Jordan La Cabra Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 Totti didn’t retire for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 10 minutes ago, JordanJH1993 said: How on Earth did Roma knock out Barcelona? You can see how the way Roma started this game would have caused Barcelona a lot of problems. It clearly wasn't the way to go against Liverpool's front three though. Like Horse of Kent says Di Francesco's really got the set up of his team wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse Named Stranger Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 31 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said: Firmino has been terrific too: protecting the ball well, playing the right passes. He's really upped his game this season, found consistency. Thought Sturridge was better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordan La Cabra Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 1 minute ago, ljkeane said: You can see how the way Roma started this game would have caused Barcelona a lot of problems. It clearly wasn't the way to go against Liverpool's front three though. Like Horse of Kent says Di Francesco's really got the set up of his team wrong. You’d nearly think he’d never seen Liverpool play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 Fuck's sake Lovren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 And so it begins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 Bloody hell Liverpool, the tie was over. Just see it out for fuck's sake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 Shit like that is why we have to upgrade on Lovren. Always a liability. If Matip isn’t good enough then hopefully we buy someone in the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 Bah, those 2 late Roma goals have taken a bit of a shine off it. Still, the reality is, despite Roma now having a glimmer of hope, Liverpool should be strong favourites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 I'm fairly confident we're not buying a centreback. Hopefully Gomez develops into partner we need for Van Dijk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 That's Liverpool into the final then. I don't see Roma pulling off what they did to Barca again - that 2nd leg was their final. Roma's game plan worked okay for the first 20 minutes or so but a high line with not much pace in the defence was suicidal once Liverpool gained a foothold in midfield which was bound to happen. Has Di Francesco even watched Liverpool at all this season? Liverpool are favourites for the tournament now imo. Yeah, Bayern and Real are true European superpowers but both of them will also employ a high line with fullbacks pushing forward. Liverpool don't need any complicated game plan against either of those sides - work hard in midfield, put simple balls through or over the top (like they did tonight) and let Salah, Firmino and Mane run riot in the space behind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 I just got out of a long meeting. I was glancing at the score throughout. 5-0 was a dream. 5-2 takes the gloss off and makes next week more nervy than it needs to be, but same as the City tie: we've shown we can score an away goal, so the more they have to chase the game the better our chances of picking them off. The tie isn't over yet. I expect an aerial bombardment in Rome. The big problem again will be fatigue and needing to rest players at the weekend. With Ox now injured too, our depth is completely gone. We have three CMs injured, two of them arguably starters. Perhaps Can might recover to play again this season but Lallana and Ox look like they're done. I've steered clear of reading any match reports yet so I can watch the game on DVR later this evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted April 25, 2018 Author Share Posted April 25, 2018 5-0 or 5-1 would have been perfect,but honestly,i think the 3 goal advantage is enough of a cushion for us to progress to the finals. I'm more worried about the Stoke game,what with Ox injured and some players will be rested for sure.I'd take a dirty/boring 1-0 or 2-1 in a heart beat.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Loved watching Liverpool play for most of that game. Unfortunately, they did the most Liverpool thing you can imagine and let the opponent get back in the tie. After last night's match I'm fairly confident that Liverpool will advance to the final but watching Liverpool all these years have taught me that there are no sure things. I don't think there was a single player on Liverpool team who had a bad game last night. Lovren did make that one mistake that resulted in Dzeko's goal but overall he's been pretty good. All in all, I would've loved 5-0 or a higher margin, especially since the match looked like it would end like that. Still, 5-2 is a good result and if Liverpool play their game in the second leg there shouldn't be too many problems. If Roma manages to chase 3 goal deficit without leaving a lot of space for Liverpool's top three then fair play to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Watching the game on DVR felt unreal. It’s a pity to lose the tension of real time viewing. I know Roma have been roundly criticized for their high press and high line tactics, but you could see they were just trying to repeat the tactics that worked so well against Barca and Lazio. It was working for them reasonably well for the first twenty minutes, assisted by the interruptions (linesman’s flag, Ox’ injury) breaking the flow. But from the 25-35th minute, Liverpool were increasingly dangerous and even a bit wasteful before finally scoring, and then repeated that pattern from 35th-45th. We scored five but could comfortably have had eight. Roma seemed shell-shocked by our high pressing. It was our winning possession high up the field that was more dangerous than our fast counters. They pushed their WBs forward to pin our FBs, and expected their three excellent CMs to dominate both physically and technically. They probably thought that we’ve looked vulnerable against teams who carry the game to us, and trusted that they would be better quality than WBA. And it worked early on, although their only good shot came while we were temporarily down to ten men. Ox, other than a decent run and shot, was getting by-passed. Perhaps he would have found his feet eventually. Milner was really the one who took control of the midfield to turn the tide, and then Henderson and Gini found their rhythm too. We also started to find our front three as our forward passing improved, which was the beginning of the end for them. Dzeko did really well to punish Lovren’s mistake so clinically. There had already been a few shaky moments with unconvincing clearances (TAA especially) that went unpunished. Fatigue was sapping us badly at that point. Schick was dangerous for them and I expect him to start next week. Salah, Firmino and Milner were our best players, but the entire team played well. Our biggest challenge now is fatigue and our injury list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Ox out for the rest of the season and the World Cup. Shitty. He’d been so fucking good in 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 36 minutes ago, Mark Antony said: Ox out for the rest of the season and the World Cup. Shitty. He’d been so fucking good in 2018 That blows. Not too much of a surprise though. That was half of his Arsenal career. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 I'm interested to see how this goes tonight. Bizarrely for double European Champions I'm not at all convinced Real are a good team, they've just got such brilliant individual talent it doesn't seem to matter, and I'm really not sure how good Bayern are, they've cruised through so far but how good are the teams they've played in Europe or the Bundesliga? ETA: Heh, I was just about to say I might have done Real a bit of a disservice, they'd looked quite compact and organised so far, but they've just been undone by a pretty simple straight ball. 1-0 Bayern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 And Bayern had to sub out Robben and Boateng. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Bayern pretty unfortunate to lose two players to injury but they still managed to dominate that half. Some of their finishing has been poor though and they really should be leading. Ribery and Lewandowski both missed great chances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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