Champions League Semi Finals (30th April - 8th May)

Klopp lost them the game, the team setup was fine, at one nil down with 15 minutes to go, all you he had to do is close up shop, break up the game and slow the game down, and take a one nil lost, then back at Anfield, beat them 3 -1 or 4 - 1.What Barcelona showed is they are more than comfortable to soak up pressure and hit Liverpool on the break. Next weeks return leg could end up embrassing for Liverpool.
I wish it was that easy! A 1-0 loss is obviously easier to overturn than a 3-0 loss but you make it sound like it's a given that we would have won 3-1 or 4-1.
 
Although good result for Barca I would still hold your horses. Barca haven't been impressive away from home in the CL, even a poor team like us dominated them. If Liverpool can get a couple of early goals they will be right in it, they are also game raising cnuts at Anfield. I would hope Barca can see off the first 20 minutes or so without conceding then they will get through imo.
In previous years, I'd agree. This season, we're just generally very good at Anfield
 
Klopp lost them the game, the team setup was fine, at one nil down with 15 minutes to go, all you he had to do is close up shop, break up the game and slow the game down, and take a one nil lost, then back at Anfield, beat them 3 -1 or 4 - 1.What Barcelona showed is they are more than comfortable to soak up pressure and hit Liverpool on the break. Next weeks return leg could end up embrassing for Liverpool.

Not sure what your point is. Firmino was brought on after Messi scored the 2-0.
 
Never going to happen. It's one thing to be complacent and switch off against Roma and another to repeat it against a much better team 1 year later when the wounds are still fresh from that freak result.

Also, Barca conceded an away goal to Roma in the first leg. No such away goal factor applies in this one!
 
The next game is going to look a little differently for Barca. I think they'll start with Semedo and Dembele, make themselves much more of a counter-attacking threat. They know Liverpool are throwing men forward for 90 minutes at Anfield. They'll probably bring in Arthur for the next one for more control of possession, and just simply to have better ball-players in the middle to hit Dembele on the break with.

Valverde is excellent at 2nd game adjustments, tactically, in general.
 
The 2nd leg at Anfield could kick off with City crowned Premier League champions the 24 hours earlier.
 
The 2nd leg at Anfield could kick off with City crowned Premier League champions the 24 hours earlier.
Or we could be in the CL final while topping the PL after the return leg :wenger:
 
The 2nd leg at Anfield could kick off with City crowned Premier League champions the 24 hours earlier.
Not likely. Newcastle will roll over and let the Scouses tickle their bellies.Leicester are more likely to put a spanner in the works.
 
In other news Police have recieved info that Barca Ultras are planning to avenge what happened on Las Ramblas by pushing Scousers into job centres!
 
I keep reading on social media and forums that Roma was a freak result, well it wasn 't, just take a look at the following:

Out of 20 away games played during their last 4 CL editions: Barcelona won 8, drew 7 and lost 5, which means a 40% winning ratio away from home in the CL, pretty poor for a side like Barcelona if you ask me.

This year they haven' t lost one in 5 away games, if you follow their last 3 years away form trend, they are due an away loss(finger crossed it will not happen this year!) as they lost at least once away in all 3 last editions.

Out of their 5 away losses, they had 4 in which they lost the game with at least 2 goals conceded ( vs PSG 4-0 , vs Manchester city 3-1, vs Roma 3-0 , vs athletico madrid 2-0).

However , despite the numbers I believe that the tie is over, they are showing good form away from home this year.
 
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https://speld.nl/2019/05/03/knvb-verzet-ramadan-belangrijk-***-ziyech-en-mazraoui-fit-zijn/

De Speld (Dutch The Onion) said:
KNVB verzet Ramadan: ‘Belangrijk *** Ziyech en Mazraoui fit zijn’

‘Dit is in het belang van het Nederlands voetbal’

3 mei 2019 door Alexander Brandenburg en Jaap van de Venis

De Ramadan wordt verzet naar juni. *** heeft de KNVB bekendgemaakt. De voetbalbond wil er zo voor zorgen *** Ziyech, Mazraoui en Labyad fit zijn voor de resterende wedstrijden van Ajax.

KNVB-voorzitter Michael van Praag licht toe: “Hoe je het ook wendt of keert, je kunt niet op een lege maag zondag de bekerfinale spelen, daarna weer halve finale Champions League, dan nog twee competitiewedstrijden en dan ook nog een eventuele finale Champions League.”

De KNVB hoopt op medewerking van moslims die niet nog meedoen in de Champions League. Van Praag: “We snappen *** het misschien niet helemaal goed uitkomt voor andere moslims in de hele wereld, maar het is in het belang van het Nederlands voetbal, dus ze zouden het wel moeten kunnen snappen.”

De nieuwe datum van de Ramadan is vastgesteld op 10 juni, zodat Ziyech, Mazraoui en Labyad weer gewoon kunnen eten als de eventuele voorrondes van de Champions League beginnen.

Translation said:
This is in the interest of Dutch football"

The Ramadan is moved to june. This was made known in a statement by the KNVB. The football association wants to make sure that Ziyech, Mazraoui and Labyad are fit for Ajax' remaining matches.

KNVB chairman Michiel van Praag explains: "Regardless which way you turn, you can't play a cup final on an empty stomach, then play another semi-final Champions League, then two more competition matches and then possibly another match in the Champions League final.

The KNVB hopes for the cooperation of muslems who aren't yet participating in the Champions League. Van Praag: "We understand it might not be the best timing for other muslems in the world, but it's in the interest of Dutch football, so they should be able to understand it."

The new date for the Ramadan has been set for june 10th, such that Ziyech, Mazraoui and Labyad can eat as normal if the possible qualification rounds for the Champions League start."

:D

PS: Funny how this forum censors the Dutch word for "That".
 
Not likely. Newcastle will roll over and let the Scouses tickle their bellies.Leicester are more likely to put a spanner in the works.

Doubt it very much. We've lost 2 & drawn 1 of our last 3 visits to St James Park. The Newcastle players might have their minds on beaches, bars, & sun-bathing. But then again they might want to give their fans a big performance for their final home game of the season. Benitez certainly won't be telling them to take it easy. Why would he ? He might be looking to move on during the summer, so he'll want to give a good account of himself.
 
Doubt it very much. We've lost 2 & drawn 1 of our last 3 visits to St James Park. The Newcastle players might have their minds on beaches, bars, & sun-bathing. But then again they might want to give their fans a big performance for their final home game of the season. Benitez certainly won't be telling them to take it easy. Why would he ? He might be looking to move on during the summer, so he'll want to give a good account of himself.
Normally I’ld agree but we are talking about a cult here, a cult with fanatically unhinged followers.
 
If you wish you wrote that, then that doesn't say much about you. A nice joke though, a throwback to the 80s when 'comedy' like that was considered funny. You got any 'Mother-in-law' jokes stored up anywhere?
Your mother in law needs to go to the job centre. :wenger:
 
If you wish you wrote that, then that doesn't say much about you. A nice joke though, a throwback to the 80s when 'comedy' like that was considered funny. You got any 'Mother-in-law' jokes stored up anywhere?
It says a lot about me.For one thing I have good taste in football clubs.Enough good taste not to support your mob.Hateful cnuts that ye are.
 
Is this some sort of inside joke? How can you move Ramadan :lol:
It’s a joke about the KNVB moving competition matches because they didn’t think of scheduling it such that CL matches could be played this late in the season, with the result of giving Ajax’ players more time to rest, but upsetting most other club’s schedules. (Most of ‘m qccept it for the good of the league though, but they had little choice: uefa rules stated two days rest minimum and couldn’t be done earlier due to lack of police availability around kingsday and night nationwide festivities).
 
If City drop points against Leicester, would Liverpool rest players in this match for Wolves or would they still go all out to overturn it?
 
Yes, such big bottlers to lose to teams that went on to the CL final and Roma being one goal off the final

What a dumb post

What a nice, friendly post.

I actually quite like Barcelona fyi. Very frustrated with the way they've been knocked out of CL over the past few years while Madrid and Ronaldo kept winning the tournament back to back. The fact is that they were favored against all those teams and had meltdowns in important games.
 
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Klopp just said Salah is out and won't play against Barcelona

so the chance of Liverpool going through probably went from 0.01% to 0.00001%
Really don't feel confident of Liverpool beating even Cardiff without Salah and Firmino, nevermind Barcelona
 
Yeah that's us done in the CL. If City doesn't win tonight, I'd rest most of our players but you just know that Klopp will never do that. Maybe rightfully so, who's to say... It's the last week of the season after all.
 
Not sure if it was just me but did we start playing a little better when Salah went off against Newcastle? Not that we were going to beat Barcelona by 4 goals anyway.