[La Porque]

whys everyone rating iniesta higher than MVB and ignoring the fact that iniesta again failed to score a very easy oppurtunity, he even missed the target. i like iniesta but i didnt think he was special tonite and ppl are rating him so highly cos they want him to be the new pep-xavi mix....unfortunately hes not as good as either of those. he didnt have abad game but he went missin espeically in the second half and keeps trying to pass through people

Van Bommel has shown his best minutes in Barcelona when Xavi and Iniesta have been behind him. Thats no coincidence at all as he doesnt need to use his passing and can instead go in forward runs, and show up in attack like a Lampard where he is best.

Iniesta made Van Bommel play and from the DMC did the simple things well, got the ball passed it on with accuracy, stopped the flow in counters with tactical fouls or tackles and the occasional dribble when theres space. He made two bad passes at the end of the first half, because these two were so close together I guess well remember them more than say, Bommels 5 missed passes in the first twenty or ROnnie giving away possession 35 metres from goal.

In the end I thought Iniesta done a very good job starting the play from the back and has looked better here than further up the pitch, possibly from feeling less pressure. Its funny how Xavi is the more attacking one, Cesc is two-way and Iniesta could be the defensive organiser. Sorry to bring him up again.

 

[Barca 4 Life]

Yes we missed a ton of chances but the truth is that at the end of the day, even though it would've been unfair, we could've easily lost this match (0-1). We didn't take advantage of our opportunities but a 0-0 is not a horrible result when you consider the fact that we'll be playing at home with some important players back. As long as we don't concede first, we should be fine.

 

[.BLAUGRANA.]

Could have been the result I expected (no disrespect to Benfica, but I was pleased with this draw), but we of course wasted our chances. That said, I think some of you guys are being harsh on some of our chances. We were also a bit unlucky. Considering the players we were without and the fact that it was the away leg, I still think we're the favorite going into the second leg. Puyol back will definately help and Messi would be a treat. Will anybody else make it back by then?

A tale of two halves really. We looked more in control in the first half. The ref too looked more in control in the first half. Unfortunately both we and the ref took a turn for the worst. Benfica should have had a penalty with Motta's handball, definately not a 50-50 ball. See my response to O' Glorioso at the bottom. Gio's handball was unintentional and the right call though. Other than missing Motta's penalty, I felt that the ref screwed both us fairly equally. Make no mistake Benfica supporters, he screwed us with a good number of calls too. I didn't understand Koeman starting w/o a stiker (go back in the thread to see that I said it). I also think you could have had more of a go at our defense. As for us, we had our fair share of possession, but as usual these days without the likes of Xavi it wasn't quality possession. Despite the poor finishes, at least we created the chances. We won't fail to take them in the second leg.

Valdes - 7.5 - He made a couple of key saves late on and had to handle other tough shots. Some horrible goal kicks/clearances (at least 3 in the match). Don't know if those were deliberate (time wasting) or not.

Belletti - 7.5 - Don't know what all the fuss is about. Maybe he's our U2. No matter what he does, he's going to get stick. I'd challenge anybody to tell me why they think he was so bad. He was caught upfield on Miccoli's chance (I think the one that was wrongly whistled offside at the beginning of the second half). That's it though. He was solid otherwise. He cut out crosses with headers more than once. He also stole the ball a few times. He even made a nice run and I would have liked to see a few more of them, but it seems his instructions were to stay at home.

Oleguer - 7 Find it difficult rating him. He was solid enough, but it just felt like if he'd been tested more he'd have been in a bit of trouble. Didn't like them bringing on Miccoli and I'm sure Oleguer didn't either.

Motta - 6.5 - His handball was stupid. He purposely had his arms up and guess what, the ball was played into your arm. I seriously don't know what he was thinking. Apart from that he was alright. He didn't look as good as Oleguer I thought and looked as though he too could have been burned for pace. Nice header on the corner though and sort of unlucky not to score on that one. Not bad considering he was deputising.

Gio - 6 - I felt as though he was our worst defender and possibly our worst player. I prefer Sylvinho going forward and linking up with Ronnie, that's for sure. I actually have to give him credit when his handball incident happened. He charged down the shot well and was most definately not trying to handle the ball.

Deco - 6 - Difficult to rate him in this one. Well maybe not since I made my decision. Either way, he had some nice moves. Problem is they amounted to nothing. He seemed to be losing it a bit out there and I could understand his frustration a bit. He'd been hacked a couple of times. Still he's gotta keep his cool in a situation like this.

Iniesta - 8 - Man of the match for us. No mistake about it. By far our best midfielder. He only coughed up the ball once and I'd give more credit on that one to the player who took the ball off of him. He passed the ball well and held possession very well. He even pulled a true Xavi. Had a man on his back at one point and just did the little Xavi turn where he simply did a 180 and went the other way. He was very solid in his defensive duties containing players and making what I thought a good challenge when he got his yellow (which I felt was a bit harsh). Nice run despite not scoring a goal, though he had a defender coming in on him. Perhaps should have pulled the back there and gotten fouled or waited for the defender to pass. Still a very mature performance and as I said earlier, I'd much rather we play him than van Bommel if it comes down to it.

van Bommel - 6.5 - If you look at his performance apart from his two goalscoring opportunities, he was pretty poor. He added little defensively and gets caught too far upfield for me. Early on he just fell over which led to a shot for Benfica. He tried stupid shots, one of which could have led to a great opportunity had he simply passed it. Instead he took a shot from a horrible angle. He should have done better after his nice run on his first opportunity. A pretty weak shot that was essentially right at the keeper under almost no pressure. His second shot was unlucky though as the keeper made a nice save.

Larsson - 6.5 - He didn't see much of the ball in this one. He did hustle though. A nice effort that was saved by the keeper.

Eto'o - 6 - Hmm. This was a tough one. I feel as though he was good in some areas and poor in others. Defensively he got back a couple of times and made two steals. So he did make an effort. He also beat a few players a couple of times. Very early on he may have had a chance after beating two players had van Bommel not made a poor pass. Eto'o's finishing on his big chance was poor though. Can't deny that one and I thought he was back after his two goal performance recently (considering how nice those two goals had been). Hopefully just like everything else this just pisses him off and he bags a few in Madrid and the return leg. His passing was poor too though. He did make an effort at least and I feel as though he's getting a bit, just a bit, too much flack.

Ronaldinho - 7 - His passing was 50/50. I know this is the usual knock on him, but tonight it actually really was the case. Some really nice passes and some pretty dreadful ones. Still he set up two nice chances that both could have been goals (and you know which one should have been). For that he gets his rating.

Giuly - 6 - Rather forgot he was out there.

Gabri - 6 - Didn't forget he was out there, but would have liked to forget it.

Rijkaard - 6 - I would have liked to see Giuly at the start of this one and have seen Larsson saved as a sub. Didn't get the Deco subsitution at all. Sure he was losing it a bit and wasn't his usual self, but Gabri certainly isn't an improvement. I also was waiting (rather foolishly I suppose) to see Maxi come on. He was warming up.

Ricardo Rocha was irresistable, most underrated defender in the world. roud:

Hey Brother. I hope you remember you're a Cule as well.

Rocha was playing out of position as well, right?

I mean even Tommy Smyth saw that it was a clear deliberate handball.

He also said that Belletti has been really solid this season and is better than Oleguer while Oleguer has kept Belletti on the bench all season. Either way, Motta's handball should have been given. At first I thought it was unintentional, but after seeing it again I thought it was intentional and should have been given.

Some people said we didn't notice the absence of Xavi because we got the results. But since a couple of months ago, the absence has been too obvious. I think there's no comparison, when Xavi was playing, I couldn't wait to see them play because it was an absolute pleasure. We're still very strong but we're missing that part.

I said it at least a month back. We miss his possession and passing. Deco for as good as he is gives the ball away way too much. I'd be fine if we sold van Bommel and were able to bring somebody in who could pass the ball. I said it before and I'll say it again. Wish we still had Riquelme.

 

[.BLAUGRANA.]

whys everyone rating iniesta higher than MVB and ignoring the fact that iniesta again failed to score a very easy oppurtunity, he even missed the target. i like iniesta but i didnt think he was special tonite and ppl are rating him so highly cos they want him to be the new pep-xavi mix....unfortunately hes not as good as either of those. he didnt have abad game but he went missin espeically in the second half and keeps trying to pass through people

You can read my comments on this one, but I think you're way off the mark. I agree with you on Belletti, but not with this. MVB was actually somewhat poor apart from his nice run. Iniesta on the other hand definately stood out in this match for us. It's just too bad we couldn't partner him alongside Deco instead of MVB.

 

[Almogàver]

Belletti - 7.5 - Don't know what all the fuss is about. Maybe he's our U2. No matter what he does, he's going to get stick. I'd challenge anybody to tell me why they think he was so bad. He was caught upfield on Miccoli's chance (I think the one that was wrongly whistled offside at the beginning of the second half). That's it though. He was solid otherwise. He cut out crosses with headers more than once. He also stole the ball a few times. He even made a nice run and I would have liked to see a few more of them, but it seems his instructions were to stay at home.

Not U2... more like New Kids On the Block. I take the challenge. He didn't make the off-side line correctly, his apathy covering the left wing is scary, he loses many stupid balls holding the ball where he can't do it... he's good, or at least better than Oleguer going forward, but it's not enough. In fact, last year, he did a good season overall. This year, he has been pathetic in the 90% of the games and that's what is annoying.

 

[Amor]

My honesty and class is here and I didn't insult anyone here except the ref who robbed us of a win against the "best" side in the world.

Our goalie defended your chances! Simple as that.

The ref robbed ours!

Not once but possibly twice! Not counting a couple of bad offsides calls.

Luck robbed ours

 

[.BLAUGRANA.]

One more thing about Eto'o, it was him who set up van Bommel's chance in the second half.

Not U2... more like New Kids On the Block. I take the challenge. He didn't make the off-side line correctly, his apathy covering the left wing is scary, he loses many stupid balls holding the ball where he can't do it... he's good, or at least better than Oleguer going forward, but it's not enough. In fact, last year, he did a good season overall. This year, he has been pathetic in the 90% of the games and that's what is annoying.

No kidding. I'm talking about tonight though and not the whole of the season. He didn't lose stupid balls tonight. He didn't f-up the offsides line tonight. In fact I noticed on the replay of the Motta handball that Oleguer kept the guy in the middle onside. I don't know you if you misunderstood my point because I was talking about tonight. You wanna talk about tonight, then make comments about this match and be specific.

 

[nikhils]

The ref was really awful. How many times did he whistle when deco was fouled? What bout the shirt pull on eto'o. And i never understood why he dropped the ball to the benfica player.s if it is a drop ball they should scrap for it and win it. not just beg the referree to give it to them.
COmbined with the motta handball incident and the inumerable unseen fouls, this was a bad game for the ref. and the sky sports commentary team was waxing eloquent about how he has controlled the game by not allowing the players to be reckless. Trevor Francis speaks like he is giving Andy Gray head at the time of speaking. Crap ref, great 0-0 game, and bad commentary for us poor souls in India.

 

[.BLAUGRANA.]

Trevor Francis speaks like he is giving Andy Gray head at the time of speaking.

:howler: Yeah, and by the looks of the guy it seems as though he's getting his hair cut at the same time.

 

[Kopriva]

I'm very happy with the result. I wanted us to get by without losing, and we did! I realize we were a bit unlucky and could have got a goal or two, but that's in the past now. We managed a positive result which gives us an advantage, and that's pretty much all I wanted. Now we have to win the league against Madrid on Saturday, and beat Benfica at home on Wednesday, and we've done a hell of a job. Then we could concentrate fully on the Champions League.

I think that the tasks I've mentioned won't be particulary hard to achieve. I'm not being arrogant, nor am I underestimating anyone, but it's a very positive situation which we have created for ourselves.

I can't wait for those two games.

GO BARCA!! For the double!!!

 

[Almogàver]

No kidding. I'm talking about tonight though and not the whole of the season. He didn't lose stupid balls tonight. He didn't f-up the offsides line tonight. In fact I noticed on the replay of the Motta handball that Oleguer kept the guy in the middle onside. I don't know you if you misunderstood my point because I was talking about tonight. You wanna talk about tonight, then make comments about this match and be specific.

I was actually talking about yesterday night. Maybe I should see the game again and I admit that I already have something against him. It's hard to be objective during the game, when the passions beat any objective view, but I honestly think he had a bad game... I admit I could be wrong though.

 

[Bier]

Hey Brother. I hope you remember you're a Cule as well.

Sure I do, this weekend I'll be 100 % Cule again

Rocha was playing out of position as well, right?

Yes he did so and how he did :star:

 

[Voyteck]

A bit late, but here are some of my views on the game.

First of all, to all the anti-Kluiverts - wanna talk about missed chances? Seriously, I don't remember seeing a game with such a level of uneffectiveness. 9 Clear chances and no goal with players like Eto'o, Larsson and Ronaldinho on the field?! I almost screwed my furniture during the match, I was so pissed with our guys missing chances one after another, especially van Bommel...

It's true - the ref could've awarded a penalty for Benfica - only one of course. Well, we haven't been awarded even clearer two penalties against Chelsea and Chelsea had one for nothing. I guess that's just the way it is. Deal with it.

Some positives. The way we created our chances - so easily - was really impressive. Especially the first half was great to watch. Mainly thank to Iniesta (was incredible yesterday), but also Deco, we controlled the midfield and thus created chances. Eto'o was very active, did a lot of running, great movement (chceck van Bommel first half opportunity - Samuel takes two defenders so the Dutch can take a good shot), some great passing. Only I would expect a striker like Eto'o to score form 6 metres...

Another thing. Even with central defence made of RB and DM we did a good job in defence. Most of the time Benfica could only shoot from long range and Valdes had no problems. Of course they sometimes blew offside traps, but it's not a thing you learn in one week, so it was obvious that Oleguer-Motta duo might have problem in that specific matter.

Another positive was that we found out there actually is a keeper who plays with his feet worse than Valdes On the other hand he had some great saves, but so does usually Victor.

I was hoping that letting in Giuly would help, but he had like two contacts with the ball and that was it.

Belletti proved that him and Maxi are the first ones to go. It's not a matter of form, he just isn't Barça quality. I don't care if his lungs are made of steel. For all I care they could be golden, but it won't make him useful anyway. Stamina is not enough to play for Barça.

Before the game Koeman said "we'll try to take advantage of Barça's weaknesses" and they attacked on their left wing most of the time.

To finish - before the game I thought a draw wasn't bad (I did bet on a victory however), but seeing the way we played, it should have been over by now. We could've won it in the first half already and simply wait to counterattack in the second half and have an easy revenge game at Camp Nou. Moreover we could have now been concentrating only on Gran Derby. Well it's too bad, but I'm still pretty sure it'll end happily for us anyway.

 

[Assassin]

Absolutely unlucky! 76Millions for Eto?! He has been rubish since he came from Egypt! Sell him and buy Henry, I am sure he would have scored a couple against benefica last night!

 

[PepGuardiola]

This was our beloved barca - how much performances like that in europa we had in the past? Too much to count...

but for god´s sake it was the first game otherwise....

 

[VBI]

I really wish Benfica fans would stop their frankly offensive whining about the ref. Anyone with eyes can see that other than the Motta handball that he probably couldn't even see in his position, they got a LOT more decisions than we did.

Their blatant diving for instance got them several free-kicks out of thin air. Absolute joke decisions, like the swan dive moment that got Iniesta booked. If there was any contact at all. Simao for instance is just a dirty bastard. How come he dives every single time he is tackled and more often than not got a free-kick, yet Deco repeatedly got fouled, sometimes by 2 players, but because of his reputation he got nothing. To the point where he flung his arm in the air in frustration and got booked. For that! Whilst Beto quite blatantly booted Iniesta from the back and didn't get a booking. Yet another Benfica dive in the box late on, AND the guy handballed it when he went down, no booking.

In fact, Benfica's only booking came when Miccoli complained to the ref, either about the penalty or about an offside call where he missed the shot THEN realised he was offside and moaned. Their only booking, despite repeated dives and blatant fouling.

Sure, they should have had 1 penalty, but it's hard to have sympathy with these kind of complaints when they were in fact extremely lucky to not concede 4 goals and spent almost the entire game cheating the ref.

Stop ****ing whining, it's adding an unnecessary edge to the discussions.

 

[alphaomega]

Absolutely unlucky! 76Millions for Eto?! He has been rubish since he came from Egypt! Sell him and buy Henry, I am sure he would have scored a couple against benefica last night!

.
Stop the slaying for christ sake. It wasn't Barca's night, there are matches like that that no matter what you do the ball won't just go in.
Thank god you are not running a club, If Henry misses from 6M you
will sell him and buy who ? eventually you will run out with players to buy.
For you info Henry has also missed an open goal from 3 yards.
Luck was on the keepers side while sammy was unlucky.
One on one misses in soccer are very common, stop throwing cheap shots at players as if they intentionally decided to miss.
Barca has not been eliminated from CL due to Sammy, so stop all the
hatred and bashing. I am sure you are perfect and you have never committed an error.

 

[killa]

Come on Barca fans, no need to call us whiners. We've been hearing that we're crap and won't go far even before the UCL group stage started, you guys (some at least) aren't the first people to say it. Fact is that we have a pretty decent defensive line and some fast forwards. No great number 10 player, that's left for Petit, a man who's really a defensive midfielder.

I guarantee you that your budget's at least 10 times greater than ours, so please don't bitch about how we got calls, we're all going to see things different ways as we follow different teams. Heck, i think that there could have very well been two penalties called in our favor, if you must argue that the first one's not a penalty then i'll have to respect that decision even though i may think otherwise, but to say that the second's handball is not a penalty then you're just being hardheaded.

the ball was centered beind your man, doesn't take a genious to put two and two together.

And more, yes you did have more chances to score, I think that anyone who actually saw the game could would tell you that, but whose fault is it that your players couldn't score? Certainly not the ref's nor the fans, we had some decent chances to score ourselves and i don't mean those shots from outside of the box in the first half, your keeper was right under them and would certainly have gotten them if they were on target, just like your two balls that hit the goalpost, our defenders were covering and would have gotten them as well.

Let's face the facts:

2 penalty calls that could have gone in our favor, the second one should have for sure, we missed some shots in the second half and should have done much better in the first half since we were playing at home. We get Nuno back for the second game, and he's just a strange player, can play like crap and score an ugly goal which i hope it happens.

And for you guys, just missed opportunities, your fault, not ours.

Let's hope it's a good second leg game :thumbsup:

 

[victorvaldes.1.]

Sure, Benfica have always been a lucky club and don't deserve to be mentioned in history amongst a great footballing club such as Barcelona who have always been the superior side only to lose because they were merely unlucky

u slightly missed the point....benfica were lucky last night and against united, thats all im saying

 

[Liternit]

It's always good to have an excuse to cry... we had the same excuse last weekend. Of course, we always love the conspirations and, in the eyes of some, we're the rich who filled UEFA's pockets or something.

not an excuse, just plain fact. Not saying Barcelona was favored, but the mistake did cost a clear penalty for Benfica. No need to act as victims of conspiration charges, as no one said that.