Champions League 2009/2010

[samanosuke]

Messi is a special, special player, but at one point Gray even said that Barca wouldn't be able to cope if Messi wasn't playing, which is rubbish.

Judging by Gray's commentary in the first leg, Messi wasn't playing during that game

There's no way Barça are a one-man team. Arsenal were severely hampered by Fabregas's injury but on the same note Barça were without Iniesta. The difference is that Barcelona have two Fabregases, Xavi being the other, and this just goes to show how many truly world-class players they have in almost every position.

[samanosuke]

Never mind Sky's biased commentary, how about Dury last night? Just after Nani's goal he proclaimed "...and Nani scores! They are through to the semi-finals!"

[hudson]

Hang on, I've just checked on Sky Sports and it said Man Utd are out. Evil ITV commentator lies.

[abigsmurf]

Gotta laugh at all of the hyperbolic "IT'S THE END OF BRITISH FOOTBALL" type stories being hurriedly written by the media now.

[samanosuke]

Was there ever a beginning? Two CL winners in a decade is hardly dominance.

[EJG1980]

Indeed, nothing like a good knee jerk reaction to try and sell a few extra papers; far too much is read into the results of a single season.

In 2002 Italy didn't have any teams in the quarter-finals, let alone the semis, but a mere year later in 2003 they had three our of four semi-finalists and an all Italian final. Every country will have good and bad years, it's no big deal, but apparently nobody will buy newspapers unless every story is dosed up with sensationalism.

Was there ever a beginning? Two CL winners in a decade is hardly dominance.

Indeed, same as Italy and apparently they're crap now In terms of winning it was Spain's decade, four winners. But we did have five finalists in a row (and two winners) from 05-09 which is excellent. We'd be second behind Spain if you were rating who did best in the decade.

[C']

Never mind Sky's biased commentary, how about Dury last night? Just after Nani's goal he proclaimed "...and Nani scores! They are through to the semi-finals!"

There isn't a facepalm big enough to deomstrate how I felt when he uttered the words:

"Head over heels and heading to the semi-finals."

That was us pretty much ****ed from there on.

[abigsmurf]

In terms of bias it generally goes Five > ITV > Sky > BBC

Sky's is sometimes cringe worthy, Five's is comically OTT, listening to how worked up they get in the Liverpool games is amusing.

[hudson]

I like how it annoys you. Everyone loves Liverpool deep down. Nowt wrong in an English TV channel looking to see the English side progress against a non English side.

[abigsmurf]

Nothing especially wrong with it (except during premier league matches where bias is incredibly annoying) but it doesn't make it any less amusing.

The all time king of OTT pundits is Jonathan Pearce (although not really biased). When he did the commentary on Capital Gold, after someone scored it usually took about 30 seconds till he had quietened down enough to tell which side had scored.

Ah memories...

[EJG1980]

I forget what match it was, but I remember Peace going mental when Chris Armstrong scored a last minute winner for Crystal Palace in a cup match back in the mid 90's. He came very close to losing his voice.

[saturn-gamer]

So this is dead, eh?

Inter had a great display against Barcelona. The ref was somewhat questionable regarding the third goal and other decisions (although I didn't think Sneijder made contact with Alves), but Inter deserved it on the whole. Not Messi, but Sneijder man of the match. Maicon was really, really good too. I started to understand why Dunga prefers him instead of Alves.

Balotelli was arguing with the Nerazzurri supporters as usual

[Adrock]

Maicon is superb, amazing full back. I missed pretty much the whole game, left when it was 1-1.

Cambiasso is so good too, he has been one of the most reliable central midfielders in world football for a good while. I think that away goal could be very important to the result of the tie. Barca usually do very well at home.

[EJG1980]

It was a great match, excellent performance from Inter. Could have had a couple more with better finishing. Milito is my favourite Inter player, he's a superb forward. Looking forward to the second leg!

[saturn-gamer]

Milito failed miserably in the first half. Although his first run on Valdes was NOT offside.

Cambiasso, I think it was him, offered himself up to Messi? He did a great job.