Utterly gutless performance by Real. No heart, passion or pressure. Everything left to Ronaldo. Real can't defend corners, nor take them. Man U looked like the home Team. By the end, Real were reduced to 25mtr shots at goal. On the rare occasions they ran at Utd, suprise suprise, Utd flapped and looked very beatable. Maybe this was a bad day at work for Real ,but boy were they piss poor. Chelsea beat Barca every time we play them, what a pisser we got ourselves eliminated. Jose got his tactics badly wrong, surely he should know Utd are dodgy in defence this year, and thrown everything at them? Instead they played pretty little triangles, and looked like they expected to win by just turning up. Must try harder. Good effort by Man U. Finally, the Ref let Man U get away with far too many unsubtle pushes and nudges. Low score for our Teutonic cousin.
Real Madrid----------Manchester United ---8---Shots on Target ---6--- ---11---Shots off Target---3--- ---9---Blocked Shots---4--- ---12---Corners---9--- ---14---Fouls---12--- ---0---Offsides---3--- ---0---Yellow Cards---3--- ---86.4---Passing Success---72.9--- ---66---Tackles Success---83.3--- ---60.7---Possession---39.3--- ---66.8---Territorial Advantage---33.2--- ---149---Lost Balls---165--- ---54---Recoveries---57--- ---55.5---1st Half Poss.---44.5--- ---65.1---2nd Half Poss.---34.9--- Yep, Real definitely looked like the away side with 12/15 match stats in their favour. I didn't know the home side averages less than 40% possession.
The ONLY stat that counts is 1- 1. Stats don't always tell the real story, Real were piss poor apart from Ronaldo who does ALL their work alone, Man U had all the determination, all the drive, all the passion. Take Ronaldo out and this Real team wouldn't be in the bloody competition. I'm no Man U fan, but they really edged Real for mine. Expected Real to serve it up to Utd, but it never happened, nor looked like happening apart from the always dangerous Ronaldo. Fergie got it right, Jose got it wrong for this match. Incidently the possession stats you quote were quite different from those posted on the screen here, which I think was from Sky.
Don't be silly, Ramos didn't elbow anyone and Evans pushed a Real player in the area for a penalty in my book.
I have to agree with CP here. Real looked a shadow of the team that smashed La Liga last year. Its all well and good having possession, but if you do nothing with it, then it doesnt count. Ask Liverpool! Man Utd looked like they wanted it far more, and Real will need to turn it on at OT or they will be going out.
The stats tell one story! The other one is that tactics can determine the stats! Saffa no doubt had a plan that, at the worst determined, he should get an away goal and protect his advantage by shutting up shop! But for Ronaldo he would have achieved his mission, but I suspect he is now happier than Jose! Lies, damned lies and statistics!!! He wont care!
tactics my arse, united fell back into 2 banks of four when they lost the ball because they tried and failed to compete in midfield which was evident in the first 20 minutes, the worst thing that could have happened this game for the neutral was United going 1 up but even I did not expect United to just camp in the area. A team can do that when they have a RvP or Drogba in their squad A good result for them no doubt, but.. .. 12 points clear in the PL and although a good team result the gulf in player quality between both sides in passing ball retention, reaction time and technique\movement was clear, the PL in player quality terms is 4th in Europe behind Spain Italy and Germany
Thing is CP you weren't talking about the score, you said Real put in a gutless performance which showed no heart, passion or pressure. The stats say the exact opposite of that. And anyway it's just 1-1. If Real score 1 goal in the second leg it's a strong advantage to them as not only are they ahead on aggregate, but United cannot afford to concede any more. You say Real are a one man team, but you could the same with United. Both the teams above Real happen to be Barcelona, one of the best club sides to ever exist if not the best and Atletico Madrid, a team who destroyed us. Where are United? Steam rolling their way to a 20th league title. In terms of their current league placement and points earned, this is the best United side in their whole history. So Spain's current 3rd best team managed to outperform England's best and get a score draw. And we like to say the English league is the best and most competitive in the world. Based on overall performance Real should have won it at least 2-1 in my opinion, but on the quality of chances, United should have snatched it and will possibly regret not having done so in the second leg. And the stats I posted were the Sky ones http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/280778/report
Real dont look like a complete team to be fair - but it's unfair to say the result against United proves that they're awful at the moment. United played well enough.
Even more reason that he should have won FIFA Player of the Year IMO...he carried Real Madrid on his own to the La Liga title effectively! Take away Messi and Barca still win easily. Take away Ronaldo and Madrid either win unconvincingly or draw. POTY should be awarded to the one who makes the biggest impact and for me, and many of you will argue otherwise, that is Ronaldo. Secondly, all this "he doesn't perform on the big occasion" punditry, is complete nonsense. Anyone who has watched El Classicos, the Champions League and last summer's European Championship campaign...where Ronaldo also CARRIED Portugal to the Semi-Final, and had it not been for Bruno Alves's miss (Ronaldo didn't take one as he was No.5), might well have beaten Spain on penalties, would understand that perfectly clearly. Thirdly, the return leg will be tougher for Man Utd. Yes, they will be at home, but can you imagine Real not scoring - hardly likely! Therefore that away goal advantage will evaporate. They will also have both Pepe and Casillas back, which will make a big difference. Welback's header would have been likely saved or prevented through Casillas' superior defence-marshalling skills.
He was and the replays didn't show whether there was any real contact. Besides it would be a booking because the last man rule doesn't exist anymore, it has to be a "clear goalscoring opportunity". I personally think the last man rule was fine and if Evra was clearly fouled I'd agree it should be a red but that's not what the rules say anymore. There was no way of knowing if there was intent from Ramos as he never looked at the player and if you were to assume intent you'd also have to send off the United player that got booked for similar. As CP said, you should have conceded a penalty when Jones(not Evans, I think) shoved a Real player over. It wasn't surprising that he didn't give it as the Real player looked like he'd lost the ball and the ref might not have felt certain that the Real player made the most of it. The replays showed that Jones didn not shoulder barge the Real player and used both hands to strongly push him off balance, a foul and a penalty. It wasn't the worst decision in the World though, Real's players have a reputation for going down easy and some refs will be sceptical of their players when they fall to the ground.
Strange how people see things in a way that might help justify their case. Jones was lucky he didn`t get a penalty given against him but it was not a push with two hands, he forced the player off the path of ball with his left arm. Given some of the other decisions the ref gave in the game i am surprised he missed this opportunity.
Take your point about the stats, but I did say that maybe this was a bad day at the office for Real, and I think it was. Don't expect then to be quite so laid back at Old Trafford.
Stats can help tell you the story of the game in terms of how it was played but not really who was the better team. If Possession was a good measure then Wigan should be above us as they average more possession in the league than us, if shots were a good measure Liverpool would be top of the league followed by us and we average the most on target. I tend to judge games on the chances created and any moments of brilliance. Whilst Real had plenty of half chances United probably created the better chances overall, infact RVP definitely should've scored one of his. I agree with you that it wasn't a good performance from Real, as you say there was no intensity in their play and United sat deep but were able to counter at leisure as Real's fullbacks kept bombing forward and rarely offering anything to the attack.
