GWT: Champions League Final | June 10, 2023 | Istanbul | Manchester City-Inter Milan

[Evilo]

How can you post with a straight face without watching the game? I’m I to assume we can substitute watching games with the holy oracle of XG? If so this would save me a lot of time.

Read my post again. Highlights are here for everyone to see.
You don't need to make up stuff.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Read my post again. Highlights are here for everyone to see.
You don't need to make up stuff.

What exactly did I make up?

Highlights and XG noted… guess only PSG ultras know more when watching.

 

[Evilo]

What exactly did I make up?

Highlights and XG noted… guess only PSG ultras know more when watching.

That they should have won 3-0 perhaps? When both highlights and stats show City was simply lucky to win in 90 mn?
PSG ultras? Wow, you're reaching lol.
Lack of argument, much?

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

That they should have won 3-0 perhaps? When both highlights and stats show City was simply lucky to win in 90 mn?
PSG ultras? Wow, you're reaching lol.
Lack of argument, much?

It was in response to your logic they had 2 prime chances on top of a goal before inter had their chances. So by your logic yes city should’ve been up 3-0 by then. Stupid I know.

Go read your post in the French league thread then the posts here… it’s riddled with irony.

 

[Evilo]

It was in response to your logic they had 2 prime chances on top of a goal before inter had their chances. So by your logic yes city should’ve been up 3-0 by then. Stupid I know.

Go read your post in the French league thread then the posts here… it’s riddled with irony.

It really isn't.
Even stat wise Messi slowed down after the WC. You chose to ignore it, but that helped you to cope so I let it go.

Here, trying to ignore your mighty Pep AGAIN stuggled in the final is apparently again too had to cope for you.

Inter had better chances than City in this final. Everyone here knows City is VASTLY superior to Inter. That even their bench is better than Inter's starters.
So YES, it's a reasonnable critic to make.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

It really isn't.
Even stat wise Messi slowed down after the WC. You chose to ignore it, but that helped you to cope so I let it go.

Here, trying to ignore your mighty Pep AGAIN stuggled in the final is apparently again too had to cope for you.

Inter had better chances than City in this final. Everyone here knows City is VASTLY superior to Inter. That even their bench is better than Inter's starters.
So YES, it's a reasonnable critic to make.

#743

I didn't even post anything related to it... it was LH and Luigi. A for effort though.

Cope... you do realise he won?

Sure they had the better chances, if you ignore the context of the game. Even then its debatable. Rodri goal, Haaland's 1v1 chance took a very good save from Onana to keep out. Then Foden's chance.

 

[Evilo]

Cope with the criticism obviously.
You've made dozens of posts about PSG fans and Messi. E for mental effort there.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Cope with the criticism obviously.
You've made dozens of posts about PSG fans and Messi. E for mental effort there.

Critic him all you like he'll take solace in the fact that there's nothing left to criticise.

I was talking about PSG ultras and your comment about them watching the game...laughable that you cant see this.

 

[maclean]

Here, trying to ignore your mighty Pep AGAIN stuggled in the final is apparently again too had to cope for you.

Inter had better chances than City in this final. Everyone here knows City is VASTLY superior to Inter. That even their bench is better than Inter's starters.
So YES, it's a reasonnable critic to make.

If your point is Pep struggled in the final again, yes I agree. Saying Inter had better chances though is too much of a stretch. Yes, City wasn't as good as normal by their own standards. Still better than Inter though. I think the scoreline is fair in that they were only just as good as they needed to be, but still good enough.

 

[Evilo]

Critic him all you like he'll take solace in the fact that there's nothing left to criticise.

I was talking about PSG ultras and your comment about them watching the game...laughable that you cant see this.

It's laughable that you can't see how it's vastly different.

If your point is Pep struggled in the final again, yes I agree. Saying Inter had better chances though is too much of a stretch. Yes, City wasn't as good as normal by their own standards. Still better than Inter though. I think the scoreline is fair in that they were only just as good as they needed to be, but still good enough.

Yes it's my point. City struggled again even though they should have torched Inter.

But yes given the highlights and the numbers, City is lucky to have won it in 90 mns.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

There’s a world of difference between Shitting the bed and struggling… but good to see you’re not above back tracking.

 

[Savant]

UEFA needs to do better, especially after Paris last year

 

[Evilo]

There’s a world of difference between Shitting the bed and struggling… but good to see you’re not above back tracking.

No backtracking here. Struggling against MFing INTER is shitting the bed.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

No backtracking here. Struggling against MFing INTER is shitting the bed.

and we are back to square one... after all that progress made.

 

[Evilo]

and we are back to square one... after all that progress made.

Progress?
It sure feels like your denial has never moved an inch.

 

[les Habs]

Okay. The other where chumps too. Xavi, Iniesta and Messi were going to be chumps without him.


Messi and the rest being too young/inexperienced? I don't know, it's not like they didn't win trophies back and forth after he left. No wonder, with that squad I might add.


They just won the CL, what you expect? To talk shit? I mean, be serious.

Pep IS great, but won with two powerhouses and couldn't with another one who actually won CL after he left. Undoubtedly there's merit, but again, he gets every bit of credit he deserves... And then some.

You can argue that money don't matter that much but I feel that giving a boring performance against a defense made up of a PL reject (not even in his natural role!) and a 35yo journeyman who pocketed the supposedly best player on the planet, didn't really look like a masterclass.

Put Pep managing Inter and he'd scrap to get into the knockout stages IMHO. But we will never know, he'd never ever join a broke club who can't afford the top talent on the market.

PS: Yeah, in Italy no manager is considered better than Pep and his Legendary status. Also, whenever mentioned, pips reminds of when he played in Brescia and how Carletto Mazzone influenced him... Not kidding.

I never said they were chumps. However, as I noted with Xavi, he hadn’t really broke out until that moment and his career took a notable step forward. More on this below though.

Yeah, and what was the rate of their winning trophies after Guardiola left? Guardiola won 2 CLs in 4 seasons (and quite frankly should have had 3). After that the same players essentially won 1 in about 8 seasons and that’s despite improving the team with Neymar and Suarez. They won 3 leagues in 4 seasons under him, 6 in the next 10 seasons after he left. The rate at which they won trophies under him was notably different despite some of the notable players you’ve cited and quite frankly the team with Neymar and Suarez was better in attack than anything Guardiola had.

I didn’t say money doesn’t matter, in fact the opposite, but rather that people make too much of it at times which they do. Guardiola gets credit for signings he probably doesn’t even make and yet if the player isn’t that good his squad is rated on how much it cost. Like I said, Grealish isn’t nearly as good as his price tag despite how he’s improved this season. Of course I would conversely add that Haaland is much, much better than what City paid for him.

Well arguably we do know to some degree. He took Barca B straight up in one season. Then the next he took over Barca won everything in one season and that was after making notable changes and inheriting a team in the doldrums to say the least. The thing you fail to realize is that despite what Guardiola inherits or puts together in terms of transfers/or is put together for him in the transfer market, is that his teams consistently perform at a very highly level with a high degree of success. The best side the past couple of seasons apart from City was Liverpool. At times they were better and yet in some instances Guardiola’s City was able to hold them off. That’s not to mention the path to the final of this year’s CL where they knocked out Madrid and Bayern along the way after destroying Leipzig. And let me go on record here and say I completely disagree with your notion that had he been managing Inter they’d have struggled to get out of the group stage. We will never know, but I think he’d do notably better with that team than you think he would.

Oh, and you touched on the players and what would they say. Well if you look at the interviews it’s not what they said, but also how they said it. It wasn’t just generic praise. (On a side note, very impressed with Haaland’s maturity.)

As for the credit he deserves, your posts and others since I made my post illustrate my point. Furthermore, as I said already, this goes beyond the forum. In the British media in the past couple of weeks I heard that Guardiola had to win the CL, that Ferguson was better, etc. That wasn’t from everyone and not necessarily the pundits I’d generally agree with on much, but It was out there nonetheless.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Progress?
It sure feels like your denial has never moved an inch.

 

[Evilo]

Ah the always impressive ability to argue with nothing.

 

[KJS14]

As for the credit he deserves, your posts and others since I made my post illustrate my point. Furthermore, as I said already, this goes beyond the forum. In the British media in the past couple of weeks I heard that Guardiola had to win the CL, that Ferguson was better, etc. That wasn’t from everyone and not necessarily the pundits I’d generally agree with on much, but It was out there nonetheless.

Again, he's widely regarded as the best manager in the world for the past 10-15 seasons. A lot of media is just contrarian to generate clicks. You're just cherrypicking some random pundit comments to make Pep seem like some plucky underdog, but he's clearly not.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Ah the always impressive ability to argue with nothing.

Hard to argue with someone who insists to argue without watching. This is gonna be hilarious in the future.

 

[LOGiK]

It really isn't.
Even stat wise Messi slowed down after the WC. You chose to ignore it, but that helped you to cope so I let it go.

Here, trying to ignore your mighty Pep AGAIN stuggled in the final is apparently again too had to cope for you.

Inter had better chances than City in this final. Everyone here knows City is VASTLY superior to Inter. That even their bench is better than Inter's starters.
So YES, it's a reasonnable critic to make.

City played absolutely terrible in that final.
Looked off at every single thing they tried -- from basic passing to any kind of pressure.
Inter wasn't much better -- but they were better.

Outside of goals of course.

 

[les Habs]

Again, he's widely regarded as the best manager in the world for the past 10-15 seasons. A lot of media is just contrarian to generate clicks. You're just cherrypicking some random pundit comments to make Pep seem like some plucky underdog, but he's clearly not.

For starters, I’m not cherrypicking. I didn’t search them out or ignore others in the media that I encountered praising him. Furthermore, I mentioned this forum of which there have been multiple posters over the years including literally now. He just achieved his second treble and because they don’t steamroll Inter in the final his team “shit the bed”. Where was this commentary when other CL winners had lackluster finals?

I am in no way remotely making Guardiola out be some plucky underdog. If you actually read what I’ve written it’s nothing of the sort.

 

[LOGiK]

For starters, I’m not cherrypicking. I didn’t search them out or ignore others in the media that I encountered praising him. Furthermore, I mentioned this forum of which there have been multiple posters over the years including literally now. He just achieved his second treble and because they don’t steamroll Inter in the final his team “shit the bed”. Where was this commentary when other CL winners had lackluster finals?

I am in no way remotely making Guardiola out be some plucky underdog. If you actually read what I’ve written it’s nothing of the sort.

Here is a take from someone... not me.
It is true though, City isn't so hot on foreign soil.

Despite never winning the UCL, the Cityzens are much more recent visitors to the final as they’re here for the second time in three seasons, looking to go one better after losing 1-0 to Chelsea in 2020/21. Their preparations have been outstanding for this showpiece event, as a final-day league defeat to Brentford with the title already wrapped up is their only competitive defeat since early February (W21, D5).

Included in that sequence are UCL knockout victories by at least a three-goal margin over RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, but they haven’t been quite as free-scoring on the road. They haven’t always needed to be, but nevertheless they drew each away leg of their three knockout games 1-1 and have interestingly drawn their last five UCL games on foreign soil as this clash shows potential to go the distance.

 

[Evilo]

For starters, I’m not cherrypicking. I didn’t search them out or ignore others in the media that I encountered praising him. Furthermore, I mentioned this forum of which there have been multiple posters over the years including literally now. He just achieved his second treble and because they don’t steamroll Inter in the final his team “shit the bed”. Where was this commentary when other CL winners had lackluster finals?

I am in no way remotely making Guardiola out be some plucky underdog. If you actually read what I’ve written it’s nothing of the sort.

Seriously?
Zidane was called lucky for 3 in a row here in this board for ages by the Pep lovers.
Pep is called for shitting the bed in yet another final and getting away with it. Big deal.

 

[al secord]

Politics aside, I just want to be able to watch great players play. I'll never watch the Saudi league.

Yet

Moyes?