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Champions League 2017/18

Neymar wilts in Madrid as superclub tie descends into Disneyfied dystopia

Jonathan Wilson compares Neymar and Ronaldo ...

After a bright opening, Neymar ran again and again down blind alleys, again and again holding possession too long, as though the enormous pressure he is under because of his price tag and because of the expectation on him in this World Cup year – they had brought judging in the Rio carnival forward so it would be done in time for everybody to watch Wednesday’s match – led him to try to win the game single-handed.

He completed 13 dribbles – three more than the rest of his side put together, and more than twice as many as anybody on the Madrid side – but few of them went anywhere useful. He was also caught in possession six times, more than anybody else on either side. Not a single pass was completed between Neymar and Edinson Cavani, a stark indication of PSG’s lack of attacking cogency.

But Madrid were no better – and there was no completed pass between Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema either. Ronaldo will be praised because players who scored two goals always are, even when one was a penalty and once bounced in off his knee, but his was a weirdly, if not uncharacteristically, self-involved contribution. He touched the ball 30 times and yet had 10 shots, a barely credible ratio. An actual cannon might have been more involved in general play. It’s one thing to praise him for stripping his game down to its essentials, for adapting to the ageing process, but there comes a point at which he is so uninvolved in the game that, even with his remarkable propensity for goals, he becomes a hindrance (even if his ruthlessness offered a nice counterpoint to Neymar’s look-at-me fripperies).
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... and on PSG and elite clubs ...

PSG, meanwhile, seem endlessly trapped in some classical tragedy, yearning for European success and then, by spending recklessly on yet more attacking stars, creating in their desperation the very conditions that will guarantee their failure: the more they dominate in France, the softer they will become and the less prepared they will be for the battle in Europe.

But there is also an issue beyond these two teams. This, perhaps, was a glimpse into a future in which elite clubs, focused more on marketing and the generation of revenue than the pursuit of a coherent footballing philosophy, gather together elite players and throw them out onto the pitch to perform without any thought as to whether they can play together. It is, after all, far easier to recognise and exploit celebrity than to tease out the internal harmonies that achieve the multiplicatory effect Arrigo Sacchi demanded of all great teams.

This perhaps is football’s future, a money-obsessed world in which a series of X-Factor auditions has replaced the symphony, our Disneyfied dystopia.
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Liverpool are in for a real shock if they play a proper Champion's League team in the next round. It's all very well beating the likes of Maribor, Sevilla, Spartak and Porto but if they come up against Barcelona, Real or Bayern they have no experience of actually competing with these teams. They just folded against Real last year in the group and accepted they had no chance.
 
Modric THFC said:
Liverpool are in for a real shock if they play a proper Champion's League team in the next round. It's all very well beating the likes of Maribor, Sevilla, Spartak and Porto but if they come up against Barcelona, Real or Bayern they have no experience of actually competing with these teams. They just folded against Real last year in the group and accepted they had no chance.
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I agree and we will hopefully find out!
 
Modric THFC said:
Liverpool are in for a real shock if they play a proper Champion's League team in the next round. It's all very well beating the likes of Maribor, Sevilla, Spartak and Porto but if they come up against Barcelona, Real or Bayern they have no experience of actually competing with these teams. They just folded against Real last year in the group and accepted they had no chance.
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They will get totally dingdonged
 
Modric THFC said:
Liverpool are in for a real shock if they play a proper Champion's League team in the next round. It's all very well beating the likes of Maribor, Sevilla, Spartak and Porto but if they come up against Barcelona, Real or Bayern they have no experience of actually competing with these teams. They just folded against Real last year in the group and accepted they had no chance.
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Like us, yeah? :D

I bet of all the sides, we're the one they would rather not play. At least if they go out to Barca, Bayern, or Real they can say they went out to the teams that have won the last 8 CLs. If they go out to us (and they know they will), well then...
 
alekaras said:
Like us, yeah? :D

I bet of all the sides, we're the one they would rather not play. At least if they go out to Barca, Bayern, or Real they can say they went out to the teams that have won the last 8 CLs. If they go out to us (and they know they will), well then...
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It would be because we are cheating, diving media favourites and all part of a conspicuous to keep them from their rightful place.
 
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