[SeantheMan]

Originally Posted by Davaeo09

I have a question for all you Barca fans (and other people in this thread)
Why has Pedro been so poor the past month (ish)??
He hasn't been making the runs or passes he normally would!

Is he tired?

He scored a whopper goal there the week before last against Mallorca ! People always have a bad patch for a few weeks, Messi wasn't playing the greatest in the last 2-3 either.
Also, Barca were set to Peak at Nov/Xmas I think ,so this would be their cooling down period. It's hard to explain , but it's to do with their training regime, they had a big thing about it on Revista not too long ago, also Pep has been a lot more consistent this year with his starting 11 which could be a factor.
I'd have Pedro 2nd only to Dani Alves in terms of workrate for the team

But he is still playing amazingly well, I just think because you/everyone expects such high standards of Barca now, that if one of the forwards doesn't score in 1-3 games it can be considered a bad patch.

[YayaBanana]

Was away from home last night watching the match so haven't read any of the threads about the game.

My 2 cents would be that Barca deserve there place in the next round. Fair play to Arsenal for sticking to there plan at the Emirates and they went into last nights game with the right attitude i believe, but as we seen barca for most of the 1st half had about 65% possession, there is very little you can do against that. For the goal Iniesta was up to his usual tricks, great feet and then the most perfected of chipped passes to Messi, at first viewing i thought he messed up his first shot but the angle behind the goal clearly shows he meant to scoop the ball over Almunia, unbelievable stuff from him as usual.

Busquets was poor for the og, i think he might not have even seen the ball as he was behind 2 Barca players iirc so was slightly unlucky, but he didn't look convincing at all going for the ball.

Van Persie's red car was a disgrace, no doubt about it, the referee should not be aloud ref in the CL again. On Sky they said the time between the whistle and RVP kicking the ball was 1 second, 1 SECOND! a player should always play the whistle and keep going until he is sure, i believe it would not have been easy for him to hear the whistle in front of 98000 screaming fans... Plus for all RVP knew the whictle could have come from Pinto Arsenals plans were ruined from then on, they managed to take the ball off Barca a few times and they would get to the half-way line, look up, nobody up there, give the ball back to Barca and defend again, they were never going to last 30 minutes doing that against Barca.

The other 2 goals for Barca were pretty routine and Messi and Villa could easily on another day have scored hat-tricks, Almunia did brilliantly to keep the score so low. And even after all that if Bendtner wasn't so useless he could and should have won it for Arsenal at the end.

Overall Barca did deserve it, i love Arsenal and how they play but i am delighted to see Barca through. Imo the only of the 2 teams really capable of winning the CL was Barca dn thats why i was hoping they would win.

Best of luck to Arsenal in the PL and i hope that this will serve as a blessing in disguise to give them a clearer run in to beat United to the PL Title.

[AgileMyth]

Originally Posted by Mark!

Van Persie's red car was a disgrace, no doubt about it, the referee should not be aloud ref in the CL again.

Ah come on. If you only allowed refs one mistake we'd have none left at all.

[YayaBanana]

Originally Posted by AgileMyth

Ah come on. If you only allowed refs one mistake we'd have none left at all.

He had a few more, Messi tripped at the edge of the box and Koscielny not getting a 2nd yellow when he gave away the penalty spring to mind. I agree refs deserve a bit of a chance, they can't get everything right but the RVP incident all he needed to do was use common sense.

[redout]

Originally Posted by Mark!

Was away from home last night watching the match so haven't read any of the threads about the game.

Dont bother. Its a train wreck.

[redout]

Visca Barça

[cson]

Good [if a little tough to look at!] photo's redout, one thing that struck me - how bad was Almunia for the penalty, well placed by Messi but I think Big Al shat himself on Messi's run up

[gimmick]

http://www.diveraguilar.com/

Website of Barcas official photographer.

[everdead.ie]

The president of a French village team submitted a formal request to sign messi on a "well oiled" evening he has been suspended for 6 months after two disciplinary hearings, the club is FC Borne.

[gimmick]

Possible opponents for the quarter finals

Shakhtar
Spurs
Schalke
Lyon/Real
Marseille/Manyoo
Chelsea/Copenhagen
Bayern/Inter

The ones to really avoid are Real, Manyoo and Chelsea (assuming all 3 progress, which they really should) and would prefer not have to play Shakhtar. Dirty long travel.

Spurs is another I would hate to see Barca get, so by process of elimination, I hope it is either Bayern or Schalke.

Hopefully Real get Manyoo or Chelsea should they progress.

[Sgt Pepper 64]

Originally Posted by gimmick

Possible opponents for the quarter finals

Shakhtar
Spurs
Schalke
Lyon/Real
Marseille/Manyoo
Chelsea/Copenhagen
Bayern/Inter

The ones to really avoid are Real, Manyoo and Chelsea (assuming all 3 progress, which they really should) and would prefer not have to play Shakhtar. Dirty long travel.

Spurs is another I would hate to see Barca get, so by process of elimination, I hope it is either Bayern or Schalke.

Hopefully Real get Manyoo or Chelsea should they progress.

Why would you want to avoid Real, Man and Chelsea?
I would have thought you werent afraid of anybody.
Well, except Chelsea of course.

[Davaeo09]

To be honest out of the list

Shakhtar
Spurs
Schalke
Lyon/Real
Marseille/Manyoo
Chelsea/Copenhagen
Bayern/Inter

I'd prefer if Barca got the winner of the Manyoo and Merseille game. I reckon if Barca were to be given Bayern the pace of Ribery and Robben down the flanks will probably cause us some problems.

[gimmick]

Originally Posted by Sgt Pepper 64

Why would you want to avoid Real, Man and Chelsea?
I would have thought you werent afraid of anybody.
Well, except Chelsea of course.

I am sure Pep and co will not be, but I want Barca to get the easiest route possible.

[#15]

Originally Posted by Sgt Pepper 64

Why would you want to avoid Real, Man and Chelsea?
I would have thought you werent afraid of anybody.
Well, except Chelsea of course.

I don't think Barca will be afraid of anyone. They will be overwhelming favourites against anyone.

But Real, Utd and Chelsea are probably the most awkward match-ups for Barca though.
Utd and Chelsea would park the bus and they would frustrate Barca IMO.

Real is a derby, they have immense talent and they have the Mourinho factor. The November game was a bit of an aberration IMO, over two legs I think Real would keep the tie relatively close.

[dfx-]

Originally Posted by Davaeo09

Shakhtar
Spurs
Schalke
Lyon/Real
Marseille/Manyoo
Chelsea
Bayern

I'd be 50/50 on Schalke as I think they're the year's dangerous underdogs along with Shakhtar..

Marseille or Spurs ideally, maybe Chelsea. I saw nothing to fear from Spurs in the games against Milan, especially last night when they had something to hold onto.