This whole "getting beaten by the better team on the day" thing;

[redgunamo]

is it acceptable or is it always a failure of your tactics? Surely the whole point of sport is to beat the best, rather than to merely be the best?

[Classic Jorge]

I'd say there is a fair bit of difference between just being better and playing better. If the better team plays better they almost invariably win.

[redgunamo]

getting battered at home though, does it.

Or can the whole business be blandly explained away as "That's football, dear"?

I just wish folk would say all this stuff before the match, rather than after.

[Peter]

[Classic Jorge]

[redgunamo]

The result wasn't a mild surprise then? I mean, presumably even Huddersfield could fluke the odd win at the Allianz, but they would never destroy Bayern 4-0, would they.

[Peter]

I havent really thought about it. For me the champions league ends at the quarter finals. What happens after that is none of my business.

[redgunamo]

[Curly]

BM gave up after that.You're always gonna get thrashed when most of the team throw the towel in

[Classic Jorge]

I think, in fairness, Pep blinked in betraying his values and going with two up top which just left him with nothing to do in the event he went 1-0 down

[Ashberto]

Gawd knows we've had a few of those this term, but I believe we still have a very good team under there trying to get out. Apart from a decent bayonet, obv. And the fact that loads of them are leaving and/or getting a bit old or getting knacked by being played in the red zone. Hmm.

On second thoughts. Wenger Out!

[Ashberto]

I think Jorge is standing well back.

[Ashberto]

It's always good to see what he finds in there.

[redgunamo]

[Luis Anaconda]

they were pretty poor against united until going behind in the second leg. First time they play truly strong opposition and they cave in - I think that is more than just a bad day at the office. Lack of competition at domestic level is harmful in the long run. Maybe they stop trying to undermine Dortmund

[redgunamo]

[Curly]

It's only teams like Stoke and Bolton that don't give up as they know they'll be running up a mountain the next day as punishment.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

It was hardly 'last man, last bullet' stuff, was it?

[redgunamo]

Anything less and it quickly turns into an exercise in elaborate time-wasting. See Pep; wins the league with about three months to spare and then promptly signs another world class striker.

:hide:

[redgunamo]

That's actually a good point; didn't Brian Clough used to do all that psychoterror stuff with his players too?

[Classic Jorge]

I doubt whether you can implement a full tikitaka regime in less than a season as previously it'd been done with people schooled from the under eights.

The odd thing about this defeat is the glee with which english people specifically seem to have greeted it with, like passing football was some sort of dictatorship not based on the key foundations of kicking it hard and running fast.

Odder still is the way people seem to see Real Madrid as some sort of plucky corinthian underdog who embody the footballing ideals of a mid period howard wilkinson.

[redgunamo]

[Luis Anaconda]

Like the national team losing in major semi-finals, but playing nice football and being popular. It's unnerving

[redgunamo]

Don't forget that Pep as a midfielder, played with Romario and Stoichkov ahead of him. He knows.

[Classic Jorge]

...Guardiola has won four league titles, two domestics cups (and is in another final), two Champions Leagues and three Club World Cups.

Eto'o basically left immediately after his first season and Henry hung about as a peripheral squard player for a year of that time.

[Ashberto]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/may/01/the-que stion-is-this-the-end-for-tiki-taka-football (http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/may/01/the-question-is-this-the-end-for-tiki-taka-football)

[Classic Jorge]

[redgunamo]

Xavi was the best player in the world :homer:

[redgunamo]

*That's football, dear.

[Classic Jorge]

[redgunamo]

[Classic Jorge]

[redgunamo]

Barça beat Athletic Bilbao 4–1 in the 2009 Copa del Rey Final, winning the competition for a record-breaking 25th time. A historic 2–6 victory against Real Madrid followed three days later and ensured that Barcelona became La Liga champions for the 2008–09 season. Barça finished the season by beating the previous year's Champions League winners Manchester United 2–0 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome to win their third Champions League title and completed the first ever treble won by a Spanish side.[65][66][67] The team went on to win the 2009 Supercopa de España against Athletic Bilbao[68] and the 2009 UEFA Super Cup against Shakhtar Donetsk,[69] becoming the first European club to win both domestic and European Super Cups following a treble. In December 2009, Barcelona won the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup,[70] and became the first football club ever to accomplish the sextuple.[71] Barcelona accomplished two new records in Spanish football in 2010 as they retained the La Liga trophy with 99 points and won the Spanish Super Cup trophy for a ninth time.[72][73]

[Classic Jorge]

and they won all the international/continental stuff the year after

[redgunamo]

thinking "if only...".