So great to see Hazard pull one out of nowhere. What this team needs the most is a true game breaker that can do things like that. Game opened up after that and it’s now 3-0.
Very nice strike from Fede. His development into more of a box-to-box player has been one of the best developments of the last year
Needed this performance today. Huesca isn’t great but they still did the things they had to do to create and the finishing was much better. Need this same performance Tuesday
Militao tested positive for Covid and is out indefinitely which means Ramos and Varane are the only center backs currently available. Vazquez made the squad list and appears to be in line to start at RB again tomorrow
Since there's not much else going on today I figured we could chat about today's match seeing as it's pretty god damn important.
I’m super late, been a crazy week at work. Got to watch the first half quietly but had meetings and missed the second half. Huge win. Need to continue on this better run. Hazard being back is huge.
3 PKs and an own goal. Not a great day defensively oh and Valverde fractured his Tibia and will be out for a while
Hooray for the returns of Carvajal & Ødegaard but seeing Nacho, Lucas & Mariano starting is less than fantastic
cant' believe they didn't even go and review that call. Def looked like it came off of Nacho's back and not arm but stupid to even have it extended like that
Benz finally returns. Shakhtar has lost their last 2 CL matches 10-0 so no excuse for anything less than 3 points today.
Also in keeping with the spirit of the season it’d be swell to see the Ghost of Asensio Past return today
ChileanNole and I are talking about that right now actually. Is it time to discuss replacing Zidane? This team has completely regressed and the same problems they had 4+ years ago are the same ones costing them now. They're tactically stale and totally predictable. Absolutely no creativity through the center of the pitch. If Vinicius or Rodrygo aren't using their speed down the flank it's nothing but stagnant side to side ball movement that ultimately leads to a cross into nobody. It's the same shit we saw back in 2016 but was masked by Ronaldo's ridiculous skill and knack for saving this team with individual brilliance. The midfield is routinely caught out of position or overrun and continues to lack any sort of dynamic element. Valverde's development has helped significantly but Modric (as great as he is) is 35 and Kroos and Casemiro just aren't that type of player. The backline is consistently less than the sum of their parts and routinely will turn off for a minute and make a critical gaffe. The major difference is that teams are able to capitalize on those mistakes unlike Real's limp attack. The list of players that have regressed is just as long as the list of guys that have found renewed success after moving away. The club is in a weird spot where much of the talent is either very young & still learning or is old and beyond their prime. The whole "buying young and developing from within" movement that we've seen the last 5ish years is nice in theory but that talent has to A) actually be developed and cultivated and B) supplemented with and surrounded by other world class talent. Between that and the injury list being 25 miles long it's been an absolute clusterfuck. That said, there's 0 excuse for not beating Shakhtar even with a lineup of reserve players. Monchengladbach beat them 10-0 over the last 2 matches. Just a complete joke of an effort all around.
Where do you even start with this team...there really aren’t words at this point. Just all around pathetic in every single way possible but worst of all the seemingly lack of giving a shit. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe what Ronaldo meant to this team. He was the best in the world and I don’t think we all realized how good he was...until he was gone. Fuck