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We go again next year.
I think if we keep up the progression and replace a few parts, winning everything is inevitable.
Nothing is inevitable. We should savour these rare moments when they happen.
I’m genuinely curious why English teams usually don’t win the champions league most of the time. Like Pep only got one with Citeh for all their dominance, Kloppo as well…Fergie took years.
IMO it’s because the league is important and incredibly challenging.
PSG, Bayern, Barcelona, Madrid, and in some seasons Juventus have such an advantage over other clubs in their domestic leagues that they can rest and rotate for league games much more than English clubs can and still expect to win the league. For Barcelona and Real Madrid there’s a chance they might come 2nd in the league, but that means they only need to play their absolute best players for 3-4 games per season, instead of English clubs that need to do it most weeks. And, when it’s say Dortmund or Atletico Madrid in the late knockout stages, often they gave up hope of winning the league months ago and are now 100% focused on the Champions League.
Iirc none of their players played more than a thousand minutes in the league lol
Random thoughts:
- Havertz’s goal was absolutely beautiful. Into the roof of the net from that close at that angle? Wow.
- Third choice RB (a CB playing out of position) gave away a penalty against possibly the best winger in the world right now. I’m not bothered.
- That almost-pen involving Madueke… I can see why maybe the ref thought that Madueke was going down on his own, OTOH the defender smashed into the back of him. If it had been given as a penalty against Arsenal I couldn’t complain. So, I will complain that it was so quickly dismissed in this case.
- I wish Arsenal had had a more attacking mindset overall. Arsenal is great defensively and PSG didn’t score at all from open play. However, Arsenal is more than just a defensive team. I wish Arsenal had tested PSG’s defence more than that, and shown the world that it wasn’t just attack against defence.
On the penalties:
- Nothing but respect for any player willing to take a penalty kick.
- I expect a striker to want to take a penalty and to score, so I’m happy that Gyokeres led off the penalty kicks
- Of course Declan Rice took one. What a leader. And he did it after playing the full 120 minutes. 3 of the other kick takers came on halfway through the game.
- Martinelli – much respect for being willing to take the kick and for scoring
- Eze – I really hate stutter-step penalties. When they work they look like cheating. When they don’t work you look like a fool. Thanks for being willing to step up, Eze. But, please learn to take normal kicks.
- Big Gabi – a central defender not only taking a penalty, but taking the final penalty kick, the one with the most pressure. That’s incredibly brave. Doing it after the full 120 minutes when there were fresher players available, even more respect. Too bad it didn’t work out.
- Raya – a saved penalty is always amazing. That save meant Arsenal were still in it when Big Gabi stepped up, thank you for giving us a thread of hope.
I mean, yes, we didn’t attack much, but we had the best chances of the game throughout and our attacks were fluid, we just ran at them and sent long balls more than passing cuz they weren’t good in the air
Yeah, there were some fast breaks, but apparently “PSG had 75.3% possession, the highest by a side in the Champions League final since records began.”
There were a number of times when Arsenal blocked a shot or intercepted a pass deep in the defensive third and either just booted the ball long, or gave away possession cheaply while trying to play out.
I dunno. Stats are stats, felt like we were attacking more and with more threat than them watching the game
I watched a different game, the one I watched matched those stats.
Yeah, agree to disagree. I felt like they were basically horseshoe of dooming us lol
At the end, especially in extra time, that was definitely the case. And, it’s true that they didn’t manage many real attacks. OTOH Arsenal couldn’t break out of that horseshoe either. The XG graphs suggest that even though they weren’t getting a lot of high quality chances, they were getting enough low quality chances continuously throughout the game that a breakthrough eventually was expected. Meanwhile, Havertz scored on an extremely low XG chance. That was Arsenal’s only shot on target all game. There was also one miss, and 5 blocked shots. That’s it for 120 minutes, and includes the attempts from set pieces too.
120 minutes and 1 shot on target is pretty poor.
If we want to do a post-mortem of the season, it’s still an A grade from me.
We ground through tough times and won the league by 7 points. We got this far in CL and didn’t allow PSG an open play goal in the final. Yes it absolutely sucks to lose on pens and stutter step run up is absolute horseshit and whoever made it popular has a special place in football hell, but…this team is resilient and their mentality is way stronger than previously. CL trophy is inevitable. I would trade the league title for this tbf.
Crap. That was a lost opportunity.
I feel like we got the tactics all wrong. Playing like Chelsea of old (everyone behind the ball, low block, not pressing, inviting them in, and trying to hit them on the counter) isn’t our forte. And we seemed to be chasing their shadows most of the time we l even when we did try going forward.
On their penalty call, I can’t really complain. We were playing with fire and we finally got burned. Mosquera did great overall, but he screwed up on that tackle.
But speaking of decisions, that ref was fucking horrible! We’re the hell did they find him? Has anyone seen the PSG kit man recently?
When it went to penalties it was always a coin toss. Good job to Raya on that save. Condolences to Eze and Big Gabi on their misses (although Eze really should have done better).
Ultimately we held French Oil FC to a draw for 120 minutes, which is not bad. We did some great defending, and we made them look very ordinary at times.
We’ve gone from the semi-final to the final year on year. It’s solid progress. And we are still PL Champions. So this has been a good season.
I’m annoyed that the UCL trophy continues to elude us. We had such a good campaign too up until this point and it will be very hard to replicate.
I think Arsenal should have started at least Timber, if not Calafiori. I was fine with the midfield and attackers. But, that back line was the most defensive one possible.
If we didn’t know how many minutes Timber could do, Mikel should have had him on at the start. That way if he ran out of steam, he could be replaced by Mosquera, who at that point would be dealing with a much less energetic (and probably knowing Timber) bruised (Copy-Paste) Kvaratskhelia.
As for Eze, I’ve always hated the stutter-step penalties. Even when they work they seem like cheating. When they don’t work you look like an idiot.
Ultimately we held French Oil FC to a draw for 120 minutes
Arsenal were the only team to score an open play goal. That’s better than just holding them to a draw. Sure, the 3rd choice right back fouled possibly the best winger in the world and gave away a penalty. But, it’s not like they had a massive XG and Arsenal got lucky. They were up against a monster defence.
So this has been a good season.
Hmm, you think so?
It is what it is. Really gifted them the trophy with that penalty
My heart is broken, now my liver must pay. COYGs
Weirdly mine isn’t even angry or sad. I just want to go again and do even better next year. We know they’re good enough, all we need is a bit of luck.
Agreed. I’m really proud of how the team played today. They played like warriors and happened to lose the penalty kick ‘toss up.’ COYG!!!
Y’all are better people than me. But fair! I hope we come back stronger and better next year
Oh, I’m not. I expect to be angry and all sorts tomorrow morning. But right now… I dunno, I never expected us to win it in the first place, and it doesn’t really mean anything if Qatar wins anyway.
I’m lucky I have the Mets to be angry about right now to distract me from this. CL really was just the icing on the cake, that PL trophy made me a very happy supporter this season.
I feel like that yellow card on Mosquera was very impactful.
He really should’ve came off with the first one
I think even beyond Mosquera, there was a psychological impact to the whole team from being denied the corner before halftime by the ref and then right out of halftime you’re being given yellow cards for taking 10 seconds for a throw-in. I think we looked confused, I saw at least a two throw-ins rushed and given away right after that, and I think it unsettled us in a way that PSG couldn’t have without the bizarre refereeing.
I do think the check from Qatar cleared at HT but meh.
Yeah, ref was kinda capping after like the 45th minute
I went in expecting nothing
5 mins in I began to hope
It hurts a whole lot more now
It’s the hope that kills.
In a way it might help me throw heart and soul into this submission to parliament on the NDIS bill I’m about to write
But yeah it stings
Thanks to my dad for jinxing it once again like he does every single time. Every time he says we will win, we lose. I’ve learned to believe the opposite of what he says.
Sad… I’m a neutral but I wanted to believe, would have been amazing, Sorry guys.
