Euro: Champions League Semifinals

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Imagine being a Barca fan and happy to see Madrid win. Hilarity.

 

[Live in the Now]

It really is strange because my journey as a Red began somewhere around 2012 in spite of the Glazer Family (they own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and all) and I wanted to cheer for who I felt was United's biggest rival. Needless to say it took me about 2 matches and a little bit of reading about the backstory and I got hooked and never looked back.

I am a post-Istanbul fan. Being American and football becoming your favorite sport makes this an inevitability. I make no bones about this and I don't give a shit. I was in my junior year of high school and swerved school that day because I didn't feel like going. So I saw this game coming on TV and was thinking that it wasn't the World Cup so why is this on? That was that. Trust me I had no idea of the significance of the game, but I saw what I was watching, the fighting spirit of the players, and there was no going back from that. I didn't really understand the significance of this until the Athens final, but I didn't sign up because I wanted to be a fan of a team that wins things. I'm a fan of the Oakland Raiders, okay? I have watched some absolute shit in my time.

That being said I didn't regularly watch the club until right after the 2006 WC, because I graduated high school, had my own money, could buy what I wanted. I have not missed a single game, against any amount of piss level team that you can imagine, in 13 years. Worked my way into a job where I could work from home too, so I barely miss any live these days.

They'd never be bad enough to be relegated but never good enough to win the league or Europe.

They very well could have been relegated in 10-11. That team was in the relegation zone after 9 matches, they were still in 13th halfway through the season and had barely any points. If they actually went into administration they wouldn't have come back from that until getting promoted in 2012. I digress.

They'd just kind of exist and players like Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard would come and go and it felt lousy to know that the days of Rafa Benitez at the helm would never really mean much to me. I wasn't there. I didn't live it. But I went with it anyway.

I was willing to accept that they would never come back. Around the time when we bombed out against Zenit and failed to qualify for the Europa League the next season, I thought it was our destiny to inevitably become a mid-table team. I would be very happy to be a fan of a mid-table team as well, becoming a Liverpool fan was as simple to me as turning on the television at the right time.

This is the best Liverpool team I've watched though. It's honestly not even close. Beyond merely the point totals in the league I think they would absolutely hammer most of those league winning teams from years gone by, as well as hammer our teams that nearly won it. The only better teams I've seen than this one since I've been watching football all the time are Pep's Barcelona and the Milan side that beat us in 2007. Equal to the last RM team IMO, I'm fully aware of what I'm saying as well and I'd like to think I've been more than fair to other teams here over the years. The idea they wouldn't play in a final, that's what I thought last week. It was sickening, that's why I shut the hell up after the game last week. Couldn't handle it. Also can't handle this, but in a different way. When I saw the team a few years ago in preseason, even though Klopp had talked about making this team into what it is now, the idea that such a disjointed group of players would become successful is insane. Just like the result here there is very little logic to this. Upon adding players in Klopp's first summer window, they could barely play team football. I was pretty disappointed with that performance too, funny how that works. Two CL Finals in a row, you have to be kidding me with this.

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

This was something Wenger said last week, but I never saw anyone talk about it. He was dead right.

Prior to this matchup, when I saw that it was Barcelona in the first leg and Liverpool in the second leg, I started to think Liverpool had a chance, but not actually for the reason Arsene speaks of. Barcelona is unbelievable when they have the second leg at home, over the years. There are some teams and matchups where I would rather have the first leg at home and try to grind out a result to hold onto away in the second leg, and there are teams I'd rather get the second leg at home against. Juve fits the first one for me, over the years; Barcelona fits the second. I would've had much less hope for the Reds if the legs were reversed.

Anfield has always been one of the best home field advantages in Europe, however, so Arsene's point also stands up. In the last two seasons, Liverpool has wins there against Manchester City, PSG, Napoli, and now Barcelona, some of them by emphatic margins. Klopp and his personality really are a perfect fit in that environment.

 

[Live in the Now]

Prior to this matchup, when I saw that it was Barcelona in the first leg and Liverpool in the second leg, I started to think Liverpool had a chance, but not actually for the reason Arsene speaks of. Barcelona is unbelievable when they have the second leg at home, over the years. There are some teams and matchups where I would rather have the first leg at home and try to grind out a result to hold onto away in the second leg, and there are teams I'd rather get the second leg at home against. Juve fits the first one for me, over the years; Barcelona fits the second. I would've had much less hope for the Reds if the legs were reversed.

Anfield has always been one of the best home field advantages in Europe, however, so Arsene's point also stands up. In the last two seasons, Liverpool has wins there against Manchester City, PSG, Napoli, and now Barcelona, some of them by emphatic margins. Klopp and his personality really are a perfect fit in that environment.

Unquestionably the second leg being at Anfield played a major role.

I still had hope until Salah got hurt, because I was thinking about the Roma-Barcelona game last year and how many chances Liverpool had in the first leg here. It's impossible to know how the game would have gone if Salah played, but they seemed unprepared to deal with a team that had players playing such different roles. Which goes back to Valverde again, as well as what Klopp said about overturning major deficits. Klopp is also now 11-0 in two legged ties in his three European campaigns at Liverpool.

 

[Machinehead]

I told you I'd come back when I processed it, but I still don't understand what happened today.

All I can say is this. I've learned from my internet adventures that some people were really upset about the "this means more" New Balance slogan. They see it as arrogant or whatever the f***. You know, it is what it is.

If you can't see after today that this is not an ordinary club, I don't know what to tell you. There's nobody quite like Liverpool.

 

[Live in the Now]

It's more that Anfield is a magic stadium and Liverpool happens to play in it. Every manager thinks it too, it must be true. The ones that don't wind up getting wrecked.

We have seen this countless times in the past and a lot this season too. Blind guy scores against PSG. We won games to extend our title run by having a dude punch the ball onto the crossbar to give a goal to a guy who absolutely never scores. Lloris pushes the ball off Vertonghen's foot. Every goal today.

If I went back even just 15 years I would have countless examples. The only really bad luck coming to mind is one Riise mistake and Gerrard falling down. Another thing to point out as far as the magic goes is when trash defenders hit miracle strikes there. Also happens frequently. The Erik Edman goal is laughable, the guy was horrible and he hits a 40 yarder.

 

[Machinehead]

I had tickets to the Yankees game tonight and Liverpool are playing there July 24th. They're advertising the game between innings and Jordan Henderson pops up on the jumbotron to the tune of You'll Never Walk Alone.

Pretty cool feeling to absolutely lose your shit when nobody around you is doing so and not caring.

 

[Machinehead]

Funny thing about this game is, supporting the German National Team, rule #1 is you don't like the orange ones.

Because of this season, and this game, I'll never see the Dutch the same way again. It's gonna be different forever.

I'll just have to resort to not liking Italy

 

[S E P H]

Unbelievable, what a choke job @les Habs & @Duchene2MacKinnon . You lads had one job to do, score one away goal to prevent a punk ass team from making the finals and you couldn't do that. Shame on you.

@Vasilevskiy
@TheLeastOfTheBunch
@DatsyukOwns

 

[bluesfan94]

Funny thing about this game is, supporting the German National Team, rule #1 is you don't like the orange ones.

Because of this season, and this game, I'll never see the Dutch the same way again. It's gonna be different forever.

I'll just have to resort to not liking Italy

Meanwhile the Dutch just want their bikes back

 

[Live in the Now]

Mauricio Pochettino: 'I'll go home' if Tottenham win the Champions League this season - BBC Sport

He was dead serious and not joking whatsoever until at the very last second.

 

[Machinehead]

Meanwhile the Dutch just want their bikes back

They can have their bikes back. I'm in a good mood.

 

[maclean]

Yet another ugly stain on Messis's career.

Probably true, if he hadn't got those two goals to put them up 3-0 at home, maybe the rest of his team wouldn't have come to Anfield stoned

 

[Chimaera]

I think Messi was saving himself for a few chances he might get. I recall one play towards the end where he was not defending, but I think he was waiting for his chance. Either way I'd say there is pretty much no blame on Messi for me.

Of course. I agree, he certainly isn’t paid to be on the pitch to defend. But it did lead to a chance or two going the other way, or at least his going back might have helped box in some options. It’s a catch 22, but I will say it did look like most of the people who would have scored for Barca to steal it might not have thought they could

 

[trostol]

finally watched it..such a good game..some tense moments even knowing the outcome..Anfield sounded absolutely amazing to be at...

 

[Il Mediano]

 

[Ivan13]

To be quite frank the score from Barca was terribly unkind to Liverpool. They didn't deserve to be beaten 3-0 there. Klopp was right, they played a massive game there and just needed to repeat.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

They can have their bikes back. I'm in a good mood.

I'm surprised to see Dutch bike jokes on HF Boards

 

[Theokritos]

Frankly, I really don't think this is about Anfield. It's about the teams. Barcelona can win 3-0 at Anfield and Liverpool 4-0 at Camp Nou if home and away rights are reversed.

 

[Savi]

Man. I remember when I was in my teens (not even that long ago) I would be so emotionally attached to Barça, in both positive and negative ways. Ronaldinho against Madrid. Iniesta against Chelsea. I thought that, as you age, those emotions become less intense. Guess not. I think I actually feel physically sick today after watching that.

It's been said a few times, but Valverde's gotta go. A lot of stuff has been swept under the rug because of the good results in the past two years, and for me personally, last season I was OK with the less entertaining playing style in favour of more pragmatic and defensively sound kind of football, but this season, even though we won the Liga again, I have seen so many boring games, too many. Games where they don't give it their all, where they think they can win it just by being Barça or having Messi. There's no imagination, no creativity, no urgency. I've found myself, at times, not even feeling like tuning in to a Barça game, and it's been a long time since I felt like that.

I knew Liverpool would be our biggest test of the season, and I knew there was a great chance their high energy style of play would give this version of Barça an enormous amount of trouble. But I'd never though that without Salah, Firmino or Keita, they would be able to lay a beating like that upon us. But it is what happens when you have a manager that doesn't understand the meaning of intensity. I doubt he is even able to fire up this team anymore (or ever was). It's no coincidence they get destroyed twice in all or nothing CL games on the road. I can live with getting eliminated, but not like this. There's no coming back from this for Valverde. Also, I'm not going to put all blame solely on him, because about half the team were very poor, and the number of dumb giveaways (especially on goals 1 and 3) were excruciating.

But, congrats to Liverpool. Can't say it's not deserved, based on both games.

This shows what a poor league La Ligue is. Barca were not fit or strong enough and could not cope with the intensity. Barc play at a canter most weeks and NEVER have anyone go at them like Liverpool did tonight. Messi is for me the best player in the world and they have some other world class players, no doubt, but because the league is so weak they almost never face adversity so have no idea how to cope with it. They were rabbits caught in the headlights. That’s where the 4th goal came from, not only were they physically suffering they were mentally shot.

La Liga teams have been dominating European Cup tournaments in recent years, so I'm not sure how you'd just dismiss it as weak. Actually, I am sure, because the rest of your post clearly shows you barely watch La Liga. Plenty of teams, even the smaller ones, have a go at Barça like they have nothing to lose (because usually, they really don't). Look at the Barça v Betis game at the Nou Camp from earlier this season and tell me again how nobody has a go at them. Look at the games against Athletic, Rayo, Atletico, at Sevilla or at Villarreal and tell me how they don't face adversity. The one difference is those teams don't have the magic of Anfield, where (as someone put very nicely) all logic disappears on nights like this.

As Lightning fan this feels like redemption for me. People can say we pulled off the biggest choke EVAAARRRR by not even winning a game after a 62 win season and I can tell them they need to watch what's happened to Barca.

Try being a Lightning ánd Barça fan

 

[Cassano]

Congrats to Liverpool fans. They're probably the best side English team I've seen. I have pure envy for the work Klopp has done the past 4 years.

 

[Live in the Now]

Man. I remember when I was in my teens (not even that long ago) I would be so emotionally attached to Barça, in both positive and negative ways. Ronaldinho against Madrid. Iniesta against Chelsea. I thought that, as you age, those emotions become less intense. Guess not. I think I actually feel physically sick today after watching that.

I thought that too, until this season. I had no reaction to the CL Final last year other than disgust. Been different this year, it just took time for the next season to start. It turns out they actually get worse.

 

[maclean]

Try being a Lightning ánd Barça fan

As an Ottawa and Arsenal fan my pity glands are not really firing up

 

[Evilo]

Sooooo...
When asked about a potential remontada in the previous round against United, Ter Stegen said "we're not PSG".

Nope, you're not. You don't need refs to help the other team to crash.

 

[Vasilevskiy]

I also think it’s fair to say, that while the idea that La Liga is anyway inferior is dumb, Barca don’t face this type of team at all. Liverpool’s high press is difficult for many, and the intensity they came after it in both legs is difficult to cope with. They’re just so physical that I think some of the Barcelona players had a tough time coping with it.

We have struggled recently against this type of pressure, usually teams only hold it for 1st half and then we kill them.
With our midfield playing properly it wouldn't be so much of an issue, but nothing to do playing with Vidal and with a very very average Busquets. Arthur was perfect to get Pool tired but it seems everyone sees it but Valverde