Cristiano Ronaldo once again shows his true colours in a big european cup semi-final just like he did against milan last season. He scores a pile of goals against mickey-mouse sides in a mickey-mouse league completely devoid of competition, the clowns on sky sports, the bbc and in the papers hype him and manure up to be something they're not and then against a defensively atrocious barca side in one of the weakest european cups on record they put 10 men behind the ball and produce that tosh. Meanwhile, the man of the moment is doing high dives down the other end of the pitch and throwing his arms up in the air like a spoilt brat showing a complete lack of moral courage and respect to his teammates like paul scholes who is more of a pro and a world class player than ronaldo ever will be. The penalty miss was yet another sign of his lack of bottle when the pressure is on.

The best footballer in the world on the other hand, who has carried that mediocre barca side in la liga this season, is putting on a masterclass in how to play the game of football and how to conduct yourself on the pitch even though he has just come back from injury and wasn't fully fit. Sky sports and the british papers wanted their messi vs ronaldo story, well the result is in. Read the title of the thread. Ronaldo like gerrard is the man of the moment and the headline grabber when his team are on top and will score plenty more goals against wigan, bolton and maybe even against that dreadful barcelona defence next week but when you're up against it away from home like tonight and need your top players to show their bottle, this is when the great players earn their title. George Best was a great player, cristiano ronaldo is not.

Yh ok, are liverpool a mickey mouse side, arsenal by any chance hmmm what about Roma there all mickey mouse clubs....In big matches he is such a threat they double up on him do anything to stop the boy, and today it was a job of keeping barca quiet and not letting them have a sniff which we did, watch at old trafford, messi played ok nothing great mayb 1 run and a good pass but evra had control of him all game.

Murderpool are an extremely ordinary side with one world class player in fernando torres and another player who can be influential if he shows up(see above post). Themselves and chelski make up half of the "Top 4" and should be charged with crimes to football. The fact that they continue to feature in the latter stages of europe's "Premier competition" is testament to the poor state of european football and the champions league which has been on a major downslide for a number of years now. Arsenal are a good side going forward but like most premiersh*t sides are weak at the back and they also lack leadership and cutting edge. Gallas is as big a joke as ronaldo and throws a similar tantrum. Roma are a nightmare at the back and another example of the poor standard of teams in the cl and yet they caused manure problems. The above teams range from good to poor in quality and yet I can recall ronaldo vanishing from a number of games against these sides over the last few years including the most recent meeting with arsenal where he performed poorly despite sticking away a peno, more than he did tonight I suppose:lol:, which the papers and sky sports were only too happy to cream themselves over and further fuel their "Best league in the world" propaganda machine.

You can put it anyway you like and get as carried away with performances against wigan, bolton, boro, etc. and freekicks against portsmouth as you want but when manure and ronaldo came up against a good milan side last year they were taken apart and taught a lesson while he sulked on the wing like a child and last night we saw something similar against a much poorer side than that milan one. This manure side is being built up as one of the greatest sides the club has seen and ronaldo is being hyped up to be the best player in the world. Where's the justification for all this hyperbole? He has no bottle and the maturity of a six year old as he showed tonight while messi ran the show and manure are surrounded by sides that would never have gotten near a european cup semi-final 5/6 years ago. The problem for them is they're just as ordinary as the rest of them and managed by a man with a 22 year long history of tactical disasters in europe culminating in one european cup in that time as one of the richest clubs in the world. As for "keeping barca quiet" and "evra had control of him all game", take your head out of your hole mate. That team and that ronaldo clown may well even end up winning this "competition" as it's credibility slips away but they ain't anything "special" as that twat andy gray would say. Messi on the other hand is.

I thought Ronaldo played ok. Certainly better than the rest of their players. Carrick, Rooney, Tevez were all anonymous.

clown

Very poor wum

next

I thought he fell over very well.

that pele was tench like

why aye mun

BTW am I the only person who thinks barcelona will go through?

I doubt you are

Like I said above, messi in a class of his own and by far the best footballer in the world while carrying that mediocre barca side half-fit and paul scholes showing what a pro and a big-game player he is. Manure(8 men behind the ball home & away), barcelona, the champions league and cristiano ronaldo all hyped up to be something they are not. An all-english final... god help us. Oh how this competition has fallen. Here's hoping the moscow locals and police have a field day.

You still here?

Yawn

Messi was on a different level last night imo, the ball is stuck to his foot and nobody could tackle him whereas Ronaldo was running into tackles every time.

The best team lost imo

When it comes to European Cup semi finals it's the result that matters.

Messi was superb in the 1st half.

True, i thought Barca played some great stuff though, they reminded me of Arsenal the way they pass the ball and move and also the fact they won't shoot and were frustrating to watch in and around the box. Man Utd played how most Premiership teams usually play against themselves, men behind the ball and battled and closed down quickly

:D Barca were the better side over the 2 legs, but whos going to moscow

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=-09BAIS-e_s
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=e8veXAo7zaU

In contrast with sky sports news and bbc:
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=uEAKFGBFykE
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=5P7CgKvhpoo

Personally i can't stand the ugly greasy-haired argentine salmon!

Dunphy's a trouting salmoln.

I seem to remember that him and his chums were slagging us off before Roma at home last season. How he could see us going out, calling Carrick a "nothing player" etc. What an arse he made of himself that night, and he does it repeatedly. I can see how some can find him entertaining though, as he's a complete fool.

On Barcelona, I thought we deserved it over two legs. The first leg we got wrong, and put in a poor performance as Fergie admitted, yet we were more than comfortable. For much of the second leg, we played typical United, attacking with pace and shold have had 2 or 3, whereas they didn't have a shot on target! Barca reminded me of arsenal - pass side to side, back to defence, back to midfield, side to side again, - and then no penetration. I see no attraction in passing for passings sake, and then only for it to come off in the form of a good performance once every so often. I much prefer high-tempo, expansive, direct, quality football - how we have always played it under Fergie.

Let's be honest there both rather impressive

Dunphy knows plenty about the game of football but loses credibility when he goes ott, personal bias comes into play and he contradicts himself. He's an extreme character but he gets a lot of things right and the fact that brady and more importantly giles(superb knowledge of the game and a cool head) agreed with him on this one is testament to that. Even souness generally agrees with the consesus around the table but would lose his job with sky if he uttered a word of criticism about the pl or any of it's players in the company of those clowns keys and redknapp. Souness once described his job with rte as a breath of fresh air and a wake-up call while watching that idiot garth crooks talking nonsense on the bbc. I wouldn't be surprised if dunphy said roma would win last season before that freak one-off as that's simply down to the fact that not one pundit in britain or ireland knows anything worth a toss about serie a/italian football, it's a side issue. He could give you a half-decent lecture on spanish football mind you and correctly pointed out that barcelona were a poor side, carried by said best player in the world, and yet they made a supposedly "great"(fergie's words not mine) manure side with 9 men behind the ball home and away look like a schoolboy side.

Scholes won you the game, there's no disputing that and you deserved to go through by the fact that you scored and they didn't but the key points to take from the game are that a great team would have taken that barca side apart instead of being outplayed by them and in the hyped-up battle for the tag of best player in the world, a half-fit messi won it hands down while ronaldo threw his hands up in the air and his rattle out of the pram like he did against a decent milan side last year when his side were being taken apart and needed him most. He'll get his votes from fifa and uefa for his goals against wigan, portsmouth and co. but he won't have deserved them. The line-up for the semi-finals and final is a depressingly accurate reflection of the state of european football at this moment in time and anyone with an interest in football can only hope that it improves next year with the return of the likes of juventus, bayern munchen, etc. and the strenghtening of sides like barcelona, internazionale and real madrid. It won't fix the long-term damage though.

Congratulations to zenit btw, a win for the football purist. Someone tell walter smith to stop watching murderpool and manure in europe. I'm all for using tactics in the absence of quality but that stuff has been absolute poison to watch.

Why compare them? I know i did earlier in the thread but that was only when they came up against each other. Why don't we just appreciate that they're both quality players though and enjoy watching them play, except when Ronaldo comes up against us ;)