Anyone watching UEFA matches today?

[Partizan]

I was very impressed with Ruben De La Red from Getafe, seems like a great young player. Granero started well but faded after a while

 

[SpurSince57]

Bayern just couldn't convert, they could hold the ball up in attack for ages but when it came down to it they lacked that spark required to put the ball in the net, add to that some decent defending by Getafe. It seemed to me like most of their attacks fizzled--lot of build up but not much happened.

Fair play to Rangers for holding Sporting, but I doubt they will be able to go to Lisbon and get a win. But maybe...It always seems to me that Scottish sides are brilliant against anyone when they play in Scotland, but anywhere else and they seem to struggle.

That sounds very like Bayern v. Bolton. Was Ribéry playing? They seem heavily dependent on him.

 

[Blotto]

Yeah, Ribéry was all over the pitch--practically every push forward came through him. Ze Roberto tried a couple of times but generally held the ball too long and then flopped in the box; Ribéry was their only real source of creativity--but even the attacks he lead generally fizzled. Toni scored off a corner that was more the result of good defense than attacking prowess. The American commentators kept going on and on about the attacking ability of Bayern, but they were only able to score one goal off a corner. Instead of building on their lead, they conceded an equalizer--and the commentators had to grudgingly accept what many of us already knew: Getafe=not chumps (they beat Real Madrid to end their best run of form earlier in the season FFS). Along with Almeria and Racing, Getafe is side to watch in La Liga.

De La Red had an excellent match, he is an exciting prospect--good on the ball, good tackler (though he could stand to improve a bit) and a good passer. Actually, but for Toni's goal, which was a fine header, Ustari (aka Osky) had a fine match as well. Both De La Red and Ustari would be interesting possibilities for us, I think that Ustari is going to be one of the best keepers around in the next couple of years--along with perhaps Ochoa, but he is more level-head than Ochoa; would much rather have Ustari, though he is still a bit unproven, over the Ayatollah who can be brilliant but scares the shite out of Espanyol's fans at least three times every match. Wendy is aware of all this surely...