Game Thread - Last Week O' April

InstaFace

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Today, Weds 4/26, we have a veritable cornucopia of reasons to fake like you're doing work.

1:30pm: Barcelona-Osasuna (La Liga)
2:45pm: Arsenal-Leicester (EPL)
2:45pm: Bayern - Dortmund (DFB-Pokal semis - no news yet if CP starts)
3:00pm: Palace-Spurs (EPL)
3:05pm: PSG-Monaco (Coupe de France semis)
3:30pm: Real Madrid @ Deportivo (La Liga)

VIPBox, how I love thee.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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Messi with an incredible goal. His vision is ridiculous. He's doing his normal walk when he's not in on a play, but he anticipated an opposing pass before it happened and ran to intercept it before it was even kicked. Juggled it down the field and then a soft touch over the keeper.
 

Zomp

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Tomorrow, Pogba is out for the derby. I know Mourinho wants his players to be warriors but with all of the games we have stacked up I was amazed he didn't rest Pogba the final 20 minutes or so of the game when up 2-nil. In the 90th minute he pulled up lame after a shot. 90th minute.
 

Tangled Up In Red

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Absolute critical 3 points for Spurs to take today. Yes, it's only Palace (though they have done some damage), but a bounce-back from the frustrating FA Cup semi defeat is vital.
 

coremiller

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Absolute critical 3 points for Spurs to take today. Yes, it's only Palace (though they have done some damage), but a bounce-back from the frustrating FA Cup semi defeat is vital.
Palace have beaten Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool in recent weeks, and Selhurst Park is one of the tougher away atmospheres in the league. Spurs shouldn't take anything for granted.

If this were the NFL, the Palace game would be a classic trap game, sandwiched as it is between the FA cup final and the derby.
 

Schnerres

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Huge chance at the start for Aubameyang from a low cross, but didn´t hit the ball on goal.
Now in about 20th minute, Javi Martinez with a huge mistake passing the ball back to Ulreich (Neuer out with broken foot), but Guerreiro was pressing the keeper had the ball in a 1vs1. Ulreich blocked the shot, Lahm shot the trickling ball to the post and Reus shot in into the empty net.
Bayern is really struggling with Dortmund´s heavy press, so far. BVB cannot play like this for 90mins, but at least they got a reward for it already.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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This is a truly toothless lineup that Wenger fielded tonight. 3-4-3 with Coquelin/Xhaka in CM and both of the wingbacks being fullbacks. There are seven defensive-oriented outfield players on the pitch, in a home match that the club needs to win.
 

Schnerres

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2-1 Hummels.
50m pass across midfield from Alonso to Ribery, dribbling into the box, while being way too uncontested. Flat pass to the 12y mark to Hummels, who´s parked where Lewandowski should be. He really finishes it with perfect technical skill one touch into the near corner. No partying from him.
Bayern is now showing their usual dominating form the last 15mins, resulting in more chances (Martinez also hit the post after another corner).

Edit: 45+1min and Lewandowski alone in a 1vs1 against Bürki and hits it right at the keeper. Had to bury it there, lucky for Dortmund to escape now only being down 1-2 at the half.
 

Schnerres

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2-3, Dortmund leads again with 15mins to play!

2-2 was a nice cross to the far post, where Auba just had to head it in.
2-3 was a loss of ball from Lahm and a counter from Reus, almost a lost ball on a bad touch from Dembele, who then shot it (Robben-like) with left foot into the far upper corner, looked really nice.

Yellow card for Alonso for a dive in the box -- too many trainings with Robben??
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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Alexis with one hell of an acting job getting hit in the shoulder with a throw in turning around five seconds later and grabbing his face.
 

fletcherpost

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Eriksen just scored with a peach from outside the box against Palace. Keeper saw it late. Palace were doing a great job of spoiling and parking the bus.
 

DJnVa

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Tottenham now at 74 points, Arsenal at 60 and can top out at 78.

A Tottenham draw Sunday against Arsenal would mean Spurs only need 1 point in final 4 games to guarantee finishing above them (assuming no ridiculous GD change). A win Sunday clinches it.
 

fletcherpost

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To be fair, Shanchez has got that in his locker, and good on him. The pause before he drops to the ground is beautiful. I think a player of his quality has to go down there.
 

candylandriots

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Eriksen just scored with a peach from outside the box against Palace. Keeper saw it late. Palace were doing a great job of spoiling and parking the bus.
I just finished watching the game. I will not miss Wayne Hennessey if they can find anyone else to take his place. Between that and what looked like a pretty serious injury to Sakho, my mood turned pretty sour pretty quickly. I thought Palace had the perfect plan for this game, but I guess after the recent run, this was all too much to ask.

At least Spurs got the points in pursuit of a good cause.
 

teddykgb

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I have no idea why United seems so happy to play for a point. This was their best chance to swing a bunch of points and they've not even attempted to get forward on anything but a City mistake
 

Zososoxfan

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I have no idea why United seems so happy to play for a point. This was their best chance to swing a bunch of points and they've not even attempted to get forward on anything but a City mistake
I agree. United needed to go for the 3 points there. I mean, look at this graphic:



Also, United fans mad at Aguero have it wrong. This wasn't a case of Aguero initiating the contact then going down. This was 90% Fellaini. Did Aguero milk it, of course. But, so would every other player.
 
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InstaFace

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I dunno about the incident being 90% Fellaini. I'd have said 60-40 Fellaini. Aguero went up to him and basically jabbed his (short) head into Fellaini. Fellaini just swung his head down to meet him. Stupid? Sure. But none of that happens if Aguero merely jaws at him rather than sticks his head into Fellaini's jaw itself.

Also, this result was the best for Arsenal's dim hopes. Both teams they need to jump drop points. They have an insane stretch to finish the season, @TOT, vMU, @SOU, @STK, (vSUN), vEVE.
 

fletcherpost

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Aguero knew what he was doing, sure, everyone knows that. But, he knew Fellaini was vulnerable in that moment and liable to do something silly, and Aquero gave him the chance to fuck up. There's clear forward motion from Fellaini, and Aguero didn't pause like Sanchez, he went straight down and sold the move perfectly...he didn't really over act that much. City had no chance of breaking down United 11 v 11, and I know a lot of folks don't like this part of the game, but it is part of the game. I'm not being flippant but Aguero did the right thing, and much like Sanchez, it's all instinct, he's not thinking, it's all the sum total of a lifetime in the game...instinctively he knows, he has to make a play at Fellaini there and any decent striker will do that.

City were fuckin pish though and Pep needs to get the chequebook out in the summer and i reckon City will spend big. They were far too sluggish in the build up. Much like the Palace v Spurs match the night before, when you play a team that is well coached and comfy parking the bus, you have to draw the opposition out or make the most of your opportunities when you get the ball in your own half and there is space to exploit, but you need pace, you need to move fast...once the other team get set at the back, it's so tough to get a decent goal scoring opportunity. There were a lot of backwards and sideways passes in the middle of the park for City...to be fair they didn't have too many options when they broke forwards, more often than not it was 3 v 6 or 2 v 5 and not many bodies trying to get into the box. City's crossing was poor all night, United's performance was a textbook, don't lose and maybe catch them on the break, performance.
 

Dummy Hoy

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I thought deBruyne was far too deep for most of the second half. I don't know if Pep pushed him back to allow him some space to get on the ball and to run, but all it did was take him out of the play, and he's such a catalyst for City.
 

teddykgb

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Mourinho was doing his classic thing of having holding midfielders man mark trouble players. United were content to force Aguero to come a bit deeper to link play, which isn't his strength, or to leave space wide for Sane and Sterling and then have the full backs play them inside where there would be lots of cover. Neither of those players are two footed enough to be much of a threat when turned inside. Curiously, Pep seemed to want to have his FBs overlap that run and maybe in theory they'd be in acres of space but it never worked and I think in the end he'd have been better off giving Sane and Sterling more space. Certainly Sterling did nothing but run down blind alleys all afternoon while turning the ball over in a gaggle of red shirts, so it worked a treat on the right. I think KDB was just coming short trying to give them another central pass option that wasn't Aguero or to force the CMs to chase him deeper to create more space for others. In the 1st half it felt like Herrera and Fellaini followed him and thus City played quite a few balls through the lines to Aguero's feet. As the game wore on they seemed to sit more and so De Bruyne got the ball more in those deeper positions
 

Dummy Hoy

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I think KDB was just coming short trying to give them another central pass option that wasn't Aguero or to force the CMs to chase him deeper to create more space for others. In the 1st half it felt like Herrera and Fellaini followed him and thus City played quite a few balls through the lines to Aguero's feet. As the game wore on they seemed to sit more and so De Bruyne got the ball more in those deeper positions
Okay, I think this is mostly right, although KDB was himself advancing more in the 1st half when he got the ball. But you're right I think, in that United's players putting pressure in the 1st opened up space that Mou just shut down in the 2nd.