Humiliating from Barcelona's perspective. They are not used to this sort of thing at all. It'll be interesting to see how they react to this - both short and long term.
Great stuff from Bayern. I've never enjoyed Barca's possession football actually, though I can't deny how technically accomplished it is. That display tonight from the Germans, along with last week's, was my kind of football. Wunderbar!
The Germans are ruthless in front of goal and close people down so fast. There is a shift going on. They have the quality of Barca but the aggression and directness that Barca lack.
got to agree with gandy about not liking barca's play, and bayern's play reminds me more of the good old fashioned english game but just a little bit more refined.
I'm going to say it! The way Barca play can be boring, this is why for me La Liga is not exciting to watch as almost all the teams try to match their style.
nail on head there kempy, but why in the name of gods green earth do we think that we have to copy their style? I'm hoping if this 'power shift' happens that the english clubs and national teams find their own style and stop keep pandering to the media darlings at the time.
I believe that there is such a thing as direct physical football that is technically good, in fact this was proved by both Dortmund and Bayern. Here is another thought for you, both teams play a 4-2-3-1 same formation as we do most of the time, and I wouldn't say thrashing Barca 7-0 over 2 legs indicates negative football. That is why I have hope that once Hughton gets the right personal it may work for us. Fingers crossed!
the thing about the 4-2-3-1 formation is it is very much dependent on the the wide men not dropping too deep, if that happens it becomes negative, you really need a lazy sod like Robben who doesn't track back as much. say that against barca he probably did more running in 2 games as what i have seen from him in 10 years!
While I think it is too early to speculate about a shift in power, I do think the Germans have to be congratulated. They realised 10 or so years ago that football could not carry on as it was. Their game was dropping off, the costs were going through the roof and the was a general apathy among the fans. They made some changes not only in their approach to club football but toward the fans as well such as safe terracing, cheaper entrance prices, They pumped money into youth development and it has now started to come to fruition. Unfortunately, their are too many self centred people within our game for this to ever happen.
