Thoughts on Inter 3, Barcelona 1

By: Cameron | April 21st, 2010

ITALY SOCCER CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

We were beaten fair and square.

First off, congratulations to Inter. It was a game well played. We actually had more fouls (21) than they did (19). They pressured us, we allowed them to put us off our game. Pep came out with the wrong tactics and Jose got his right. Fair play.

Cries of penalty and offside are chicken shit. The goal Milito scored, while he was offside, was not by much. The linesman was in an awful position though.

Alves, who has a reputation for making the most of every foul committed on him, went down easily, and although unfairly booked, was never going to get the PK call. Wesley did make contact, but he was also pulling out of the tackle, and with that little contact, from where the referee was standing, I can understand why he gave the card. Of course now if Alves gets booked next week and we advance, he misses on a second consecutive final. How unfortunate.

We should have done better with our chances. It was only when we were already down 3-1, that some urgency finally came into this side, and we picked up the pace. The last 30 minutes of the game looked like what we should have been doing for 90.

I continue to harp on Pep for his tactics. Again, only one substitution was made, Abidal for Ibrahimovic. Where is Henry? Where is Bojan? Where is any offensive threat? A second goal would have been massive for us. With a two goal deficit, I am much more nervous than I otherwise would have been.

We took our foot off the pedal after 19 fucking minutes. Excuse the language, but how complacent does this team have to get? It is not the first time we’ve been caught out napping after we’ve taken a lead, see 2-2 against Arsenal. Where was the intensity yesterday we had the first 30 minutes of the Arsenal game? Ridiculous. Pep, get their asses in gear. I trust you can.

The attitude of the players is horse shit too. Messi crying for a foul while Maicon goes down and scores? Interviews after the game players whining about refereeing and decisions blah blah blah. Suck it up. If you are the champions the whole world knows us to be, then let’s act like it. Be big. Be strong. Go hard, or go home. We definitely deserve to be at home after yesterday’s pitiful performance.

There is hope.

Unfortunately, Maicon it seems has suffered a tooth injury, as his collision with Messi yesterday saw one of his teeth fly through the air. If he is not fit for next week’s clash, it will be a massive boost for us. Hopefully Abidal will start at LB, and if he does, we are in good shape. His pace at dealing with Inter’s counters will help us tremendously.

Ibra said that he wasn’t 100% match fit for the game. Balls up son and play your heart out anyways. I do give him credit for his effort, however.

Messi was handled against Cambiasso. He was given loads of room against Arsenal, but having Cambiasso sit in front of the defensive line almost shadowing Messi every time he got the ball means he always had someone on him and he was unable to move. All I can say is, if you have free reign to go wherever you want, go where you can make the most damage. Man up, and don’t bitch because you’re having a tough game and it’s hard to find space.

Xavi, our engine was visibly upset yesterday. I can understand why. No movement on the front line. You see him in possession looking for a pass, and we are standing in static positions everywhere waiting to receive the ball. Countless times I saw Inter intercept the ball because of our lax movement. Get to the ball.

This game was frustrating because we played a team just as good as us and we played inferior to them, save the last 30 minutes when we finally started playing some decent football. Come Camp Nou time next week, we better do it too.

Visca el Barça.

Some Related Barcelona Posts:

Category: Team News

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Sadie Pellegren

This is a good,Typical sense article.Very Assistful to one who is just Obtaining the resouces about this part.It will Surely Assist
Troy Cadogan

All I can say is that we defended poorly, and I don't know why Pep have been favouring Busquets over Yaya who is much stronger player. Bojan should have been getting more playing time, I don't see why we have to put defenders up top when Henry and Bojan who knows how to score goals that continuously sits on the bench!
Ryan Frencl

tomorrow comes domination! GO BARCELONA!
Bebop

Guys if you want more views on this match check out this review:
http://www.footballmood.com/20...
credits to the one and only Ramzi.
BÄTMÄN

RAWR..
Yes indeed,but i would prefer bojan for ibra.henry for messi...leo was seemingly tired.i wonder why pep didn't make more changes.
Jack

Barca needs Toure and Iniesta on the 2nd leg..
Anyway, I do hope Pep will come up with something to break the defense plan of Inter..
We, fans here in the Philippines, believe that FCB will be back to back CL Champs!!
rawr

Pique is put up playing striker because

1) Inter had the whole team back. Only Eto'o stayed in the other half and Balotelli was walking around to send the ball back to us. Pique could safely move up.

2) He happened to be the tallest player on the team, able to provide some aerial threat. But beating Lucio and Samuel in the air is quite a challenge.

3) Barca needed a second away goal.

That said, subbing Ibra off for Abidal made no sense to me. Henry and Bojan would be better choices. Abidal could replace Maxwell.
Bätmän

JA VITTU MÄ EN OLE MISTÄÄN AMERIKASTA VAIKA TOSSA LUKEE NIIN.KATSOKAAS OLEN SUOMESTA.FINLAND,YOU SEE.BARCA!
SAATANA!
Bätmän

...and if someone is getting hurt 'bout the way i say about pep don't take it wrong.i'm just saying what it looks like here from my ivory tower.he surely deserves respect,just hope he'd get back to form himself.last two games fell totally on pep's mistakes.(my opinion)
Bätmän

we're losing because pep is mixing things too much.why would you put pique on top? let's make xavi a goal keeper.defenders would be something like messi,pedro and ibra.of course attack should be maxwell,henry,keita,toure,pigue in the front(of course )and leave alves in the middle whining why he's so much hurt again when someone even looks his way....sorry my sloppy english.i am pissed 'bout the way we go now.IT's NOT BARCA! F!
Elias Ozikpu

Although it was disappoiting going down by such an unusual scoreline, Barca will definitely hand Inter a real football lesson at the Camp Nou. Inter and Morinho have only one week to smile.

Viscal el Barca!
Helge

Iniesta will only play in the CL Final, if we get there. But he'll be fit for the World Cup.
phunky

Horrible performance is what i can say for the 1st 60 mins atleast. Our goal was only coz of some bad defending by the inter players, nothing else. Kieta was played like a SOB. He din't run for the ball, he fouled too much and he din create enough space for himself. The only player playing to his game was Pedro. He ran a lot, he tried to get back the ball, he took his goal well and had 2-3 decent runs. Agreed, he had 5 fouls and Kieta had 5, but Kieta is a midfielder and Pedro is a striker, so the area Kieta committed his fouls is more dangerous than far out in the Inter half where Pedro commited his. Messi was marked out of the game. 3 people on him at all times and u gotta feel for him, but even Messi din track back after losing the ball which inturn led to Maicon's goal.
Xavi was allowed the ball. But, was alloyed to play inly deep in the midfield, with Ibra being a lazy bird, Messi being marked out and only Pedro to pass to, he really din have many options.
All i can do is wish and hope for us to do well. Please Pep, think of something.
Visca el barca.
rawr

No doubt the real Barca will turn up at Camp Nou, with huge fans to back them up. Once Barca gets the momentum, not even Inter can defend for full 90 minutes. The tie is still very open.

Will Iniesta be back next week? He is the best support Xavi can hope for, and Inter will not be able to shut down both of them.
Joe

After watching the uncharacteristic performances of both Barca and Lyon,
I think its safe to say that traveling by bus sucks, and it was a factor..
Sal

there is no point in whining. Pep and the players have to learn of their mistakes nad give 110%. We always score a goal ta the camp Nouw but we will need 2 goals and concede nothing.

I predict we will score 2-0 than inter will get 1 back,and we wil lhave to fight the last 10 minutes to get to 3-1. than with extra time messi will score he 4-1. A night full of drama....
qunle

i don't agree with most of the comments here.i do agree with guardiola not getting his tactics spot on.busquets over yaya all season long,keita for marking?and who does support xavi in the creativity dept?too many things went wrong in the game.i don't blame alves for any of the goals,though him leaving sneijder on two of those occasions gives him poor ratings for the game but at least i believe all the goals came from maxwell's side of the pitch.i personally prefer bojan to pedro who i don't think does anything else on the pitch but score goals,outside of his goalscoring these days,he seldom assist or does anything creative with the ball.bojan on the other hand is a handful for defenders,he has a better eye for goal and despite fewer starts,he is almost scoring as much as the hyped out pedro is doing in the league.i would at least want a messi,ibra,bojan start in attack for the return leg and a return to the starting 11 for yaya and abidal and probably a thiago on the bench but on this one i know it's never going to happen.for the sake of just saying it,i believe thiago is a better player than both xavi and iniesta rolled into one,his only defect being inexperience.that's the only reason i will start anyone of them over him.he knows how to pick a pass as well as xavi,he dribbles the ball better than iniesta and better yet he creates more than iniesta does and will probably score more than the two of them will do in an entire season.he has ronaldinho fantasy written all over him.i just hope guardiola will bring him into the first team soon.
AllAboutFCBarcelona.com

Spot on. I wrote a similiar article in my blog. http://www.allaboutfcbarcelona...

Disagree with you completely on Ibra. He wasn't fully fit. Remember how a semi-fit Iniesta ran the show in Rome. He showed no effort. Do not start with him on Wednesday. Give Henry the start and play a 4-2-3-1 formation which could do well with Inter. Messi behind Henry means there will be good chances. Ibra will cut the pace of our moves and we need that atleast in the first half.
JAckky

Stop crying Barca fans. In the end a victory is a victory and a defeat is a defeat. Italians are going to do exactly the same thing they did against Chelsea, defend, defend, defend and defend and then sneak a goal in the dying mins and end it up for barca and barca fans.
totti

Well said. The lack of changes by pep were the most shocking to me. Inter had a good attitude for this game. Barca can still take it but they will be put to the task by Mou.
Pedro

The First goal is difficult because Pandev had encroached into the space between Alves and Pique while Sneijder - at the time- was still very much in the periphery. With Pique repositioning, Alves thought it necessary to cover Pandev. This is technically a correct decision by Alves and only became defunct because A) Pandev was keen enough to notice an unmarked Sneijder with his peripheral vision. B) Barcelona lacked a secondary midfielder or winger cover to mark Sneijder.
chris k

I agree with some of your points, but I haven't seen anyone mention the real reason for the goals. Alves again cost the Blaugrana with is lack of marking inside the box. Two of the goals were due to his lax'd defense. The first goal was all his fault for leaving Sneijder all to himself. Milito was his mark also. It wasn't the officials best night, but that happens in football. Barca was the beneficiary of poor officiating last year. If Alves marks up, the game is 1-1 with an important away goal.
silkydude

We are getting complacent... I don't know whats wrong... These past few games our movement upfront has been way off... I guess iniesta's absence has something to do with it.. clearly ibra doesnt fit into the current barca system.... very static and despit his height, no presence inside the box... his most frustrating moment was the early perfect cross from maxwell where he attempted to karate kick it into the box. I mean comon get your head in there, get messy in the box, bully defenders! its why we bought ur ass.... i mean for God's sake bojan has more presence inside the box.
Lets hope our attackers do better next game, because xavi deserves better