Rival watch

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Dortmund hold Madrid in the Bernabeu after conceding a late goal!...impressive.

Modric didn't get a very good player rating, got subbed off too. :)
 
Hate to bring up the stupid rule about the 3rd placed CL group teams (ie the failures) "dropping" down into our competition... but it never ceases to annoy me. And it would not be beyond the realms to have both Citeh and Arse drop in.
 
Hate to bring up the stupid rule about the 3rd placed CL group teams (ie the failures) "dropping" down into our competition... but it never ceases to annoy me. And it would not be beyond the realms to have both Citeh and Arse drop in.

I'm sure they'll go allout to win it...just like they said last year!
 
Well karma for city as they never should have had a pen v Dortmund the other week.
Also if you fancy a laugh go on the arsenal board and read the Schalke match thread from when the match starts. I know there are some arguments on here between us but Arsenal87 takes it to a whole new level! The guy is an absolute idiot!
 
Although replays show it was six of one and half a dozen of another. Ballotelli had a handfull of the defenders shirt as well.

any shirt pull should be a penalty,it really annoy's me to see itand the ref ignores it,ok some might be unsighted,but with lino's and now officals behind the goal,there should be no excuses
 
any shirt pull should be a penalty,it really annoy's me to see itand the ref ignores it,ok some might be unsighted,but with lino's and now officals behind the goal,there should be no excuses

i thought a shirt pull was an automatic yellow card and a foul? then again, i did score 3/12 on the ref test, so that's probably wrong too. <laugh>

what ever the case, there's a lot of inconsistency over something so simple.
 
any shirt pull should be a penalty,it really annoy's me to see itand the ref ignores it,ok some might be unsighted,but with lino's and now officals behind the goal,there should be no excuses

But who pulled first? Who committed the first foul? Did Ballotelli have hold of the Ajax defender because he was being pulled back or was it the other way round? Shirt pulling is one of the many sneaky, nasty little cheating ways that has crept into the game but the players make it very difficult for the referees to see who is actually doing the cheating. How many times do you see a player pull back an opponent but when they fail to stop them then throw themselves on the ground clutching their face and wailing like a little baby.
 
But who pulled first? Who committed the first foul? Did Ballotelli have hold of the Ajax defender because he was being pulled back or was it the other way round? Shirt pulling is one of the many sneaky, nasty little cheating ways that has crept into the game but the players make it very difficult for the referees to see who is actually doing the cheating. How many times do you see a player pull back an opponent but when they fail to stop them then throw themselves on the ground clutching their face and wailing like a little baby.

It was pretty clear to me that whilst Ballotelli may have been holding off the defender, that same defender had hold of armfuls of his shirt. And was deliberately impeding him. It was a clear penalty.
 
It was pretty clear to me that whilst Ballotelli may have been holding off the defender, that same defender had hold of armfuls of his shirt. And was deliberately impeding him. It was a clear penalty.

I do think it was a penalty as well, Ballotelli was clearly being held back and dragged down. I'm just seeing it from an officials viewpoint as to why the decision was not given and the difficulty that they face when confronted with the levels of gamesmanship and cynical cheating that goes on in every match.
 
Willian scores!

His "come and get me" plea by playing well and getting noticed, is actually working against him.

It just means shakhtar will want more and more money. We were priced out months ago, but at this rate even Chelsea will be struggling to afford him!! Haha
 
Bayern Munich are 5-0 up against Lille after 33 minutes. <yikes> Hat-trick from ex-Chelsea forward Claudio Pizarro.