We have this habit of making our life difficult. We ended up with a score line of 2-2 when it was a home game for us, we had no injuries and everyone was fit to play, we had 60% possession, 13 shots compared to 8 from Bayern, 4 shots on target compared to Bayern’s 2 which they managed to score from.
Short analysis
In the 12th minute, Odegaard clipped the ball behind Bayern defence which Saka received, cut inside and scored from a magnificent strike. White missed a 1v1 with Manuel Neuer only after 4 minutes when Havertz noticed his run and sent a carefully balanced pass. That should have been a goal and we should have had 2-0 lead by now.
Sane created a lot of problems for us. Gabriel took a poor touch and Sane intercepted his pass allowing Gnabry to score one against his former club. It was a mistake from us and Bayern made sure to punish us. Their second goal came from a poor challenge from our best defender Saliba. It was again on Sane who drove forward between our defence and Saliba’s challenge ended up tripping him. Again, a mistake we made and they made sure we paid for it.
We gave away two goals.
Kiwior was having a poor game, so does Rice. Mikel made some changes, brought in Trossard for Martinelli, Jesus for Jorginho around 70 minute mark and it paid off. Trossard scored a brilliant goal after a Bayern throw in was lost to Saka, who feeded Jesus on the box. The game ended with 2-2.
Talking points
Thomas Tuchel. Harry Kane. And Bukayo Saka.
Tuchel in his post match press conference pointed out that were robbed of a penalty. Incident happened when Raya and Gabriel didn’t hear the referee whistle, Raya passed the ball to Gabriel who then picked it up with his hands and took the shot. We do it every game for almost every goal kick. Referee called it a kid’s mistake and he is not going to punish a team in Champions League quarter final for that.
Right Mr Tuchel, it should have been given but what about these 2?
Kane’s feet are on ground, and there is no way he should be sticking his elbow out. You do that when you jump and it make sense. Otherwise, it’s on purpose and should have been a red card.
Neuer took a stride on purpose and retracted back right on time to show the world he is innocent while disbalancing Bukayo in a 1v1 situation. To anyone saying Saka stuck his leg out, let me remind you that game do not happen in frame-by-frame and certainly not in a slow down motion where you have 8 sec for 1 sec to react. It was a penalty and should have been given. I think the referee let it go because of the Gabriel/Raya situation but he should have given it and he would have been right in both the instances.
Someone needs to show these 2 videos to Tuchel and ask his opinion and anger about it!
Take away from the game
We are still in the tie. We go to Allianz Arena and we can beat them. After a while, it’s good to have this feeling that we can manage to win against the likes of Bayern at their own ground. Irrespective of the result, I’m pretty sure boys are going to give their best and we are going to test them. I’m also sure we are playing one of the Madrid/ City in Semifinals.
One other thing to highlight is that, the likes of Kiwior and Rice had a bad game not because they are poor, but because they do not have the experience of playing against a big team, in the quarter finals of Champions League. They will learn and they will get better. We saw what an experienced but injured Partey can do in 10 minutes. Will Saliba has been our best defender and I have seen him make inch-perfect tackles so far, but he gave away a penalty which could have been avoided. There was a lot at stake and the best part of it all is that, we haven’t lost yet.
Right, that’s me done. We are playing Aston Villa on Sunday, and we need to win to keep our chances alive in Premier League. As I said, there is a lot at stake, both domestically and in Europe. You either win or you learn. I am hopeful for both.
… And I’m happy because the sun has finally reappeared here, Spurs lost and I’ve just got home from stewarding and seeing County beat Colwyn Bay 3-1 in an early kick off. All to play for next week against Penybont (Bridgend).
Great posts making good reads. Not far out Norg temperature wise but fortunately there are strong gusting breezes making our alfresco but covered pool area just right temp wise.
Days like these Spud supporters must be questioning their belief but then again with their moth laden empty trophy cabinets maybe not.
Anyway, hats off to the Bar codes.
Great news for you KP. Sounds like a good day out.
See you guys at the match tomorrow and March the Spuds loss could be worth a few extra beers if you stop laughing that is.
KP was about to post this and looks I tempted fate. Great track so worth posting🙏👀
https://youtu.be/YuKfiH0Scaosi=9EBQUgXb7IYuJSSB
TRVL probably all change again with Havertz around ST renewal.
No chance of offloading him so spin city it is.
Norg I feel sorry for ESR but he’ll have to move on to fulfill his potential long term.
It’s likely why many of the Strikers we’ve been “linked” to have similar attributes to Havertz, at least from a height perspective, like Isak, Sesko and Gyokeres…that way they can always say, why would we pay through the nose for one of these supposed “unproven” players when we have Havertz already on the roster…sadly, Kai is the worst of the lot, when it comes to being a bona fide Striker, and that’s who we will likely settle for…personally I would take Isak playing in a fucking motorized scooter over our gangly German tweener, as for the other two, it would depend more on their respective fees/wage demands and what we were planning to do with both Jesus and Eddie
TRVL
It depends on what we win or don’t. Win with Havertz adding to his stats and it’s a done deal to keep and revert to Jesus as back up and sell Nkethia where few would complain.
City starting to pad their GD now and 3 points. I don’t see Pool dropping points tomorrow.
As Marc says we have no margin for errors in dropping points.
TRVL
Its just another case of Arteta making it up as he goes along and believing his own bullshit.
Bournemouth just gone 1 up – ManU really are a piss poor team. I think Ten Hag’s had it but who do they bring in? It really does look an impossible job.
Hi Vieira
Your latest post has given me an idea… If we’re all patching in tomorrow, let’s all pay particular attention to Havertz’s performance, while watching the game generally of course. No pressure on him (!) but we can all try and critique the pluses and minuses and maybe see what emerges. Havertz as viewed through the periscope of the LiR U-boat.
KP-I’ve had the misfortune of spending a considerable amount of time specifically watching this lightweght, as I certainly wouldn’t “campaign” against someone without doing my due diligence…even though I had cause for pause when we first took a very expensive flyer on him, but ultimately if he came, settled in nicely and displayed anything that reminded me of his former self, I would be fucking elated
to be fair, it’s not as if Havertz is a bumbling fool who serves no purpose whatsoever, it’s obviously a bit more nuanced than that…one can only assume that the main impetus behind this acquisition was MA’s belief that he, and maybe only he, could resurrect the flailing career of this once highly sought-after, supposedly technically gifted player, who had drawn comparisons to the likes of Ozil, Kroos, Ballack and Muller…to justify this line of logic, MA simply laid much of the blame for his declining play on the shit show that was Chelsea, who had faced considerable internal turmoil and a drastic decline in the standings following their CL title run…as such, he managed to convince ownership that Chelsea had misused this former blue chipper and we were going to reap the benefits of their ill-conceived plans…unfortunately, the tape on him suggested otherwise
furthermore, it’s my contention that once rumours emerged about a potential move to Real, MA became fixated on the prospect of “stealing” away a player supposedly on Madrid’s wishlist…so much so that not only did we pay way above the number, with seemingly none of our usual nickel and dime nonsense, we likewise appeared to largely ignore the very analytics that had won the day and shuttered our scouting division…it was all so surreal…one minute we claimed that his problem at Chelsea stemmed from their inability to uncover his best position, then the next minute we were hailing his positional versatility…you can’t make this shit up…it was a veritable cake and eat it too fuckfest
surely the masterplan all along wasn’t to expend considerable energies convincing anyone who’d listen that he was a significant Xhaka upgrade, which clearly never materialized, only to do exactly what his former employers had tried and failed by deploying this tweener of little consequence up top…fact remains, fulfilling the original Xhaka replacement mandate shouldn’t have been a difficult ask, as that wasn’t a very high bar…instead MA pursued a very familiar course by simply shoehorning the fuck out of his favourites…in doing so, he functionally benched our second highest earner, Jesus, who’s considerably better in more advanced spaces, when available, then ghosted Eddie altogether, a player whom MA had just inked to a multi-year deal 6 figure deal, and once again stymied ESR’s development…imagine doing all of this simply to placate a vastly overpaid player with the finishing qualities of a low grade poacher and a flopper to boot…to put it bluntly, it belies logic
Would be funny if we all were ready to do Havertz eval and he didn’t play. Little chance he doesn’t start, so a continued look at our misfit would be interesting to get all views.
I’m still going with a win by 3+ goals margin at home. Are you going Marc? If so, your pitch side views would be very valuable input, too.
Can Palace grab a point at Liverpool? Outside chance maybe, so we need to wrap up our business with 3 points and then 6 games to go.
Tony
Yesterdays display by the mighty Spurs has left the door to 4th place open for Villa to walk in. Can Unai inspire his team. Villa only seem to have an attacking option in their set up. We should win comfortably and it could be a thriller but will the Villa players think they have a chance of Champions League football.
Tony
Yeah I’m there today – I’ll let you know my thoughts this evening.
Norg
I noticed that too about Villa, but I’ve watched them a few times this season out of sentimental thoughts for our poor Raul screwed Unai. Certainly a cup manager more than league success. I do wonder what might have been if Unia had had the backing El B has had, and his personal choice of players?
Will Emi pull Tomaszewski? Luckily Villa’s defense is all over the place and long term Emery’s Achilles heel, so we’ll have too much movement for them to cope with. They seem easy to pull out of position for me
Are you at the game, Norg? Hope it ticks all the right boxes if you are.
Tony
I haven’t been to a game for a long time. It is 30years since I gave up my season tickets. After that it was as a corporate guest or I bought tickets via the Step-Father of a friend who was match day Manager at Highbury & the Emirates. They were always sold to me at face value. Sadly Freddie (he retired at 76) is no longer around. Ken F made sure he had a good send off.
I will hope to find a good link (VK, Russian TV ) used to be good but that opening is now closed. The middle east is usually OK but that may be down today as they are more interested in fanning the flames for WW3.
Perhaps we should arrange a London is Red get together one season.
Norg
That sounds like a great idea to me.
Surprisingly, L’pool are a bit slow out of the blocks.
So happy 😀 thank you Palace 0:1
Pool clearing off their line. Has the pressure of Klopp leaving too much?
Palace could have had 3 by now. Pool getting lucky and looking wobbly at times.
Tony
Eze with the goal no? I’m frozen out of that zone in front of my Samsung by the twins who are watching some or other Holywood bullshit.
Watched a good game earlier where Ross County beat the hun (Rangers) to put Celtic back in control up north.
Good luck getting the game NORG. Twitter is also an option my kids use for streaming and they have apple phones which means what’s in your phone can be broadcast on the telly. As you can probably tell, hi-tech is not my forte. Or there’s the pub…
KP yes Eze with the goal. Palace playing with real intricate passing one and two touch tempo.
Pool have had a couple of really good chances but are a yard off the pace.
Pool should take care of business but Palace can’t be ruled out of getting a point to make our weekend🙏👀🙏