yes, yes and a thousand times yes!! the arrogant ones are out. thanks Bayern!

Messi IS really good at what he does. Not arguing that. I might argue the collective strength of most EPL defenses though.

I think it's actually important to Milans interest that a) Bayern go out as soon as possibble (same can be said for Wolfsburg and Hamburg in the Europa League) and that Inter do well in the competition.

If the above doesn't happen then Serie A could easily be cut to 3 CL places and I for one would not feel 100% confident, especially if Juve stop playing like retards.

Anyways. Thankyou Bayern!

I've got some questions...

Why did Rafael play?

Is Old Trafford a football stadium or a church? I could not hear any fans urging Utd forward after Bayern's second.

How good was Robben's goal?

Do you think Kurt's cool?

Kurt would be cooler if he'd get a set of flashing antlers for Harry.

I think they were worried Ribery might take advantage of Neville's lack of pace, it turned out to be the wrong choice (For what it's worth, the way Neville has been playing of late he could go to South Africa)


United fans only care when they're winning.


I personally would have put it in off the bar to make it look better, but it was still pretty good.


Are cats, cats?

Manchester United Boss Sir Alex Ferguson Blames 'Typical Germans' For Rafael Da Silva’s Red Card Against Bayern Munich

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson revealed his anger after his side slipped out of the Champions League on away goals to Bayern Munich.

Despite winning 3-2 in the second leg at Old Trafford, the tie finished 4-4 on aggregate with Arjen Robben’s goal proving the decisive strike.

The Red Devils were also forced to play the majority of the second half with 10 men after Rafael Da Silva was shown a second yellow card for a pull on Franck Ribery.

Speaking to ITV Sport after the game, Sir Alex insisted the sending off changed the game but blamed the visitors for swaying the referee.

“[With] Eleven men [we had] no problem, but the young boy [Rafael] showed a bit of inexperience,” explained the Scot.

“But they [Bayern] got him sent off, everyone sprinting towards the referee, typical Germans.

“The key issue was the losing the goal just before half time and the young boy getting sent off.”

Despite his disappointment Ferguson did pay tribute to Robben whose second half goal sealed the tie.

“I think the problem was without the extra man they made the ball work and I thought we defended very well,” he added.

“It’s still an exceptional goal to settle the tie, it’s a tremendous hit by [Arjen] Robben.”

The Scot had earlier raised eyebrows by including Wayne Rooney in his starting XI. The striker was then substituted in the second half and Ferguson insisted his injury was not serious.

“We took the risk, we are just having a look at the situation again,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s serious, it’s just the tissue and the blood vessel that gets burst. I’m sure he’ll be OK for the following week.”


goal.com

shut the f up fergie and get a grip!

Right, so English players never ever surround a ref when they want a call.

Um.

*two fin salute*

I don't agree with Fergie at all on this, but I'm quite surprised he did't talk much about Rooney practically being assaulted the whole time he was on the field. Even when he didn't have the ball they were just kicking him trying to re-injure him, quite shocking really.

I think FIFA need to bring in a few more rules as I've noticed a few things getting out of hand lately. One of which being surrounding the referee. If somebody goes upto the ref without being called over(that isn't the captain), he should be booked, or sent off if he's already on a yellow. Another thing is the blatent fouling from corners by the defending team. The Chelsea-Inter game is about the best example of this. Drogba was pretty much just thrown to the ground by Samuel/Lucio before the ball had even been kicked, but nothing would be given, refs need to start giving penalties for it.

I think for the first few weeks you'd probably see an awful lot of penalties and red cards, but as slow as they are, footballers will eventually learn not to do these things and it'll be far better for the game.

I've been quite surprised at the latitude (patience, perhaps?) that referees in FIFA or even Serie A in general give to players who are always rushing, screaming, and even sometimes making contact with them. I guess it's commonplace so they're used to it.

Neville did reasonably well against Ribery in Germany and Rafael had been ridiculed by Ronaldinho at San Siro. So since Ribery is faster than Ronaldinho I see no logic in this choice. I think some of SAF's choice were weird last night, maybe he was influenced by some question he got from journalists regarding his players' age...


I'm sure for this after last night.


and I'm sure you can do that while sending a kiss out to Rafaeli.


No, cats are demons.


I don't agree with SAF either. It does not matter if the Germans rushed to the ref and influenced the decision, it was the correct call to give a (second) yellow to Rafael. Nothing else matters.

I did not see Rooney assaulted the whole time and not when he did not have the ball but I did see Van Buyten kick him twice on his injured right leg. That was shameful. I can't but upload Rooney though, both for his determination to play and for keeping calm after those two incidents with Van Buyten. The Belgian should get a one-game ban for unfair play but it's not going to happen of course.

By the way, Bayern also deserve credit for twice turning the game around in this series. I certainly did not expect them to make it, especially when they were 3 behind at Old Trafford.


I could not agree more. Especially the harassing the ref issue, it really gets on my nerves.


I was surprised the opposite way when watching my first NFL matches. I saw some very unfair calls and, being accustomed to seeing football players rushing to the ref, I was expecting something similar...

The closest thing to football's player/ref situation is baseball, where a manager or player can sometimes get away with running up to and yelling in the umpire's (ref) face for a few seconds, but if it's anything more than that, or if the right words are said, they're ejected from the game. (Sometimes they'll get their "money's worth" after being ejected though, and that's fun to watch.) And as far as touching a ref, I know in the NBA that will not only get you ejected, but also suspended for a few games after as well. Not sure how it works in Euro basketball.

Pedro.

EDIT: bah, sneijder equalizes.

Lol I support Inter in Cl,I don't want barca to win it again that would be really boring.Good for Italian football too.(assessment and such)

Woah Almost another inter gooal

GOAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL~~~!!!!!

Edit:Sorry for the triple post got excited

Nah, this is far enough for Inter. The fatigue factor no longer helps Milan, and a team from all four leagues besides the EPL made it to the semis, so the Italian league emphasis is fine too now, imo.

Vamos Barca!

In a neutral point of view,Inter deserve it.

No, I don't think they do.

3 - 1, goal for Milito. Off a giveaway deep in Barca's end. Could have been offside but tough to tell on my small grainy feed I have at work here.

In this match,they clearly do,please convince me otherwise.

Not playing on equal ground in this one. Inter didn't have to spend 14 hours in a bus driving 1,000km to get to the game. That's surely got to have an effect.

They don't play an attractive brand of football even though they can be effective, they're about as unsympathetic a team as it's possible to have (any call that doesn't go their way or any loss or draw is the result of a conspiracy against them, not to mention their very clear involvement in calciopoli that was hushed up for 4 years so they could claim to be honest and scoop up 4 league titles), and their coach, who is a far better self-promoter than a coach, is (to me at least) completely lacking in positive attributes.

So no, I don't think they deserve much of anything but scorn.

I see your point.

Ft 3-1.Will be really hard on Barca.

bah.

And not all that impossible, return leg is at Camp Nou.

It will be tough for the return fixture, a two goal deficit is not easy to turn around, especially against Italian sides.

Barca have a slim chance, but that rests on Guardiola's ability to outplay Mourinho in every game plan, as the latter has shown his credibility despite what anyone thinks of him. Yet the idea of Mourinho winning the Champions League means he wont stop yapping again

Barca were just tactically outclassed tonight in my opinion, Jose got it spot on. I would feel a bit more sympathy towards Barca but the words 'Champions League semi final', 'Chelsea' and 'Karma' spring to mind. Well done Inter.

and of course this would come up, it's Mou's team after all...

it's a great result for inert and if they manage to go through I hope that at least people will stop hyping up Mou's CL victory with Porto... beating this Barcelona with inert of all teams is much, much bigger an accomplishment than that in my view!

And then all were happy in the land of the Inerts... or?


Ibra: 'Materazzi attacked Balo!'
Tuesday 20 April, 2010

Zlatan Ibrahimovic reveals Marco Materazzi attacked Mario Balotelli in the players' tunnel. “I've never seen anything like it! I'd have decked him.”

The Barcelona star gave his version of events after the final whistle, when Balotelli had thrown off his Inter jersey in anger.

“I saw that Materazzi was attacking him in the players' tunnel and I've never seen anything like it,” Ibra told RAI.

“If I were him, I'd have left Mario alone, but Materazzi was attacking him and I was stunned. If Materazzi had attacked me like that, I would've decked him in a second!

“Materazzi was causing all sorts of trouble and in the Barcelona locker room we were amazed, all talking about it. A player should be proud after a win, not chase down a 20-year-old to berate him.”

It was his second return to San Siro since leaving in the summer and failed to impress.

“It was a difficult game and Inter played in an aggressive manner. The referee also made some mistakes, but I don't want to blame him, as we didn't play the way we usually do other than the final 20 minutes.

“I'd come back from a month on the sidelines and didn't feel match fit. There is another game to go and at the Nou Camp it will be very different. We are confident.”

The Swede had complained about Jose Mourinho's tactics when walking away, but admitted things have changed.

“Inter play well and are more compact, but they have a different mentality and now believe that they can win. I play for Barcelona and believe in my team, so obviously the second leg will be the decider.

“Compared to when I was at Inter, they now attack a lot more. They have some great talents and also confidence, as the win over Chelsea really boosted their European mentality.

“Anything can still happen, but I have a lot of faith in Barcelona. If Inter can score two or three at home, then we can score four or five.”

My stream only lasted for about 10 minutes in the second half, but during that time Julio Cesar made 2 great saves, one of which was fantastic at short range. So Mou can claim credit all he wants, but their keeper kept them in the advantage.

Is it just me or did Inert get some awfully favourable calls from the Portuguese referee?

You're wrong, Mou tactically placed Cesar and Lucio with Samuel in front of goal and at CB respectively. It does not matter that it's where they play, it's always his doing!

Balotelli

@ dst.

Some more info about the Balotelli incident. Apparently he flipped off the Inter fans after the match.

I thought Inter got the better of the calls, but certainly not to the level Barca got against Chelsea last season. It'll be some sort of justice if Barca go out, even if it's not to Chelsea.

As for Balo, I don't care if he's a Milan fan, I don't want him here, he has about the worst attitude in football by the sounds of it.

Second worst. You forgot his current coach.

I don't think he was even the manager with the worst atittude managing a Milan club last season if I'm honest.

Then we disagree on the issue.

You mean when Henry was not given a clear penalty in the first game and Abidal was sent off for Anelka falling?

by the way, this was Guardiola's only... TENTH defeat since he became manager of Barcelona!

You forgot to mention that you'd probably need 2 hands for the amount of penalties Chelsea should have been given.

You also forgot to mention the goal Inter should probably have had early on. Keita fell over and Eto'o went through, a simple ball to Milito and it would have been 1-0. But the ref gave a free kick!

Only 10 defeats is very impressive, how many were at home?

*And* it was his first defeat by more than one goal!

I am glad Inter won. Barca needs to be knocked down a peg or two.

So, after his little display on the way to the dressing room and after getting yelled at by Materazzi, Balotelli's night wasn't over.

A group of fans got into the VIP parking area at the stadium and tried to attack him as he was going to his car after the game. The security folks kept 'em away long enough for him to get into the car and drive away.

link

Nice. I actually want Inter to lose in the final. That would be something.

I can't stand the idea of anyone but us having back to back European titles.

Am I the only one hasn't got a clue as of why he's acting like this? His team has just beaten the biggest "team to beat" in history and his reaction is to throw his shirt on the ground and sod off sulking???

Well he played pretty bad...and the fans booed him I think. But it's a stupid, irrational response. One wonders why he's doing what he's doing.

One penalty not called on Alves (perhaps he should have went down a bit more naturally. it did look like a dive).

Early in the game, however, the linesman wrongly flagged offside what could have been a one on one chance for Milito.

That about even things out I'd say.

I think Inter totally deserved to win, even without ref's help. but we know Barca are more than capable of beating ANY team 2-0 at the Camp Nou. we'll see...

I enjoyed watching Messi finally face some serious defending btw I like him but "his fans" needed to see this. it was a matter of time before they came out and said he was even better than God.

I was shocked to find myself actually supporting Inter last night, never thought I'd see the day.

Jose outwitted Pep with ease, and Inter actually played very well, taking their chances clinically. As I said to anyone who'd listen, the one side in the CL capable of beating Barca are Inter, and they showed why last night.

As for Messi, yup, another drab and quiet display from 'God' against an above average defence.

The Arsenal match completely flattered him, and deceived me entirely. Messi is a great player, a world class forward who has the beating of many a player, but he is not the God like creature too many have hyped him as, and unless he has a scintilating world cup, which I doubt, any lingering comparisons to Maradona should cease entirely.

I've not yet seen Messi do it against a top class team in form - unlike his team mates Xavi and Iniesta who have done it at every level against even the best teams.

They are the world's best players, not Messi.

If they go to the final, they will win it.