sorry, you can understand I'm a bit rusty when it comes to CL talk, for obvious reasons 
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[CL] Champions League 2011/12 (83 Viewers)
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sorry, you can understand I'm a bit rusty when it comes to CL talk, for obvious reasons
of course there can't be any comparison between the two in terms of spending - not saying they should have beaten them but APOEL has done well, won actually, at home this year vs teams like Lyon and Porto ... even today they kept it goalless till the 75th min, even if the final result is flattering them, but it seems they didn't even try to do anything up front. Personally, expected better from them as they aren't that bad a team.
if he was as vital as you say, he wouldn't be on the bench in a game as important as this or any of the other number of games he sat on the bench even if Di Maria was out, which is the main reason he has played more this season.
He has improved significantly on his performances for Real from previous years but the bar was set rather low to begin with. Kaka is still an important player but will never be the player he was at Milan as he's aged now, put on weight (looks very diff from when he was 24-25yo) and that has hurt his speed, agility and ability to beat his man, which were/are focal points of his game.
He has improved significantly on his performances for Real from previous years but the bar was set rather low to begin with. Kaka is still an important player but will never be the player he was at Milan as he's aged now, put on weight (looks very diff from when he was 24-25yo) and that has hurt his speed, agility and ability to beat his man, which were/are focal points of his game.
Apoel, Benfica, Basel! So many ifs and buts.
Bayern are in the QF when they might not have been; Chelsea are most likely thru to the Semis when they should've been knocked out in the last 16, and Apoel are as good as gone (if only they'd played with less fear and trepidation)
Bayern vs Barcelona would be quite the final. Bayern playing at home against the most consistent and in-form team in Europe over the past 6-7 years. It's quite a shame when two teams from the same country contest the final; it greatly undervalues the competition.
Bayern are in the QF when they might not have been; Chelsea are most likely thru to the Semis when they should've been knocked out in the last 16, and Apoel are as good as gone (if only they'd played with less fear and trepidation)
Bayern vs Barcelona would be quite the final. Bayern playing at home against the most consistent and in-form team in Europe over the past 6-7 years. It's quite a shame when two teams from the same country contest the final; it greatly undervalues the competition.
Article on the 1994 CL final between Milan-Barça. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/mar/28/barcelona-milan-champions-league-1994 I'd hate to see Barcelona win this competition again, would prefer Mourinho.
"Barcelona are favourites," Cruyff said. "We're more complete, competitive and experienced than [in the 1992 final] at Wembley. Milan are nothing out of this world. They base their game on defence, we base ours on attack." To illustrate the point, Cruyff noted that while he had signed Romário, the Brazilian who had scored 30 in 33 games, Milan had spent the same on Marcel Desailly. "That," he said, "is telling." "Cruyff's words were inappropriate and really struck the team," Billy Costacurta recalled. "Had they not been, things might have been different."
On the morning of the match, the Catalan newspaper El Mundo Deportivo claimed that Barcelona were at their "sweetest moment", against "the poorest Milan of the Berlusconi era: Cruyff is a winner. [Fabio] Capello, by contrast, has not been up to the task internationally." Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard had gone. Milan were without two of their back four: Costacurta and Franco Baresi. "We weren't favourites," Paolo Maldini recalled. Barcelona knew that only too well.
Cruyff's team talk at Wembley had been: "Go out and enjoy yourselves". His team-talk in Athens was: "You're better than them, you're going to win." In 1992, he was hailed as a genius. In 1994, he was derided as a fool.
Milan smothered the Barcelona midfield. Desailly dominated, Demetrio Albertini created. Guardiola couldn't settle, Barcelona couldn't bring the ball out. Romário never saw it, nor did Hristo Stoichkov. "It was not that we played badly," Cruyff said afterwards, "it was that we did not play at all."
Milan scored twice in the first half, Daniele Massaro getting both. Two minutes into the second half Dejan Savicevic scored a glorious lob. "When the third went in, we knew it was over," the Barcelona goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta recalls. "That was the worst night of my career." It finished 4-0, the biggest margin in a Champions League final. So much for boring, defensive Milan. Massaro collected his medal in Stoichkov's shirt – the Bulgarian was his hero. It was Milan's fifth European Cup; Barcelona had one.
"Barcelona are favourites," Cruyff said. "We're more complete, competitive and experienced than [in the 1992 final] at Wembley. Milan are nothing out of this world. They base their game on defence, we base ours on attack." To illustrate the point, Cruyff noted that while he had signed Romário, the Brazilian who had scored 30 in 33 games, Milan had spent the same on Marcel Desailly. "That," he said, "is telling." "Cruyff's words were inappropriate and really struck the team," Billy Costacurta recalled. "Had they not been, things might have been different."
On the morning of the match, the Catalan newspaper El Mundo Deportivo claimed that Barcelona were at their "sweetest moment", against "the poorest Milan of the Berlusconi era: Cruyff is a winner. [Fabio] Capello, by contrast, has not been up to the task internationally." Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard had gone. Milan were without two of their back four: Costacurta and Franco Baresi. "We weren't favourites," Paolo Maldini recalled. Barcelona knew that only too well.
Cruyff's team talk at Wembley had been: "Go out and enjoy yourselves". His team-talk in Athens was: "You're better than them, you're going to win." In 1992, he was hailed as a genius. In 1994, he was derided as a fool.
Milan smothered the Barcelona midfield. Desailly dominated, Demetrio Albertini created. Guardiola couldn't settle, Barcelona couldn't bring the ball out. Romário never saw it, nor did Hristo Stoichkov. "It was not that we played badly," Cruyff said afterwards, "it was that we did not play at all."
Milan scored twice in the first half, Daniele Massaro getting both. Two minutes into the second half Dejan Savicevic scored a glorious lob. "When the third went in, we knew it was over," the Barcelona goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta recalls. "That was the worst night of my career." It finished 4-0, the biggest margin in a Champions League final. So much for boring, defensive Milan. Massaro collected his medal in Stoichkov's shirt – the Bulgarian was his hero. It was Milan's fifth European Cup; Barcelona had one.
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