2007 English Premier League

[Kiely]

For the most part I do agree that they had their wires crossed in the sense that half of the team wanted to play fast counter attacking football when they finally got possession, and the other half wanted to play containing penetrative football. VDS had his worst game in terms of kicking, when hes actually one of the best in the world for precision kicks. Plenty of goals scored for Ajax simply with a huge long ball out by him to a striker with great accuracy. (You can start to see him try these with Rooney now this season)
Though I don't feel its totally fair to blame Barcelona for ruining those chances because Rio Ferdinand did great in those situations, with Wes Browne also. They deserve credit in those situations, not discredit Barcelona and United both.

[Waedar]

Man Utd did well to throw bodies in front of the attacks, i mean Evra and Park more or less kept messi outside the box for his 60mins but everytime the central attack would hit the top of the box there would be 3 white shirts right in front and more coming from the sides

but back to topic of thread thoughts on the season ending? If chelsea win sat they are even point wise with man utd and each have 2 games left to play. if it comes to a victory at the brdige for chelsea i'm guessing man utd win the title at tied points due to the GD

[Faille]

As a liverpool fan I'm not holding much hope for the second leg. After all, we have such a poor record in must win games, and winning games away at big stadiums like stanford bridge, the nou camp, san siro, emerites almost never happen for us.

[Akileese]

And this could be where Man U blow the title race.

[Kiely]

Good game, but I have to say it's a bit boring of Man United to play defensive style these last 2 important games. I loved Chelsea's first goal, I knew also it would open things up and sure enough the 2nd goal probably came too early for United who again went defensive and Chelsea ran rampant after that.
Fair result for the neutral to be honest.

Chelsea can blow the title race as much as United also by just getting a hard time by Newcastle's bounce back towards form, but equally interesting is West ham who already has done some damage to United earlier on the season.

[Waedar]

Yes the tie to wigan last week makes this a bad last 2 games. hopefully wigan can do something to Utd but the hope lies in West Ham to stop em for Chelsea and as i mentioned earlier why did newcastle have to wait until now to start picking it up and getting into some form, heres to hoping they don't repeat last year and steal points at the end of the season again

[Szlia]

I think they are trying to win points, not steal points.

[Akileese]

It's so frustrating to look at the standings and know that mathematically, it's still a 3 team race for first. The bookies will give you about 50 million to 1 on those odds, but still annoying.

[Ranvier]

Man U will still win the title and it will be on point difference alone. SAF will give his players a talking to after this and if they don't wake the fuck up they won't win the title. There are still players in the Chelsea team who, regardless of where they may be next season, want to win it.

I think Wigan will get steamrolled by United. MAYBE West Ham will get a result like last year..but doubt it since the players they brought in are all old has-beens and are out injured anyway. Chelsea, re-energized, should beat Bolton. At the moment Newcastle are playing some great football (far more enjoyable than Chelsea too)...so they might knock off some points.

[Mimirswell]

Manchester United wins.

[Banal]

Pretty much exactly how the last game would have looked if Ronaldo had made the penalty.

[Akileese]

God help everyone if it's a Liverpool/man u final.

[Faille]

Originally Posted by Akileese

God help everyone if it's a Liverpool/man u final.

Lots of people will enjoy seeing Liverpool defeat Man U

[Mimirswell]

Originally Posted by Akileese

God help everyone if it's a Liverpool/man u final.

Originally Posted by Faille

Lots of people will enjoy seeing Liverpool defeat Man U

United much rather would face Liverpool than Chelsea. Chelsea have a much better record against United in the past 4 years (Liverpool has won once, lost six, drew the rest). Worse, Roman Abramovich has a great deal of influence (see assassination attempts on Ordzhonikidze*) in Moscow that could influence the game beyond skill on the field. Finally, Chelski is quite popular in Russia and the crowd could give Chelsea a level of support similar to a home game.

*At the time of the assassination attempt, Abramovich's oil company, Sibneft, had been in a ferocious battle with Moscow city authorities (Ordzhonikidze was Vice Mayor of Moscow) to seize control over the oil refinery that serves the lucrative Moscow market. After the second attempt on Ordzhonikidze, Moscow suddenly entered into a friendly agreement to give up some control over the refinery to Sibneft. This is just one of many illegal activities that has surrounded Abramovich. Rigging a football match is definitely a possibility given his connections to Solntsevskaya bratva.

[slitz]

Awesome game last night, though I can't help to cry a river for Barcelona 8)...
So much technical finesse getting ruined by brilliant tactical play.

First half was outstanding. Messi was in a class of his own and he was easily the man of the match. If Eto or Henry would even be close to their former self then I think we would have seen a different result.

It took one mistake from Barcelona to turn the game around, a game they totally had in their pockets the first 20 minutes (before the goal). Zambrotta did one mistake yesterday and Scholes punished him instantly.
A week ago, Man U did 3-4 of those mistakes but didn't get punished, I guess that was the big difference.

Ronaldo was pale as never before, but much due to Zambrotta doing a 100% game save for the mistake that won Man U the game. Park was imo outstanding however, his cross in the second half deserved a better faith.
Tevez ran and ran and ran and Carrick probably did his best game ever..
All in all, over two games it could have gone either way, I don't think Man U deserved the final spot more than Barca, or the other way around. But this time brilliant tactical play beat technical finesse.
This of course, is sad in one sense imo since I prefer "better looking" football.

If you didn't see the game, try at least see the first half which was simply outstanding.