Andreas Iniesta

Legend....or horrible cheat?

This is one player that I have admired, loved to watch throughout his career.

He has immense and sublime composure, positionally incredible and a touch of an angel.

However....I've seen things in our last 2 games against Barca, that has completely appalled me about him, to the point, I wanted somebody to take him out tonight and seriously hurt him.....I know, awful.

He dived, he moaned, he complained, he cheated, he bickered, he feigned injury, he waved imaginary yelllow cards, he was in the refs ear all night....he was nothing short of a good fucking kicking to sort him out.

1st half, after 2 fouls committed by him, without any punishment, after Fernandinho and Zaba had been punished for first time fouls....he went in late, from behind on Zaba.....Zaba, got up, without fuss and said straight away to the ref "no yellow card"....and the ref duly agreed...when it could've/should've been one.
At that point I lost my temper...shouting at the tv as why would Zaba do that!!!!

15 minutes later....Zaba goes into a 50/50 tackle with Iniesta, and the result is a fantastic theatrical dive by the Barca player. Zaba turns away...and Iniesta jumps to his feet waving an imaginary yellow card to the ref, trying to get Zaba booked..........

From then on in...all I saw was the slightest of touches on this genius footballer, end up in a free kick awarded to Barca...regardless of whether it was a fair tackle, we won the ball or were simply stronger...the ref sided with Iniesta's reputation..

Well as far as his reputation goes.....all that would have satisfied my hatred for him tonight, would have been for Pablo Zabaletta to have seriously levelled him out from knee height and made him roll around the floor for something other than a man-brush....and I think the loss of 2-1 would have been more palatable.

I will NEVER watch Iniesta with such reverence again...he's a horrible, cheating fucker...and I will look forward to the day that a proper, genuine, full-bloodied tackle is inflicted upon him...and hope that the player who does, stands over him and says..."now you've got something to roll about for you little prick".

I agree but to be fair he wasn't the only one. Fabregas was moaning all the game and going down easy and when he was tackled he was in the ref's face trying to get players booked. In contrast he committed several fouls himself without a card in sight, he eventually got booked after his umpteenth foul in the 88th minute but not for repeated fouling. A couple of city players were booked after one foul and even that was made out to be worse than it actually was by the Barca theatricals.
Xavi was in the ref's face after every free kick he gave against City too. In fact, most of the team seem to whine and try to influence the ref into doing something about the brutal treatment they were being subjected to while at the same time falling over at the faintest brush of a shirt.
Every time we got the ball off them the ref seemed to award a free kick to give it back to them. Yaya dispossessed one of them and was away when the ref blew for a free kick for some inexplicable reason and Yaya picked the ball up to show the ref that he had merely taken the ball. 
It was these bizarre decisions that were starting to frustrate some of the City players like Nasri and Zab and that resulted in Zab getting a second yellow after the Dzeko stone wall penalty was not given.

I was disgusted with the ref in the first half - always against City - when they were fair tackles - pissed me off.  Kompany was a true leader tonight.  Wished we'd fared better in the first leg - and had a fairer ref.

I mentioned on the other thread that the ref was shit for both sides, but he did give every little thing to Barca and precious little to us.

I said a couple of weeks ago that yellow cards are disproportionately handed out allowing the Barca players to carry on fouling to break up play and leaving opposition players on yellows scared to put a challenge in.

Wensdi wrote:I was disgusted with the ref in the first half - always against City - when they were fair tackles - pissed me off.

Wow, Wensdi must have been incensed to use language like that....don't think i've ever seen her swear   

As said by MCM, Iniesta wasn't the only one, shame they have to resort to that really. On the flip side of this, did you notice Messi with his cast iron penalty.....didn't once moan, just got up and carried on....fair play to him.

Fabregas has always been a moaner...Xavi is the Captain..so you'd expect him to be in the refs ear...but Iniesta? It wasn't so much the moaning and diving, it was the dirty trick he tried to pull on Zaba.

Yeah...couldn't believe Messi just got up...and didn't seem to say anything.

Still, as mentioned, we lost it in the first leg..and at least tried to have a go last night.

Maybe Messi knows he might be wearing that famous blue shirt some time soon so he did not complain?

Messi has had that mindset for a long time.....he gets kicked from pillar to post yet still gets 50 bloody goals per season.......it's cos he knows he's good enough to get umpteen more chances in a game so doesn't worry about it........and he must be the only player on the planet that understands no matter how much you badger the ref he ain't gonna change his mind.....(just make up for it later in the match....!!!)