The Final 4.....

[panchester07]

Shalke - Manchester United (0-2)

Real Madrid - Barcelona ....

Just to get this thread started and talking over the semi-finals and your opinions on it..

What an OUTSTANDING performance by United today.. No bias whatsoever.. Manuel Neur saved Shalke soooo many times today, Shots from all angles, directions, shapes, sizes, colors and points of views, individual plays, or combinations between many players.....It was total domination for the first 45 minutes, and the scored could have easily been 0-3 or more by the end of the first half... Little Pea had like 5, he was unlucky at a few, and Neur saved a good pair as well... Brilliant of the ball movements and runs, through balls, 40 yard switches, crosses, and airballs, it was a bombardment.. Shalke looked like they had 5 goal keepers in there... Neur was the star of the match by far, with out a doubt undoubtly. It looked like Shalke didn't have a keepr, they had a damn Cathedral in there!

The second half started in the same way, Giggs, Evra, Carrick and Chicharito having clear cut chances, then the match balanced out and I was upset cause I thought it was gonna end 0-0 Neur had easily saved 7 clear goals .... But then, when the match was leveled, and no team was better than the other, Mr Wazza decides to cut two players, and play a through ball between 4 defenders to Giggs, who finished like the gods, between Neurs legs to become the oldest player to score in champions league.. Finally some justice.. Just when I was catching my breath from celebrating, Rooney gets a break through and finishes brilliantly, to make it 0-2!!!! The match ended that way. United took the foot off the gas, and made a few substitutions to rest the players, and again the game was balanced, and it would end that way...

The result is deceiving, if it weren't for Neur the score would have been 0-8.... United play lovely football with posesion but creating enourmous amount of chances in a constant search for the enemies goal, changes of pace and positions, destroyed Shake's defense, creating atleast 6 clear chances in the first half. a decevious result, but acceptable, thanks to brillaint performance of neur..

Man United have greatly proven what they are made of, whoever goes through, Real Madrid or Barcelona, will find themselves playing against a colossal team in front of them. 0-2 and if it wasn't for Neur it could have been half a dozen easily. Great match for the whole team, but once again I have to take my hat off for Rooney and Giggs.

Football won today, lets hope tomorrow the same thing happens.

Giggs is like a PlayStation 4, impossible to be anybetter! But Rooney was the man of the mach imo.


If you think i'm being biased, look at something's that UEFA is saying:

Dominant United too strong for Schalke

United, appearing in their 12th semi-final, completely dominated a Schalke side new to this stage of the competition and got the victory their efforts deserved through strikes from Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney. The winning margin would have been greater but for the brilliance of home goalkeeper Manuel Neuer who made a string of fine saves before United finally broke through with two goals in three minutes midway through the second period, leaving Schalke with a mountain to climb in next Wednesday's return.

Neur stopped everything today, but he is still looking for Puyol's super-header in the world cup

Oh, last comment, in FIFA 11, Rooney should have 100 in long balls, my lord what a precision and what a player!

[desire10]

I cannot believe I forgot about the champions league today! For me in Australia, UCL is usually at like 6:00 A.M, I was out on the streets around this time on my morning run Well, I'd rather of missed this one then the upcoming El' Clasico. Haven't seen any highlights yet, but you've projected a pretty clear image in my head of what it was like thanks panchester!

Rooney has great vision, and your not wrong about the long passes, he's absolutely brilliant over 40 yards. This is why I prefer him as a deep-lying center forward, or at least having him check to the ball more as a striker.

[Met]

It was a pretty good game. They scored just before the period where the nervous energy starts to come, where the actually start asking if they are going to score. Man u individually aren't the best we've seen going by Man u teams but somehow they have a habit of winning. I firmly believe that, that Little Pea has paid back ALL he's transfer money this season. His movements, creates space for Rooney and other, leading to assist and goals, and he has won games for Man u. How was this confirmed? By Sir Alex subbing him first, knwoing very well he has a must win game against Arsenal, he is a key player, take him off, give him a rest so he can terrorize Arsenal defence.

Back to the game, they gave Carrick too much time. I think he can be suspect if he is hurried for time. A part of me still feels that Man U won't win the CL because the back four doesn't really have a cover. Against really attacking teams, i.e. Barcelona or Real, it's going too much for Carrick/Scholes/Giggs. Maybe if Fletcher could do the running, they might have a chance. (Park on the wing of course with Valencia)

[TheBrilliance]

I cannot believe I forgot about the champions league today! For me in Australia, UCL is usually at like 6:00 A.M, I was out on the streets around this time on my morning run Well, I'd rather of missed this one then the upcoming El' Clasico. Haven't seen any highlights yet, but you've projected a pretty clear image in my head of what it was like thanks panchester!

Rooney has great vision, and your not wrong about the long passes, he's absolutely brilliant over 40 yards. This is why I prefer him as a deep-lying center forward, or at least having him check to the ball more as a striker.

Dude these two games are at 4:30 am here and I am gutted. Only a Liverpool or England game would get me up that early, possibly a World Cup Final and Liverpool 18's game aswell

But man I want Real to smash Barca so damn bad. Why?

1. I dont want Barca or Manure to win it, they both annoy me.
2. Barca's style of play can lull any person to sleep, AND I WANNA STAY AWAKE!

[soccer11]

I wish I could've watched the whole game. It sucks not having Fox Soccer. I watched a little bit of it, until they shut my stream down. From what I saw, it looked like United was dominating.
I agree with Panch, Neuer was a man. IMO, he's a top 3 goalkeeper in the world at the moment. He'll make a case for himself as the #1 in the world next summer at the Euros.

In terms of todays game, apparently Guardiola has lost his cool a little with Mourinho. Are Mourinho's mind games working?
http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news;_yl ... a-mourinho

[panchester07]

Yeah, he's too good, I don't know if Iker would have saved some of those shots he saved yesterday, but at the same time, Iker saves some tap in's in the small box that i don't know if Neur could stop... Out of respect and titles won and important saves, I'd still say Iker is #1...

haha mourinho slapped Pep Guardiola in the press conference, seriously like owned him....

I saw Guardiola's response, and I wonder why people say he lost his cool... I saw it in video, and he at no moment seemed excited, or anything he was talking in his normal calm way.

He said, "mourinho is the damn boss, in this hall, he always wins here,(in the press conference), i at no moment intend to compete with him, for i don't have assistants, and secretaries that write my jokes down, or anything of the matter, im a football coach, so in that aspect, i give him his particular champions league to him" ........ he kept talking but never lost his temper, basically his message was let Mourinho talk all he wants in the press conference, congratulations, here's your champions league trophy for talking, i talk in the field, we'll see how it goes then, and he mentioned something about them being 4 years together in Barcelona, and him being dissapointed at Mourinho for believing the press somethings about Pep, instead of trusting the "bond" they had back in Barcelona, and believing the press' bs about Pep, instead of believing who Pep really was since Mourinho and Pep knew each eather in Barcelona for so long.

So, yesterday, out of the blue, Pep said Iniesta wasn't playing, I find that somewhat suspicious that the day before, suddenly he isn't playing, and many people i talked to think the same, but, i don't think Pep woud make up something like that... It sucks for Barcelona, who have, Adriano, Maxwell, Abidal, Bojan, MIlito, and Puyol now coming back from a 3 months injury, not to mention, they already had a short squad..

The fact that mascherano is playing central defender, says it allll.. Barca is not in there greatest moment right now, i think fatigue, short squad, injuries, plus loosing to madrid in the final have weekend them, but lets hope we can watch good games, let the best win!

[Zlatan5]

LOL Busquetes, not sure who did a worse job of acting, Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker, or Sergio trying to pretend he got hit in the face by a sledgehammer, Pedro could be up there as well. Not sure if they should be wearing those respect badges, I don't see what makes them worthy of the word.

[styale18]

pepe challenge was not a red but i guess its ok if the the whole barcelona team surrounds the ref.......disgraceful

[Juicygriot17]

Decent goal by messi... Barcelona are pussies for surrounding the ref like that after every freakin foul. sometimes i hate football for that.

[p793]

Messi's second goal was just one of those moments where you pinch yourself....just wow.
Pepe never should have been sent off
Pedro's diving was disgraceful...the two teams dived so much, not a good advert for spanish football

[Zlatan5]

Guys guys guys, lets look at the positive things, we found Spain's Olympic diving team. Captained by Pedro and Sergio Buscunt.

[Juice]

Guys guys guys, lets look at the positive things, we found Spain's Olympic diving team. Captained by Pedro and Sergio Buscunt.

[Juice]

Funny how mourinho before the first el clasico told the press that he had started to train with 10 players because he was sure that one player would get a red card. Since then there has been one player for madrid that has recived a red card in every game!

[TheBrilliance]

Apparently the game was piss poor.

Madrid played rubbish and were also scammed apparently.

Barca cheated and 'bore' out a result until Messi turned up the heat for the second goal.

This is only from several sources but it really, really would not surprise me this occured.

"The Classico". Such a fitting name

[p793]

Apparently the game was piss poor.

Madrid played rubbish and were also scammed apparently.

Barca cheated and 'bore' out a result until Messi turned up the heat for the second goal.

This is only from several sources but it really, really would not surprise me this occured.

"The Classico". Such a fitting name

Meh. Everyone seems to be saying the game was sh*t, there wasnt a lot of clear cut chances, but I still enjoyed watch it, the touch and everything of every player on the pitch was perfect, di maria did a couple of great dribbles, ronaldo had a few shots, the game was more ruined by the diving and off the ball incidents, but it still added to the excitement of the game. I've seen a lot worse games