so united can score 1 goal vs barcelona and chelsea can score 1 and conceed 1. what the hell does that prove? that both teams can play box defense well. to me, it's a scared tactic. let's be honest here.
it's a smart "tactic," and one that they will typically employ against each other, not just barcelona. in short, it means that those teams can be extremely competitive w/barcelona, and when one of those teams has been undefeated for 25ish fucking games in the champions league, i'd be slow to anoint another team as "the team."
but until a team can come out in the champions league and play a normal game, it's stupid to think that "barcelona struggles" when they are faced with a box full of defenders every time.
it's not that they've simply struggled. they had ONE shot on target versus chelsea and looked extremely vulnerable on the counter.
they had NO answer (well, andres iniesta did :lol:). they did the same fucking thing for 360 minutes
to sum up my point: Pique had the ball inside the Chelsea half very frequently throughout both games.
and in the battle of marathon, the persian immortals pushed the center of the athenian line to its breaking point, but that doesn't mean that the pincher motion from the two athenian flanks was any less lethal
/end matiliades fanboy