Official Champions League thread

Can't blame him for wanting to start a family with his girlfriend though!

 

Definitely not haha

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God damn!

Shakira baby

 

Born too late?

 

Tonight's first half pretty much sums up the European competitions for me... One team defending and being boring with the counter-attack strategy, and one obviously better team passing it around nowhere near the goal and getting nowhere in a lethargic fashion. Woooooo!

Should Nani have been sent off? Absolutely! Unfortunately mine and Obi's collaborated plans for a Karate-Football hi-bred were rejected, so it's just not allowed to kick someone in the gut... It is being billed as "a bit ambiguous", and all the Man Utd fans will say "he was looking at the ball"... So what? If I look at the ball while I punch someone in the face, is that any less of a red? My U13 coach didn't seem to think so...

Conceivably it could have been yellow if he had withdrawn his foot in contact, but the distinction between unlucky red and blatant foul for me comes in the second action when he's falling(bouncing) off I'llblowher, where he genuinely seems to lash his leg out at the player rather than let it fall away naturally or withdraw it, before immediately feigning injury to escape a card. Even if he doesn't and it's all an accident, it's wreckless and a red. Coloccini probably deserved a red for smashing Ba in the face, and Nani should get one too.

Anyway, my actual gripes from the game is two-fold;

1) Why are keepers allowed to miss the ball and punch a player in the face without repercussion? A slight tickle on a goalie during a set-piece is a foul, but them misjudging a cross and wiping out an attacker is just considered an accident? Still can't believe this rule hasn't been looked at, but then again it's not been pointed out to the general public in the daily mail as yet. If you take a player out off the ball, whether or not the ball is dead, a card and foul should be awarded.

2) Hand-ball. Intentional insmentional. It's apparently too much for a referee standing on the goal-line with a wand (they disgrace the name of wizard, these chaps) to see a foul 2 yards away, yet the main official charged with upholding the 10 billion rules in the game must analyse the psychological intent of a player within a second to determine "intent" with regard hand-balls? Pull the other one.

Fifa, I demand you instate a much simpler "if it hits your arm, it's hand-ball" rule immediately. More penalties and free-kicks, more goals, less boringness... WAHEY! Also, re-karate, in the wake of the crying Man Utd fans, I'm sure you'll re-think your heinous disregard of our idea!!!

 

Bollocks, I'm no Man U fan but it that is a red card we may as well pack up playing football and **** off home.

 

You're not at home...? Where are you typing from?

I'm in a snuggy blanket man

And it was a red, all day long!

 

Don't think Darlo_Geordie likes seeing red G.

 

I think I should do a refs course in 30 years (so I'm old and ugly enough)... Martial law baby, it's the future!

 

Yeh I'm at home and when the ref was walking about waiting for Nani to get up you honestly though it would be red, did you **** no one did the RM players didn't, not even the commentators.

But once it was given, you go yeh I can see why it was red, if it happened to Newcastle, Darlo or even Sunderland...... well maybe not Sunderland I would say the same.

Football Refs have officially gone mad and is ruining me watching football and it will make a lot more people walk away then nothing else, dodgy ref, match fixing that's what I'm thinking.

 

Well I'm glad your not such an extremist that we can discuss this in a civil manner...

I thought yellow, having seen it in real time, yes. However, when I saw it again on the replay, it was an obvious red card. The ref had a much better view than the coach-potatoes of the world, because of the panning views they insist on

All we could see first time was a collision, not the karate-inspired nature of it. When I see a player crumpled on the floor in a game off the ball, I don't think "oooooh someone needs a red", yet someone could have punched that player in the face.

You take one decision, which even the most liberal of pundits are saying was difficult (the more assertive ones agree with me), and say that it's match fixing? Surely he would have just given the goal they scored previously? Or a penalty when Rafael handled it off the line? I think both teams can point to things which could have gone their way on another day.

 

Was never a red in a million years. If you think that's a red card you've never played football.

 

Karate kick? He tried to control a ball. He didn't look at Arbeloa once. He didn't kick out. He tried to control the ball and they jumped into each other, unfortunately Nani brushed Arbeloa on the hip. Foul? Yes. Yellow? Maybe. Red? Have a day off.

 

Interesting assessment...

Just to qualify.

1) It was a red. This year in fact, never-mind the million you wish to introduce to the equation... Whether you think kicking someone in the middrift so aggressively is worthy of a red or not, it was given as a red.

2) I have played football before. I know I might not have the honed physique of Peter Crouch, but I have kicked an air-filled sack from infancy to school and university teams... So that dumps all over that.

 

He's kicked him with no insignificant amount of force. If you watch the replay, he kicks the ball with his toe, his momentum takes him into Arbeloa's chest with force, and then while he bounces off him Nani's foot makes an unnatural movement. It isn't retracted, or falling away as you;d expect, but stuck into Arbeloa as if he's pushing off a swimming pool wall.

As I say, regardless of whether you agree with that, I think it's a red in the rules and in the spirit of the game anyway

 

Doesn't go near his chest. Catches his hip. Big difference. Nani's unnatural movement is clearly him trying to balance himself out so he doesn't fall awkwardly. If he fell with a bent leg he could have ended up with damaged ligaments. The fact that Arbeloa was long past him when he does it backs that up.

You're entitled to your opinion as everyone is. But the fact is that he isn't making a challenge. He thinks he was bringing down the ball unchallenged as not once does he look in front of him. Eyes were always on the ball. There was no intent. It wasn't Violent Conduct. It wasn't Serious Foul Play. It was a high foot that unfortunately caught someone. Yellow card would have sufficed in my opinion.

 

Please, trying to avoid damaging his ligaments? At best I think he's trying to stop the player bouncing off him and having a free-run down that right flank! At worst he's intentionally trying to hurt him out of frustration with that second movement.

I think the best you can do really is argue unlucky red, because if a player slides in two footed, even being unaware of the players around him as he tries to gather the ball, it's a red card if he catches someone even if he gets the ball first. That's the rules, and the high footed studs up challenge has the same application in the game.

 

High foot has never been punishable by a red card though. I remember a couple of years back Jermaine Pennant was involved in a high foot to the head which resulted in a penalty and a YELLOW card. And that caught a player in the head, not the hip.

And yes, landing awkwardly causes more serious injuries than anything else in football. Nani lost his balance in the collision and of course he would try and even himself out. He was nowhere near the player when he straightened his leg. Coloccini kicked Ba in the face, I remember a lot of our fans being pissed off and laughing when people suggested it should have been a red card.

 

1) Chico Flores was sent off this season
2) Of course it does, but nobody kicks out at another player to gain better balance
3) I was one of the ones saying it should have been a red, as you'll note above.

 

1) Can't remember Chico's and can't find a video.
2) Nobody kicks out at a player after the player has long gone past them. If he kicked out, he would have made further contact than the initial coming together.
3) That was never a red in a million years either. I can't believe you want red cards for high foot.