I've watched Barca last night and they were very uninspired against Real Sociedad, they lacked intensity and hung in there in the end by a thread (Yuri missed a glorious chance)...
Sociedad had 7 shots on target, the highest number of shots Barca has ever conceded at home in all competitions this season... while Sociedad also had 51% Ball Possession with Barca seeing less of the ball, specially in the 2nd half.. from the strongest 11, only 2 players were rested (the suspended Neymar & Iniesta), whereas Mascherano is injured....
This bodes well for us, but of course doesn't mean anything as Barca usually show up in big matches, specially in the CL......
We shouldn't care who the referee will be. Cakir or Aytekin or whoever the hell is appointed can make awful decisions but he shouldn't be decisive. If we go with the mindset that the game is rigged against us, we will fail. If things don't go our way, we just have to adjust, just like Inter did in 2010. There is no time to be fancy or pretty - if you get a player dismissed, you park the bus and catenaccio the shit out of this game or do whatever it takes to get the necessary result.
By the way, in 2003, when we beat Barcelona thanks to an extra-time Zalayeta goal, we played with 10 men since minute 79.
In my 350 years as a Juventus fan, I don't remember a coach who confidently spoke of the possibility of scoring five against Juventus. Welcome To The Club of Coaches Who Are Confident to Score Five Against Juventus, Mr. Enrique.
This was expected. I predicted this tbh, last week all quiet and admitting the defeated. This week its "we believe". And the general media also going with this narrative with if there is one club who could come back, its Barca.
I just say precaution after first game. He was fouling them Barca players left and right. At Nou Camp i can see it end with sending off to push for the comeback narrative.
Vidal misses a penalty in the 1st leg and gets sent off in the 2nd leg...
Madrid had a huge helping hand from the ref... Casimero should've been sent off 3 times, whereas Vidal was harshly sent off for going for the ball.. 2 of Ronaldo's goals were offside...
I'm sure Allegri and team are planning on approaching the game in a similar way as 1st leg, which they should be, but the players have to be careful about not getting in a shell and dropping too deep.
Main improvement from first leg needs to be able to better contain Messi in the middle because he was having a great time there vs Pjanic-Khedira. Unlike on the right where I don't think he once went past Alex Sandro, who was excellent.
And Dani Alves needs to repeat his great marking job vs Neymar although it'll be more difficult this time with less support from Cuadrado with them having to worry about an overlapping FB too in Jordi Alba.
Dani Alves was awful when he let Iniesta through (Buffon's save) and all around perfect defensive game from him is probably too much to ask, but if he can bang Neymar up again when he has his back to goal, not let him turn, and physically wear him down (must have been a well-designed plan by both Allegri and DA, who knows him well, that was brilliantly executed by DA), that'd take care of their other main danger man.
Expecting Chiellini and Bonucci to do well vs Suarez again.
Allegri hinted that he might make some tactical changes despite leaving the line-up intact. We can only guess what he means, but I would not exclude the possibility of Allegri opting to attack Barca from the beginning. This would be similar to what we do in Serie A when try to close the game early. After all, if I were to guess one thing that Barca is least prepared for, that would be playing against a side that controls the ball and plays aggressively.
That's the same crap they played last time. Only this time, both midfield and defense would be better with better players (Busquets and Mascherano replacing Mascherano and Mathieu respectively).
But it's less and not more attacking. You've an extra CB in the place of an overlapping FB. I think Luis Enrique implemented the 3313 later this season to improve them defensively (and apparently Jordi Alba hasn't been good), but it's not the right system for this game.
It'd also make our life easier vs Neymar again. Dani Alves and Cuadrado will get to double up on him with no threat from an overlapping FB. And since Neymar is the only player on that flank, it means he'll spend less time in middle, closer to goal just as he did in 1st leg.
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