City v Barca - Live Thread

[blueboy]

First topic message reminder :

[Topdawg]

it should have been 10, you lucky bastards, it should have been 10

[Topdawg]

if we play all game with the balls we showed in the 2nd half, i'll be a happy man.

[blueboy]

Blueboy is a blue who wears his heart on his sleeve

Always Nijinsky. Heat of the moment on the Live Thread - you can call it one minute and then it bites you on the arse.

Still....thought Sergio was excellent tonight and deserved a goal.

Gundogan - did really well going forward, I'll still hold judgement on his defensive duties for now.

KDB...what a player.

Sterling worked tirelessly tonight. His attempt when he went through, the ball bobbled up after he controlled it, but what a pass for the first goal.

Silva - brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. How lucky are we to have him.

Willy and Zaba - thought they both did really well tonight. Willy going long (a la Hart) - wonder if that was Pep or he just decided that was the thing to do - it worked, as we kept on winning the second ball.

Kolorov - did OK tonight, much better defensively.

Stones - excellent in attacking their MF's...nearly gave them another goal, but overall, brilliant.

Otamendi - sorry, he did OK, but he's garbage.

Navas - did really well when he came on.

Fernando - looks the part now under Pep.

Pep - you're a genius. Can't believe some were questioning you on here only last week (not me or Oz though)

Great win tonight....this should hopefully give us a massive shot in the arm for the PL. A win against Borussia and we're through - and who knows, Barc v Celtic - we could even top the group.

MSN all playing tonight....no excuses pro pundits - give us the credit when it's deserved.

Happy days - off to bed, up at 05:00.

[TMG]

Missed half the friggin game thanks to a piss poor stream. Is it on proper tele later??

[Topdawg]

just watched the highlights. would like to see longer highlights though.

[leopold]

An excellent second half performance and you could see the players gaining in confidence once they sussed out that Barca had no answer to us when we started attacking them directly instead of faffing about round the box.  Zaba was doing his best to get the crowd pumped up, as we'd expect, but Willy's reaction to the goals was incredible, he was like a bald Argentinian Joe Hart, leaping around like we'd won the final.

As for Zaba, he showed us precisely what he still has in the tank.  He worked bloody hard all night, ran the wing and put in some strong tackles, but for me the highlight was in the 87th minute, when he had Messi come against him - he went in to tackle, slipped and landed on his arse, yet still dispossessed the World's Greatest Footballer.

[skyblueoz]

Just watched the game now, listened to the pundits & the concencus seems to be Barca had an off day but they were not at full strength & city took advantage. What I don't get is how a ref of the standard that Hungarian showed in the game gets to officiate tp European matches he was worse than a Sunday league ref. He got so much wrong you'd have thought someone was paying him????? Hmm now there is a thought!!!!! 

[Topdawg]

It's fine lines. At their place, we were well in the game. We made some bad mistakes and they punished us. This game, we made some bad mistakes and they punished us once. They could so easily have had three last night.

At their place, we didn't take any chances and we did have some good portions of play. Last night we took some of our chances. We were a little more clinical.

It could so easily have been the same score over there if the chuckle brother hadn't cocked up.

[Guest]

How bitter are all these rags on any facebook post, or phone in, of even BBC Sport website.  Even Durham on talkshite now is saying lets not get carried away.

"It's a weakend Barca who are on the decline anyway"

So annoying, we have turned a massive corner probably mentally more than anything else.  I think Barca know this too.

If we can cut out these mistakes we are up there with them full strength or not.

[blueboy]

Should have heard Goldstein last night on TS.....hilarious.

Barcelona had a seriously weakened team because they had two players missing.....and they were just as much in the game as City were...

Cundy was pissing his sides.

[blueboy]

[blueboy]

[blueboy]

[blueboy]

[Topdawg]

You could argue that we had Willy in goal and Kolarov in defence. Sagna and Kompany, arguably first choice defenders, didn't play.

Didn't hear anyone harping on when we got beat by Barca 4-0 that we were under strength with a knob for a keeper.

[skyblueoz]

After listening to Linaker & Camel chops going on about how Down city were after the 4-0 thrashing in Barcelona doubting their ability in competing against Europe's elite & then showing in the 2nd half they could do it albeit against a depleted Barcelona, It got me thinking , did they not Hear pep's true summarizing of the 1st match. For 60 mins we were matching them in every department until the Bravo incident, Then it becomes a no contest 11 v 10 against 1 of the worlds greatest club sides.

Why can they not state facts instead of sensationalizing everything out of context.

[Sponsored content]