As expected, the 'Great Battle of the North' suffered for not containing the best team in the north and one of the teams being managed by Mourinho the bus driver. A minimum of 7 men behind the ball at all times and no desire to do anything but get a 0-0 draw. Not enthralling. At 34%, it was United's lowest percentage of possession for any game in the PL era. One wonders whether an outside shot at 4th place will make that kind of performance bearable to supporters used to winning and playing attacking football. It might be understandable if Mourinho was going to build a brighter future a few years down the line but he's not. In a couple of years, he will be gone just like LVG. By then he will have damaged Shaw, Martial and the like by playing Ashley Young and Fellaini and turning the young talent into his defensive drones. One wonders whether his playing of Rashford as a winger, which he's obviously not, will stunt even his talent?
City's social media team didn't think this one through, did they? ...as has been swiftly pointed out to them
Borussia Monchengladbach respond to one Celtic pub's attempt to spell their name: Changed their official Twitter to A German Team!
The Barca v City game reminds me of why I can't stand watching the hosts very often. They're still an exceptional bunch of players, but the dramatics and constant feigning of injury infuriate me. The Champions League needs to adopt the Premier's League's rules about influencing officials, too.
Who is this Theo Walcott bloke, then? Never knew Arsenal had a Lennon-type player who is actually decent.
The referee fell for every Leverkeusen trick, no matter how weak and pathetic and badly done. It's not hard to see why Clattenberg is viewed so highly when compared with the weak-ass refereeing from a lot of southern European officials. He is able to ignore the acting and sometimes actually punishes the cheating.
I thought that the ref made a number of very good decisions last night, but got some wrong. He seemed to give them some very, very soft free-kicks after the goalline decision. Hernandez' diving and play-acting almost always fooled him, too. I can't say that I shed too many tears when he put his back out with his final plummet to the turf.
