These are the weeks of truth” and the truth this week is that Arsenal are top eight in Europe and had 32% possession in the Nou Camp and lost 6-3 on aggregate.
I was so pleased that Thierry Henry didn’t come on after his ghastly lap of honour at the Emirates last week.
His team had just let slip a 2-0 lead but the Arsenal old boy didn’t care. He did a luvvie lap of a stadium where he just farted around after Arsenal gave him a secret fee of £5 million to sign a new contract and take the team into the Emirates as captain.
His self-centred superstar trip didn’t go down well with the Barca fans, who have been paying his wages for the last three years, or with their media, or with Pep Guardiola, who gave him a 15-minute cameo without realising that TH14 was only interested in a love-in where he could milk more applause from his old fans, as if the first leg was his testimonial.
Pep might not start Henry again.