₦airaland Forum

The season isn't over. . . .for all we know, Sunday might well turn things back in our favor again - not the way we would have wanted things to be but its a League and sometimes its results other than yours that wins or losses you the title.

All these have already been said, we've thrashed all these bases before, no use getting into any more long winding arguments. We need to buy and freshen up this squad - SAF failed to do so the last time, we only hope he does so at the close season now. But to say the man is a spent force, I beg to differ.

I'll keep my fingers crossed, I am positive that Newcastle can do us a massive favor!

Ah well, can't shout. Lets see if Newcastle can still provide another twist to this incredible finale!

usbcable: and you, obviously is full of hatred for his success.

Nope. . . but it certainly felt good seeing him humbled; shorn of the haughty demeanor and 'special one' garb - didn't realise he knew there was a power higher than him

Well, it seems Pep ain't the only one who's suffered such "brain touch"

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/the-rundown/sport-most-shocking-retirements-151856284.html

So sad to see Pep go - but seriously, the dude is a real weirdo - WTF!

Pep. . . .please upgrade jare and come take over the reins from SAF; hate to see Mourinho in charge at the OT, I go burn all my UTD jersey in protest!

4llerbuntu: nah, YOU BOTH need to spare us the BS. where in God's green earth does anyone look at a performance like C.ronaldo's and spew the bunkum u are both spewing?

beef na beef, agreed but when its illogical its dangerous to your mental faculties. i suppose he also choked at the el clasico on saturday? cos barring the goal he scored there, u really could not say he played everybody off the park so?

abeg abeg, esp starboard, dont go down this path, u earned urself some respect on this board, dont throw it away saying things like this. FFS, penalty shootout at the CL semi's ?
by your estimation i'd like you to list 3 A class marquee players who are guaranteed not to miss a pen in these conditions? did u even see drogba at the nations cup?

fact is i blame whoever selected the pen takers. you can always bank on marquee players to miss their pens in those type of situations


BTW if thats choking, messi must be dead and buried then abi?

No excuses. . . all i have been hearing this past week is Messi bleeped up when it mattered ~ so am just applying the same analogy.

Iniesta has achieved cult hero status in Spain due to the fact that he scored the WC winner - if Spain had lost, would anyone remember any of them today!? super-flop torres' goal is being dubbed the "#50m goal" - what am I trying to say, in football, NOBODY GIVES A HOOT ABOUT A GOAL IF IT ISN'T THE GOAL THAT GUARANTEES THE DESIRED RESULT!

Tuesday night, I saw Messi play to the best of his ability - drop deep into midfield to pick up balls and setup team-mates, hit the post twice and even had an assist to his name. . . .yet the general conclusion was, he bleeped up, which is accepted, no arguments!

Wednesday night, CR7 scores twice in 15mins - Bayern's lone goal ensured that was irrelevant - for 105mins after that, the young man was hardly seen (or maybe it was just my eyes playing tricks on me). . . .come PKs and he fluffs it from the spot, the first kick for his team, making that brace all the more insignificant. Pray, how am I not supposed to term him a choker!!? Serial one at that seeing that he freezes like a deer caught in a hunter's headlights whenever the really 'big' moments are at hand!

The result means that Heynckes, fired by Madrid after winning the Champions League in 1998, now has the chance to join Mourinho, Ernst Happel and Ottmar Hitzfeld in becoming only the fourth man to win the European Cup with two separate clubs.

For real

coogar: conveniently forgetting ronaldo's first goal in the match was a penalty!
how much pressure was he on to score the first goal of the game?

None! That's why he scored. . . . but when the heat was cranked up ~ what happened!!!?

By the way. . . did anyone see the look on JM's face - absolutely priceless

coogar: lahm missed after ronaldo fluffed his lines.
it was ronaldo's brace that got real madrid into extra time in the first place
and you are saying he choked?

how many goals did messi score in the semis?
the decision makers of la liga would rue their decision for
fixing el clasico between 2 legs of the champions league.

el clasico took it's toll on the spanish sides.

who frigging cares if christy-essien scores 10 goals in the semis what good were the goals and where was he when they needed him to score from the spot!?
Bottom line, at the end of the night, he contributed no more than Messi who didn't score; so spare us the BS jare

coogar: cristiano ronaldo!

2 goals scored in the semi-final tie against bayern.
messi scored a total of 0 goals in the semis.

Messi could afford to score -3 (negative three) goals on tuesday and still finish ahead of Christy-Essien

See 19yr old Alaba schooling the gay on how to play penal under pressure. . . .useless ta'rado

Christiano who

Since we cannot have an El Clasico final anymore, might as well serve us with some good ol' fiesty England v Germany contest!

Pep's selection and changes certainly didn't do the tie any favors. . .at the weekend he kept Tello on for far too long, yesterday he started with Cuenca, then opted for Tello ahead of a Pedro or even Thiago who would have been much more troublesome to the Chelsea backline and that Keita change was just unbelievable - they were never going to go route-one, it was absolutely un-necessary.

chic2pimp: Typical Knee Jerk Reaction. Loosing one game is not the end of the world.
You've just won three La Liga titles on the bounce and two of the last 3 champions league titles. A dip in your trophy cabinet is inevitable. It was always bound to happen. OR did you really expect to keep winning every La Liga and CL in sight?

Anyways you've already said it yourself. A lil bit of variety in terms of playing style is essential. Most especially against teams whose sole aim to park the bus and hit on the fast break. Do that and you'll b back winning more trophies

I concur. . . Barcelona didn't do much wrong over the two legs - it just wasn't to be. The team needs a bit of reinforcement, but to change the style of play, I'd oppose that. Their dominance and success over the years is testament to how potent this their tradition is and ultimately, they'll lose a handful of battles here and there but in the end they'll always be victorious - because after all is said and done, love 'em or hate 'em, we all love to see football played the way they play it!

usbcable: tough but they still conceded a goal.
so they are very beatable.

What you should be particularly worried about is that the only times (and I can only vividly recall two such occasions) Real seriously breached Bayern's backline and threatened Neuer's goal, was when they were caught on the break and were very light at back - three vs three / three vs four situations - otherwise, for most of the game, they quite comfortably contained Real's attack while posing some danger themselves.

Tricky bit is, in a weeks time, they have more than enough incentive to sit back and defend in numbers - the onus is on JM's side - can they breach a fully-packed Bayern defence!!? Can they risk throwing all caution to the wind and going at it full throttle!?

I have a feeling Real Madrid have one foot out of this UCL already!

Toni Kroos was quite impressive in that midfield role. . .for me, he was MOTM!

I think we could see from JM's reaction, he wouldn't have wanted to go into the second leg chasing the tie. . . one thing is certain, Bayern can score at the Bernabeu - Real just have to try and outscore, keeping a clean sheet is out of the question, but with the kind of defence the Germans put up, it is going to be very tough.

AjanleKoko: WOW.

*Keeping fingers crossed, and daring to hope *

If Madrid actually go on to lose La Liga by dropping points against other teams, that would be poetic justice. Their 10-point lead was as a result of Barca dropping points against other teams as well

Its a league man. . .the champs eventually get an inadvertent helping hand from other teams - no two ways about it!

In truth, I think any "honest" fan would have sensed the possibility of that lead being cut down. . .going into the last stretch of matches Real Madrid have the stronger fixtures, Barcelona have already played most of theirs. Crucially though, for all the attacking prowess Madrid possess, they clearly lack a reliable defensive spine - and like the commentators last night pointed out, they have now resorted to or rather, depend on outscoring the opposition they play for wins, little no effort to control the game. Reminds of one of the fantastic attacking Brazillian sides of the 70's coached by Zagallo (*I am not very sure*) who was quoted as saying "if they score four, we'll score ten." or something close to that - while its not a bad approach but some days the goals just won't come or the opposition will score more than they can recoup.

Anyhow, there is still much to play for. . .and its still Real Madrid's title to lose!

medjai: Game on

As for Pepe, he's a disgrace to the sport. That guy is just a loony. . . Kicking your own teammate? That's just crazy.

the guy dey mara

usbcable: he has 8 goals in ucl. and one penalty yet you say he hardly scores.
leo has 14 and 4 penalties.

una no shout ooooooo say penalty contribute to hin tally.

14 - 4 = 10
8 - 1 = 7

Thats the total number of goals in open play. . .so who dey pass who minus!!?

Its going to be very interesting if Valencia can bring their A-game to the table tonight. . .be interesting to see how Madrid cope with the pressure; the reaction in the Villareal game was utterly shambolic, didn't even try to keep their cool at all!

No I won't attend his church even if he forecasts an incredibly awesome happening in my life. I think such followership is 'cosmetic' because it is not guided by knowledge of the principles on which the institution is established.

What would take to write a small GIS programme. . .? Speaking in terms of programming language/technology to use, materials needed and just about any other input you can add!

StarBoard: @Ajanlekoko,
Kudos should be given the ref for being brave enough to make that call.
Shirt pulling is against the law and it has to be stamped out,but most refs tend to over-look it for reasons best know to them.
To me,if it is a foul,it should be given,and if there are twenty penalties against the same side,twenty penalties should be given.
A lot of ignorant folks are screaming ref, but I say Milan were so negative to the point of pissing me off.
That game would be played 15 times and Barca would win 20 times.

I couldn't agree with you less. . .

@ Topic/OP.

Nothing to it. . .the sheer number of people that indulge in it is enough proof to the fact that it is borne more out of habit than anything else. By my reckoning, you are potentially insinuating that 70-80% of Nigerian car users/owners are show-offs; I beg to differ, strongly!

This Italians need to know that they have to tone down on their "roughness" when they play outside that their agbero ligue!

FCB just too good for ACM. . . .simples!

Sugardiva: *dancing etighi*

Hmmmm. I take it you are either cross-riverian, malabress or spend a lot of time in and around Cali. . . .!?

pweetymama: my bros i wonder o.that's why white men tag us as lazy pple dat cannot read.bt cm to tink of it "why r nigerians so lazy wen it comes to books?".an indian man i used to work for always sent same proposal nd changed jst d figures to same company for 10yrs nd wen i asked him why he said nigerians dnt read nd they just look at figures nd endorse.seriously,that's pathetic

I read the whole thing. . . .and I guess why most people won't read beyond the first two lines is that the story is very predictable and utterly over-used.

Nice try by the author though. Imagery, conversations and scenerios were conveyed quite brilliantly.

musKeeto: And where are we today? LMAO...

Still a five point gap. . . .in reverse ;d