We have a tough match tonight. It's very different from last year. Last year, Arsenal had to get a result at the Nou Camp to progress. This time, Arsenal can afford to lose & still progress (3-2, 4-3, etc).

I hope Pep goes with Milito in CB and not Busquests.

Here's what we need to do to progress:

1. Messi has to dribble. His dribbling was out of sorts in the 1st leg. He really needs to do it well this time. Arsenal doesn't have the best defenders and if Messi shows up for this game, they will either foul him or allow him to run in.

2. We have to be clinical in front of goal. We will always create chances, even against teams like Inter. The key thing is to take our chances and not be wasteful, as we were in the 1st leg. MVP must take their chances tonight.

3. The LB must not attack. Arsenal know that our wing backs always attack and exploited it in the 1st leg. With MVP + IX, we don't need both wing backs attacking, especially with a makeshift CB pairing. I hope it's Adriano, but I know Pep will use Maxwell.

4. Busquests (or Masch, if Busquests plays CB) must cover Alves' wing when we lose the ball - Arsenal will try to exploit his wing with the dangerous Nasri.

5. Messi must play on the right. This way, he can take out Clichy time & time again and also pull either a CB or the DMF out of position.

6. We must not overplay at the back. Once there are attackers closing in, our defenders should go for the long ball. Arsenal will try to disrupt our play by defending from the front, but we can use this against them by using the long ball (not our usul tactic, but it worked pretty well against Espanyol).

7. We must attack speedily. Arsenal does not have a good defence, but if we over-elaborate and allow their defenders settle down, it will be difficult for us to break through (as happened in the 1st leg).

8. We must take advantage of set-pieces. We are one of the worst users of corner-kicks. Our opponents are always happy to concede corners against us cos we almost always go for the short pass. Even though our best headers are unavailable (Puyol, Pique), we can still be more creative with cornerkicks.

9. We must defend corner kicks well. With Bendtner & Chamakh likely to play, Arsenal will have some aerial threat. We don't defend corner-kicks with 2 men on the line (we're the only team I know that doesn't do that). We need to do it today.

10. The Camp Nou crowd have to be more vociferous than the Emirates crowd were during the 1st leg.

Finally, Pep must psyche the guys up psychologically for this match. We need 3 clear goals to be comfortable. Therefore:

A. No showboating when we take the lead. We must take no prisoners tonight.

B. We must be calm at 0-0, if Arsenal take the lead, or Arsenal equalize after we take the lead.

C. No silly subs from Pep.

My prediction/prayer: Barcelona 3-1 Arsenal

I can only say a loud 'AMEN' to that, Stealthy. I sincerely need us to progress by God's grace.

I smell fear also in our camp. Its normal and natural.

Amidst all these fears and shaky predictions, this is a game that might
just end up like some 5 or 6 goals to NIL. Barca are full of surprises.

@Uscable or what is that your name again na wah for you oh, Una no sabi welcome HATERS for una thread, Omo Arsenal ni mi Oh. SWAGA!! OSEI!!! FIMILE joor.

Hahahaha, seriously it was eyo that brought me to this ur fake Barca thread, hahaha!! And just like other GUNNERS out there, we put our money where our mouth is, Logically barca are the favourites, but its a cup game dude, anythinh can happen, If we can do it against Madrid(when them still be madrid , carlos,zidane,raul and co) Juventus, Ac mian with kaka then, so who una be wey we no fit be,


For me and my boys, we will still be sipping Champagne and munching em Barbecue watever happens at the end of the Game,

Arsenal's Finest Speaking, No lele bros, we are not shaking.

In truth, it all depends on the Barca side that shows up on the pitch tonight - just a little pinch of that same kind of determination they showed in the El-Classico; where they seriously came out with intent to make the Special 1 look stupid. . . . .this one will be over as a contest very early indeed!

Y'all should be worried about the game against the mighty SEVILLA next week

RuuDie:

Y'all should be worried about the game against the mighty SEVILLA next week

Mschew na today we dey flog them tonight's game is all that matters , ARSENAL FC welcome to camp nou the home of spirits , the home of falling champions .I want to see what that chicken legged wilshere can do when 90,000 fans are screaming like wild lost drunk ghosts . Truly it is the fans that will see us through tonight , no referee will ever want to commit a blunder in the face of 90,000 crazy fans . Welcome to your graveyard Oh Arsenal , welcome to your death , welcome to CAMP NOU !! , Visca el barca , Forza Barca !!

Wish I could fast forward time. . . My two cents for tonights game:
My preferred CB pairing would be Abidal and Milito. They're our most experienced pair after Pique and Puyol. After the Valencia game, I doubt Pep would ever play Busi as CB. Asides the fact that Busi's poor as CB, the truth is we've often struggled when he doesn't play in midfield. Against Valencia, it wasn't until Pep pulled out Masch and put Busi in midfield that we started to make a headway in the game. Before then, Banega and Tino Costa had entirely drowned our midfield. Against Levante, it was the same story. We won 2-1 but we were unconvincing. It was also the same against Bilbao and Zaragoza.
Busi is much better on the ball than Masch and in a game like this where we are going gungho on Arsenal, Busi has got to be in the middle and orchestrate play from deep.

medjai:

Wish I could fast forward time. . . My two cents for tonights game:
My preferred CB pairing would be Abidal and Milito. They're our most experienced pair after Pique and Puyol. After the Valencia game, I doubt Pep would ever play Busi as CB. Asides the fact that Busi's poor as CB, the truth is we've often struggled when he doesn't play in midfield. Against Valencia, it wasn't until Pep pulled out Masch and put Busi in midfield that we started to make a headway in the game. Before then, Banega and Tino Costa had entirely drowned our midfield. Against Levante, it was the same story. We won 2-1 but we were unconvincing. It was also the same against Bilbao and Zaragoza.
Busi is much better on the ball than Masch and in a game like this where we are going gungho on Arsenal, Busi has got to be in the middle and orchestrate play from deep.

Ironic that most barca fan sites like Totalbarca rated Masch as man of the Zaragoza match!
Anyway let's see. Let Pep go and do like last year when he played Ibra in both legs against Inter.
Once I see the lineup we'll know how the game will go.

I wish you all goodluck.i am positive we will go through.

forza Barca.

By God's grace, we 'll win and progress to the Quater final. Amen!

We Spartans go for the kill tonight. Barca!!

without a SONG, I feel bad . . .

but I got me a JACK, an ARSHA, and a VP . . .

Prince Nas would come armoured with enuff shekpe . .

the game is footie, the army is the red and white's . . .

we rule, we we'll win, we have done it before . . .WE WILL DO IT AGAIN . . .

R.APE EM! BOMB 'EM, MASSACRE 'EM !!!

YES WE SHALL!!!

See y'all by 11pm.

Stealthy:

We have a tough match tonight. It's very different from last year. Last year, Arsenal had to get a result at the Nou Camp to progress. This time, Arsenal can afford to lose & still progress (3-2, 4-3, etc).

I hope Pep goes with Milito in CB and not Busquests.

Here's what we need to do to progress:

1. Messi has to dribble. His dribbling was out of sorts in the 1st leg. He really needs to do it well this time. [b]Arsenal doesn't have the best defenders and if Messi shows up for this game, they will either foul him or allow him to run in.[/b]2. We have to be clinical in front of goal. We will always create chances, even against teams like Inter. The key thing is to take our chances and not be wasteful, as we were in the 1st leg. MVP must take their chances tonight.

3. The LB must not attack. Arsenal know that our wing backs always attack and exploited it in the 1st leg. With MVP + IX, we don't need both wing backs attacking, especially with a makeshift CB pairing. I hope it's Adriano, but I know Pep will use Maxwell.

4. Busquests (or Masch, if Busquests plays CB) must cover Alves' wing when we lose the ball - Arsenal will try to exploit his wing with the dangerous Nasri.

5. Messi must play on the right. This way, he can take out Clichy time & time again and also pull either a CB or the DMF out of position.

6. We must not overplay at the back. Once there are attackers closing in, our defenders should go for the long ball. Arsenal will try to disrupt our play by defending from the front, but we can use this against them by using the long ball (not our usul tactic, but it worked pretty well against Espanyol).

7. We must attack speedily. Arsenal does not have a good defence, but if we over-elaborate and allow their defenders settle down, it will be difficult for us to break through (as happened in the 1st leg).

8. We must take advantage of set-pieces. We are one of the worst users of corner-kicks. Our opponents are always happy to concede corners against us cos we almost always go for the short pass. Even though our best headers are unavailable (Puyol, Pique), we can still be more creative with cornerkicks.

9. We must defend corner kicks well. With Bendtner & Chamakh likely to play, Arsenal will have some aerial threat. We don't defend corner-kicks with 2 men on the line (we're the only team I know that doesn't do that). We need to do it today.

10. The Camp Nou crowd have to be more vociferous than the Emirates crowd were during the 1st leg.

Finally, Pep must psyche the guys up psychologically for this match. We need 3 clear goals to be comfortable. Therefore:

A. No showboating when we take the lead. We must take no prisoners tonight.

B. We must be calm at 0-0, if Arsenal take the lead, or Arsenal equalize after we take the lead.

C. No silly subs from Pep.

My prediction/prayer: Barcelona 3-1 Arsenal

my guy, what kind of cocaine-laced igbo derivative are you on ?? the arsenal defence that has kept seven clean sheets since the beginning of the year (would have been eight if not for that freak result at newcastle - the kind of result you wont see once in ten years), not to talk of restricting your almighty attack to just one goal - something real madrid couldn't manage. U call that a bad defence? koscielny that was al over messi in the forst leg? U don fall my hand today - just mhope your team doesnt do the same tonite

Busquet playing in the defense? oh Lord have mercy, what happened to Millito?

Mash is not and never my kinda player.

Anyways Barca don't disappoint me oo.

Extra Terrestial Messi

I expect Arsenal to come out now. Pep should just tell Busi and Abidal to stay ultra defensive. Adriano and Alves caution your runs up front. We shouldn't sit back though; attack, attack, attack, matter of fact.

howz it gunning?

^^ going great, I tell ya

shame nor catch you?

^^for why

Hi Cules,

Anyone feeln ‎​d̶̲̥̅̊ tension?? Why cant our lads wrap up this match by thumping in a 4th and possibly a Manita.

I am scandalised by ‎​d̶̲̥̅̊ chances after chances that we are missing, see what 2 chances that Ibrahim has missed in adition to ‎​d̶̲̥̅̊ others.
Even if RVP is still on ‎​d̶̲̥̅̊ pitch,what could he have done, 85 minutes and not even one attempt @ goal??

Where is that rap!st hanniemal that lykes violating little male children,doesnt he have anything to say?

congrats my fellow cules. . . We the best!
We were so dominant, Arsenal had no shot on target I still don't know how this wasn't a manita

Messi now has 8 goals in CL. He's currently the highest goal scorer.

Eddiebomba - I told you Arsenal defenders aren't great. Kolcieny was owned many times.

Where's mukina2 and all those Arsenal fans who forgot that this is a 2-legged tie? All celebrating a 2-1 home win in UCl like they'd won the trophy.

Hannie, my comprehensive analysis comes up soon. Nice to have you on this thread,

won ni wipe e ti san owo fun ref yen ni o but imo, the better team won. gotta admit it.

^^ whatchu expect, gaynners are inately skilled in the art of excuse making. Pre van Persie sending off, they had no shot on target, post sending off, na the same thing. Abeg, make we forget BS. . .

This was a flawless performance. Well, nearly, save for Busi's mistake. If it hadn't been for Almunia, it would have been a cricket scoreline.

I was spot-on on the scoreline! Stealthy is Pep's new technical adviser. Lol!

Ok, here's my analysis:

We were truly dominant in this match and allowed our quality to show.

Pep took a gamble by playing Busquests in CB - once again, Busi cost us a goal in that position. But in fairness, he was decent other than the og.

Mascherano was excellent in the DMF role and saved us when Bendtner was almost clean thro.

Adriano was very good at LB (as I expected) but he made the wrong decision too often. Abidal is our best LB by some distance.

Talking about Abidal - he was our best defender once again. Is the guy getting older or younger? I don't recall him being this mobile in the past.

Xavi and Iniesta did their usual damage. They were both dropping very deep early on, but they had to do that for us to maintain possession which we did excellently. They both went into their dangerous moods as the match progressed.

Dani's runs were impressive. Arsenal had absolutely no answer to him, other than Nasri tracking back, which was good for us - less pressure on our defence.

Messi, oh Messi. The boy started in slow motion, but warmed up as the game went on. Arsenal must hate to see his name. 4 goals last year, 2 today. His 1st goal was supreme confidence. And he didn't allow the pressure to get to him for the PK.

Villa & Pedro weren't as sharp as they could be (tired from playing on Sat). They both could have done more.

Afellay had a few good minutes and it's good to see him make a cameo in this one.

Valdes had a quiet game. Arsenal offered really little in attack. They say we're Messi-dependent, but they sure are Fab-dependent. The guy was obviously not fit, but Wenger had to play him. He gave a great assist for our 1st goal! I wonder whether this will make him want to come to Barca the more or not. I still think we don't need him and should spend our money to bolster our defence, give Dani an improved contract, buy a sub for Villa & pay back the loans.

I know Arsenal fans will hold on to the red card as the turning point. However, who can deny that Arsenal deserved at least one red card in this match? Van Persie should have gone in the 1st half for his push on Dani. Kolcieny was also fouling persistently. Some refs would have given him a yellow card for the PK foul on Pedro. Finally, there was the foul by Djourou on Messi in the 1st half which should have been a PK. All in all, the referring was about ok.

Overall, we were VERY wasteful in front of goal and a better team would have punished us. Our strikers need to be more clinical (like Xavi  ). A better team would have punished us on the counter.

This match is a real morale booster for us and I'm now confident we can win it all.

This match was especially heart-warming because Arsenal fans are some of the most boastful around. See the kinda comments hey were making here after the 1st leg. I don't usually do the fan wars, but men, these guys nearly brought me into the cat-fight.

I'm too excited to even sleep early!

I sure do need to re-watch this match.

Although I must confess, ‎​the red card looks suspicious and soft but one would expect a quality player of RVP' stature to recognise that he is the life blood of ‎​the ass-anal strike force and should not act like a teenager since he is already in ‎​the book,meanwhile same anal fans were jubilating when Shelsi got same soft-like penalty against Malu utd which handed ‎​d̶̲̥̅̊ Blues victory(yet they couldnt claw back the points against Sunderland). Footie game has a way of getting back @ underserving teams.

How would it have sounded that with no goal attempts @ our door post and yet,they qualified? I would have been gutted for the rest of the week.

I hope all these fanatics will @ least acknowledge one thing, arsenal doesnt have ‎​the guts and all it takes to clinch a trophy, imagine ‎the siege in their goal mouth right from ‎​the 1st half,if not for Biscuits goal, like Medjai said, its suprising why this didnt end up as a mainta game as usual. They are simply allergic to trophies like someone earlier pointed out( 6 yrs and counting)

They should get ready to face a bruised and wounded malu utd in d FA cup, their season as always is gone. Same ol' story.

Did anyone observe that Cesc will give anything to wear The Blaugrana shirt again? He has proved his desire again with the gift. Come home lad, we welcome back the prodigal one.

We are Barcelona

medjai:

Messi now has 8 goals in CL. He's currently the highest goal scorer.

medjai:

^^ whatchu expect, gaynners are inately skilled in the art of excuse making. Pre van Persie sending off, they had no shot on target, post sending off, na the same thing. Abeg, make we forget BS. . .

This was a flawless performance. Well, nearly, save for Busi's mistake. If it hadn't been for Almunia, it would have been a cricket scoreline.

True talk man. We were very dominant.

Messi will win the ballon dor again at this rate.

More post-match analysis before I go and gloat on the Arsenal thread. Lol!

Stealthy:

We have a tough match tonight. It's very different from last year. Last year, Arsenal had to get a result at the Nou Camp to progress. This time, Arsenal can afford to lose & still progress (3-2, 4-3, etc).

I hope Pep goes with Milito in CB and not Busquests.

Here's what we need to do to progress:

1. Messi has to dribble. His dribbling was out of sorts in the 1st leg. He really needs to do it well this time. Arsenal doesn't have the best defenders and if Messi shows up for this game, they will either foul him or allow him to run in.

2. We have to be clinical in front of goal. We will always create chances, even against teams like Inter. The key thing is to take our chances and not be wasteful, as we were in the 1st leg. MVP must take their chances tonight.

3. The LB must not attack. Arsenal know that our wing backs always attack and exploited it in the 1st leg. With MVP + IX, we don't need both wing backs attacking, especially with a makeshift CB pairing. I hope it's Adriano, but I know Pep will use Maxwell.

4. Busquests (or Masch, if Busquests plays CB) must cover Alves' wing when we lose the ball - Arsenal will try to exploit his wing with the dangerous Nasri.

5. Messi must play on the right. This way, he can take out Clichy time & time again and also pull either a CB or the DMF out of position.

6. We must not overplay at the back. Once there are attackers closing in, our defenders should go for the long ball. Arsenal will try to disrupt our play by defending from the front, but we can use this against them by using the long ball (not our usul tactic, but it worked pretty well against Espanyol).

7. We must attack speedily. Arsenal does not have a good defence, but if we over-elaborate and allow their defenders settle down, it will be difficult for us to break through (as happened in the 1st leg).

8. We must take advantage of set-pieces. We are one of the worst users of corner-kicks. Our opponents are always happy to concede corners against us cos we almost always go for the short pass. Even though our best headers are unavailable (Puyol, Pique), we can still be more creative with cornerkicks.

9. We must defend corner kicks well. With Bendtner & Chamakh likely to play, Arsenal will have some aerial threat. We don't defend corner-kicks with 2 men on the line (we're the only team I know that doesn't do that). We need to do it today.

10. T[b]he Camp Nou crowd have to be more vociferous than the Emirates crowd were during the 1st leg.[/b]

Finally, Pep must psyche the guys up psychologically for this match. We need 3 clear goals to be comfortable. Therefore:

A. No showboating when we take the lead. We must take no prisoners tonight.

B. We must be calm at 0-0, if Arsenal take the lead, or Arsenal equalize after we take the lead.

C. No silly subs from Pep.

My prediction/prayer: Barcelona 3-1 Arsenal