Good to come home with a point. Galatasary proved to be tougher than many expected, but they are really hard at home with that crowd behind them. Can't say I was mad about us 2nd half, but we sometimes seem to ease off when in front .Gala did come out firing second half, maybe it's as simple as that. Guess there is plenty of thought given to the tactics, and with any luck, we should roll them at the Bridge. Not pointing the finger at anyone in particular, but pretty ordinary defending for their goal.
Aye we had no defensive Midfielder. We looked like the team from the first 10 games of the season. Good that we got a draw and an away goal. Should hopefully be able to kill it at the Bridge.
I agree. I think it was the approach we took in bringing Mikel on in that Jose was quite obviously going for the 1-0 away win. Their defence was a shambles though and we definitely should have put away more, hopefully at the Bridge we'll have no problems.
A little disappointed given the opening 30 minutes but on the balance of play a draw was fair and 1-1 is a great result away from home in a tricky tie. We should be able to do the business at home as teams like Galatasary are nowhere near as effective without that crowd behind them. I'd have taken 1-1 before kick off and remain confident we will be the only English side to progress to the quarters. Nice to see Eboure showing us all the little diving techniques he learnt under Wenger.
Nor the ref who I thought generally had a good game but a couple of times he seemed swayed by the crowd. The one where Torres went through and the defender went down was never a foul.
I agree and disagree. Yes, I think we could have had the game but once they scored and the momentum was with them then a draw was going to be a good result. Jose knows that for some reason, inexperience/lack of confidence/tiredness that once a team gets level we seem to lose shape and 'fall apart' a bit. That is why he switched to Mikel imo. They really didn't get too many chances after he came on where as in the first 20 mins of the half they had several. Bottom line like so many games this season we should have killed the game in 30mins.
Yeah don't get me wrong I think it's a good result with a vital away goal, I just think under the circumstances it was also a poor result due to our rubbish 2nd half display. I know what you mean, but for me Mikel hasn't cut the mustard this season and has largely been next to useless whenever used. You're right though, we need to be a lot more incisive and kill games off earlier. Jose has to take a bit of responsibility for this (although we do get our chances) and realise we don't have the strong squad we used to last time he was here.
Jose cited some of our players inexperience at knockout stage but tbf we held on after conceding the equaliser
Next season will already be a better cl squad with Matic,Salah and van Ginkel to add not to mention maybe Courtois and Lukaku possibly.....and that,s before Jose adds anyone. Jose is right, next year we will be much stronger.
I went to a game at Galatasary a few years ago when I was working in Istanbul, and the crowd was absolutely ferel. It was against another Turkish team and the venom and abuse was actually quite scary. There were fights and brawls all the way through. I am pretty sure the Authorities have cleaned this up a lot, but boy they still make their presence known !!
