Round of 16 - Manchester United vs PSG

Myesyats wrote:

Doc wrote:Gonna warn all of you, I'm gonna use that picture of Neymar for anything. You were warned.

Maradona has the grace of Goethe in comparison

Doc wrote:From my viewing @cBarca, no one made any appeals after the shot deflected. In fact, they were gonna take the corner as normal. Then the ref stopped play and went to the sideline which the broadcast said "potential penalty VAR review" and we all saw the incident. In all honesty, shocked it was given since it really wasn't a cut and dry PK call but it is PSG and since it is them, correct call. Stonewall PK.

Very difficult to disagree with that tbh

This is just a miracle

#MUFC #PSG #UCL #ManUvsPSG #ManUtd #OleAtTheWheel pic.twitter.com/ppB7nJh7L9

— Muhammad Ahsan (@Muhamma91502374) March 6, 2019

Eric Bailly trying to defend like... pic.twitter.com/swbfJODGiP

— ECFC Grecian (@EcfcGrecian) March 6, 2019

To think people are saying it was a deserved penalty is beyond comprehension. He spread his arms as little as anyone possibly could. And as someone without a horse in this race, that was one of the very worst decisions in the entire CL's history. As it's one thing for a ref to get it wrong when it happens in real time, which happened so many times before. That's at least understandable as they don't have anything else to go on. But to think a panel of people/experts with all the technology in the world available, actually stopped the game to then conclude that there was actual intent here, shows you what a waste of time VAR actually is. The guy in the motion of shielding his body by turning his back to the shot, while trying to bring his arms towards his body.... 100% naturally. Somehow adjudged to showing intent to handling the ball? What a joke. Every hand ball in the area should be called a penalty from now on imo. Not even 99%,that was 100% robbery.

No such thing as robbery when it comes to PSG.

Yes just my 6th post. Which means what exactly?

Ultimate smash and grab. PSG are a bunch of chokers. nervous throughout the game. Ole came in wanting to stay in the game till the last 20 and they did.
Great penalty from Rashford. That took balls and he made it look so damn easy.

No such thing as robbery when it's PSG we're talking about and Thimmy will let VAR sort it out. It other words, it's only robbery when it happens to my team, otherwise who really cares? They deserve it and it doesn't really matter. I get it now.

Real Madrid doesn't count either if that's what you're getting at. I take it you're not a Utd fan though lol.

Thiago Silva yet AGAIN in tears for probably the 11th time in my his career I have seen this (not kidding)

"I am speechless and do not know what to say". Captain Silva.

At least Silva didn’t complain about the wind or the ref. I always liked him tbh.

CBarca wrote:I agree BC.

The refs can see VAR in slow motion, no?

That NEEDS to go. The center ref should ONLY be allowed to see the play at the speed that it happened. To have another eye on something he previously saw.

If it's true they can watch in slow motion, to me that's the only reason this is called. Things look a lot more intentional in slow motion. In fact, I recall people saying Otamendi had handled on purpose, even when he was pulling his hand towards his body! In slow motion, you could almost convince yourself he had put his arm out to block, only to pull it back in and make it seem unintentional. In reality, it's never like that.

Does anyone have an answer for why it was even reviewed? Again, this is not a clear and obvious error.

The refs use slow motion to determine if there is contact, they use normal speed for everything else.

It was called back because it was an obvious error. He deliberately tried to make a play on the ball and it hit his arm. That's a handball. Apparently, the rule is that if it first hits another body part and then the arm, then it's not a handball, which is stupid.

Anyway, this concept of "deliberate" needs to die and, thankfully, it will, starting with next year, at least for handballs. They will make these judgements like it should have been made all along, based on who is "responsible," factoring in arm position relative to the body and distance. Here, the defender is responsible for the ball hitting his arm, so it would be a handball.

I'm still trying to get over this:

Manchester United had 5 shots tonight:

- Lukaku’s first goal
- Rashford’s shot which led to
- Lukaku’s second goal
- the shot Diogo Dalot had which hit Kimpembe's arm
- the penalty Rashford scored

— Jonathan Fisher (@fishplums) March 6, 2019

I can't even call it efficiency. Two of those shots were speculative long-shots that somehow ended up in goals.

Jay29 wrote:I'm still trying to get over this:

Manchester United had 5 shots tonight:

- Lukaku’s first goal
- Rashford’s shot which led to
- Lukaku’s second goal
- the shot Diogo Dalot had which hit Kimpembe's arm
- the penalty Rashford scored

— Jonathan Fisher (@fishplums) March 6, 2019

I can't even call it efficiency. Two of those shots were speculative long-shots that somehow ended up in goals.

This match is more a case against Ole than for him. Kids or not kids, backups or not, they needed to win and thet got completely dominated, but PSG gifted them the three goals.

k now since the dust is settled, and I have regained my senses, I will just put this here.

What  a night it was guys. What a beautiful night.
Ole fucking Gunnar! And how.. lol. What kind of sorcery was that?  With a midfield of McTomato, Andreas and Fridge, we actually overcame PSG. Legit couldnt believe it actually happened. Was literally on the verge of a heart attack before that pen kick. Rashy boy!

The way they were playing in the 1st half after they scored, I genuinely thought, the game would end in a tennis score. Then out of the blue, we scored again, and after that till the final whistle, we were bloody comfortable. Yes, it was dodgy, it was ugly. Our ‘reserve’ team couldn’t string 3 passes together. But still they hung on and on and landed that final decisive punch on that snakeboy Di Maria and that crybaby Thiago Silva and and that trash talker Draxler and Divemar. Omg what a beautiful feeling!
And finally thanks guys. Agreeing with Unique. Easily was one of the best nights on GL, yesterday. All of us uniting to bring down those arrogant French plebs

Honestly, PSG should be banned from Europe for a year after yesterday. I mean, they should have been banned after blowing a 4 goal lead to Barcelona but that was MSN Barca so you could see why. Ole couldn't get his lads to keep the ball long enough to do any meaningful attacks but still scored 3 goals.

THE BANNER

I have to admit that I didn't believe in a comeback before the game, not even for a second. I knew it was possible, but I didn't believe in it. But, if I had imagined a comeback, it surely would've been similar to what actually happened in Paris.

By now, everyone knows we missed many key players, but this was not a concern for Ole. I mean, of course it was, but he didn't lose his focus for one moment because of that and he managed to lift the spirits in our team even more before the 2nd leg, encouraging young lads like Dalot, McTominay, Andreas, Rashford, Chong and Greenwood to step up and give their best in what could be the game of their lives. Apart from Ole, I am not sure anyone truly believed in a comeback.

He kept repeating that we have nothing to lose, that we have to go there and play the Manchester United way, attacking football. He certainly knew we wouldn't be able to dominate PSG at their ground. I am pretty sure not many teams in Europe are able to do this. So, he prepared a compact team, a 5-3-2 ready to press when needed, when the players felt even a tiny bit of sloppiness in PSG's game.

Keeping the ball was incredibly hard because PSG's players' positioning was great, their movement was very good and the midfield clearly more talented and with more experience. I have to say that their passing was elite, close to Guardiola level. I mean, I haven't seen any team against us this season passing so well except City, with calm and composure for most of the time. I am not talking about the possession percentage, but more about how they moved the ball, it felt very natural and I am talking about the midfield and attack especially.

So, a team passing so well, very fast on counters, creative in the midfield, playing on their own ground against a decimated United with very young players is very bad news. You can't just start trying to outrun them, or to apply constant pressure on them, or expose yourself in any way, considering the score from the 1st leg. Ole hoped for the best from this match and he got the luck he hoped for.

We sat back, defended so so well considering the circumstances, pushing when we saw the opportunity and that happened in about 4 or 5 occasions in the first half, two of them ending up with us scoring with clockwork pragmatism. Can't blame the players or the staff for understanding the limitations in their abilities to play, to attack or to defend and you can't really blame them for trying their luck and taking advantage of the mistakes made by the opponent.

PSG lacked good finishing. They had 3 or 4 opportunities to really kill the game in their best moments of the game (mins 5-25 and 65-85), but they were not clinical. This was a key aspect. Di Maria, Alves, Mbappe, Bernat are some of the names who pop into my mind when I think about the great chances they had. Considering their experience and their skills, they should've done much better. They missed those big chances and while time was passing they became shaky, didn't even keep the ball with the ease they did in the first 60-70 minutes and started to doubt themselves more and more. Mbappe and DiMaria were clearly nervous, both of them. Verratti and Marquinhos were very tired in the last 10 minutes while United's midfield was in a better shape, which mattered a lot cause I recall McTominay and Chong winning some important 50-50% duels against them.

United was in the game like Ole hoped and said so before the match. He insisted that the players have to fight, to believe and be there, ready to take their chances. The chance came when Kimpembe's arm was hit by the ball. I'm gonna pass discussing the decision more and I'll just stick by saying how happy I am for Rashford after the ice cold penalty kick he scored considering that in this kind of moments, moments of enormous pressure, even the greatest footballers are sometimes too affected, to the point they become unsure and miss the penalty.

PSG is no way a weak team and Tuchel couldn't really do much about what happened yesterday. The loss is not his fault. I put myself in his position and I can understand his frustration after seeing your team completely dominating the opposition, yet failing to qualify because of some big individual errors and an unlucky penalty conceded. He wanted his players to keep the ball as much as possible and create on the left side, penetrating United's weakest point, the right side of their defense to be more specific, which they did more than once. It wasn't their day.

I loved Thiago Silva's character more than anyone else's from PSG. Even when he was discussing with the ref after the VAR decision, he was quite elegant and not a complete douche like footballers usually are. Also, in the 97th minute or so, Marquinhos dived and begged for a penalty after jumping on Luke Shaw, but if you stop the image at the point where he was requesting the penalty, Silva knew it was all bullshit, nothing there and was just looking down to the grass in desperation and humility at the same time. He was involved in the first United goal, but overall he was rock solid and one bad game doesn't change the fact that he is a true leader and a terrific central back, even if the game costed his team the presence in the quarter finals of the "most prestigious" competition of club football.

People like to create stories and it's quite normal and natural. PSG are chokers, United has comeback pedigree etc. But none of that really mattered yesterday. It was just a strange night of football, with two well organized sides after which, one of sides was gloriously celebrating and the other one was mourning a dramatic defeat. People will keep saying PSG were trash because they choked and Man United as well because they were dominated by them, but in truth it's not really that simple. The footballers will go on and continue to be great professionals and I wouldn't be surprised to see PSG performing extremely well next season in the UCL. Not saying it will happen, but they have all the weapons necessary to put up a good fight.

Proud of Ole for being so relaxed, so happy, always living the moment, not being afraid to challenge even the best. I hope we'll recover some of the players until the quarter finals and I also hope Ole significantly improves our team, because good fortune won't be there every time when we'll need it. We must be able to control the games more, to create more, especially using the fullbacks and the wingers, which became an essential part of our attacking vision since Mourinho's departure. Also, all football players are human beings, they all train on the same grounds, they all have legs and muscles, regardless of the age. Of course, being very young can be a disadvantage and lining up a team with inexperienced youngsters can be troublesome, but the difference is not necessarily that big as people like to say between very hyped elite players and some very ambitious and well prepared young players, if they have the right staff behind them. There is a considerable difference, but it's not a huge and impossible to fill gap. Depends a lot on the situation. It's a lot about mentality and this is where United excelled yesterday.

Great post mate, as always. Perfectly summed up, everything. The most I am impressed with Ole so far is his humility and positivity, which is also reflecting big time on everyone at the club. Players are humble in victory, are ready to work hard and give everything. He didn’t say one negative thing in the lead up to the match, even despite the journalists peppering him with hard questions. Props for that.  

His approach to fully understand the situation we were in, and set us to not go toe to toe with them but to wait for the opportunity to strike was sensible in more ways than one. Firstly, playing like that, even if we lost the game, we wouldn’t have lost big. A massive defeat would have really dented the confidence of our young team for the rest of our season. Secondly, the ‘stay in the game till the 80th minute’ strategy was specifically designed for PSG. For all the quality PSG’s got, once the game reaches the end, he sensed their players would be become fragile, nightmares of Camp Nou would start to creep in. It was a brilliant ploy. Yes, it was reliant on luck. To hope we are ahead and be in a position to capitalize.

One thing tho, fk Thiago Silva. Have no sympathy for him. The man has mocked us in the past (don’t remember the context, but I remember vividly, him being arrogant and taking jibes at United). Yea, here he was class, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy his sufferings just like di maria’s. Only players I felt bad for were Mbappe and Veratti. Those 2 have to move on and fast from that club full of egotistical pricks.

Thank you, Glory! And you are as kind as always. I also agree with you about the humility and positivity Ole instilled in the team by being a solid example of such behavior and he was rewarded for being madly courageous to believe 100% in his players' abilities to overturn the odds in their favor. How can you not praise this man? He's done it again and again in the last weeks.

Now, just because we have the results, it doesn't mean the we are suddenly a force, a top class team, ready to win everything or anything. We are still a good team, with lots of trophies and an incredible history, which made heavy investments in the squad, but a team which suffered big time in the last 5 years when it came to the style of play, to resonating with a specific identity, a common belief, a set of principles to guide it towards the possibility of expressing beautiful, attractive and efficient football.

We're not ready for that yet. We still have a lot of problems to take care of and this is just another reason to think that what we achieved with OGS so far is outstanding. Last seasons, we bought expensive players, but more often than not, they were picked without considering how we could assemble a team with a clever game plan behind it and now we're paying for having a squad of players with bad chemistry and antithetic football skills. But, like I said in another post, let's see how things stand at the end of the season and if the team continues to improve at the same rate, I honestly believe we can be up there with the best teams in Europe in two or three years from now if we get rid of 4 or 5 players and start planning with our brains the next acquisitions. We've already started by not including Valencia in our plans for the next season and by letting go of Fellaini, while giving Andreas, Dalot and McTominay the opportunity to raise their game and gain some confidence.

We must be prepared to lose and to deal with it as best as we can. So far, Ole makes me think we'll manage to go through anything with him, but let's see what will happen next. We play at Emirates on Sunday and there are many important games to come which will gradually show more and more accurately how good is our new staff.

Thimmy wrote:

NigelSH wrote:Yes just my 6th post. Which means what exactly?

I'll let VAR decide.