Taylor Swift

You appeal for what you think is right for you and your team, regardless of whether you're personally involved in the incident or not. I don't see how not being involved makes it wrong to appeal. Surely if a yellow is deserved then you should appeal for it, no?

Mourinho has Inter'd this Real team. They have a chance in the CL if they play like this because Barca are vulnerable to the counter. It's a shame to see such a talented team play such a shit brand of football, though.

Nothing wrong with appealing for the booking. It's the same as appealing for a foul or a penalty.

Clear pen IMO.

Barca are unbelievable in possession. God, theyre so fucking good.

He's just using this match as a test for the three other big matches. The league is over. There's no reason to play a full-strength team and get beat by Barca again.

Giovinco!

Get the fuck in. No treble for the cunts

Come on, City. No to the treble.

Man Utd winning the league is fucking infuriating. It doesn't matter who's managing those fuckers; it's going to piss me off if they win it again.

As good as international sides can be, I think comparisons can't be made between club sides because of the fact that international sides just don't play enough matches, imo. This fact of course makes the best international teams quite special because they haven't had the same time as club sides to develop a style of play, but I also think the fact that they are rarely challenged by the best teams (face it, to win a World Cup you only have to really beat two good teams - in the semis and in the finals) has to affect a hypothetical international side vs club side debate. You can scrap your way into the semis of the WC if you have enough talent and luck in your team - especially because all major international tournaments are one-legged knockouts - whereas a club side wouldn't go past the quarters or the second round of a competition like the Champions League if they're not good enough. I reckon this Barca side would give any side in history a run for their money, especially if you consider other factors like the fact that more interest and investment in football today (compared to before) leads to a more level playing field, which leads to more talent (in general), which would make it much harder for a team to dominate football today as compared to 20 or 30 years ago. That's why as good and remarkable as the Real team which won 5 consecutive European Cups were, if this Barca side were to win one more in the next few seasons, they should be regarded as the better team. This argument also applies to players as well, and it's why imo Messi is already in the top 5 ever. It's just much tougher and harder to be that much better than everyone else today, and it's astounding that both Barca and Messi are.

This barca side are also criminally underrated defensively. I've never seen better off the ball work as a team and there isn't a team that is close in this aspect at all.

Yup. Not this year's team. The one with ronaldo, yes. This year's team is weak. This barca side are the greatest I've seen in my lifetime so I'd like them to validate that by winning a couple more CLs in the next few years. They'll have three La Ligas in a row by the end of this season so they can't do more on the domestic front.

Enrique with years remaining on his contract probably fetches close to 25m. He's a top, top player. There isn't a reason in the world that can justify him leaving. If he does, there will only be one party to blame.

I bet the people praising Barton for all this bravado will be the first to condemn him when he inevitably goes off on someone. Just shut the fuck up and play, Joey. The reason players like Giggs, Scholes and Shearer are such legends are because they kept quiet and just made sure they played well. That's the best and most effective way to endear yourself to fans.

Barton talks far too much for someone who did fuck all for us for 3 years. One decent year for a mid table team and he's mouthing off again. Typical for someone who thinks so highly of himself and doesn't have the humility to recognize that he's not picked for England because he's hard to manage and liable to cause trouble on the pitch, something a team like england can't afford

Wilshere's class, man. His performances against Barca were superb, and his control and technique makes him England's best midfield prospect since Scholes.

He isn't saying it's 'not on' for anyone to call Man U, United. He's saying it's not on for Newcastle supporters/players to call them that, consider many of us call Newcastle, United. He's went way over the top about it, but I agree with a lot of what he says. How many of us actually call Newcastle United 'United', though? Maybe it's just because this forum is full of 17 year old Singaporeans, but I don't think I've come across someone calling us 'United' in a long, long time. I know it's part of our name and it's in our songs, but there are many, many more names that I've heard used to call us. I've been to a few matches and I haven't actually heard people referencing us as 'United' in conversation as well. It's always 'the toon' or something or the other, but United's not even close to being the name most used.

Why is it not on to call Man United 'United'? The reason they're called United and City are called City is because they are two relatively big teams who play in the same city and share the same name, so they need to be distinguished. On the other hand, there is only one team in Newcastle that uses the Newcastle name, one Sunderland team, one Birmingham team (that officially uses the name Birmingham in its name), one team in Aston, one team in Chelsea, one team in Wimbledon etc. It's not a big deal that Man United are called United. People always refer to us as Newcastle because we're the only team in Newcastle who uses the name Newcastle. Getting pissed off about this is ridiculous. It's the same as a Birmingham City or Leicester City fan getting pissed off about Manchester City being called 'City'. It's just the way the teams are distinguished. Why make it such a big deal? You never hear a commentator saying 'City this city that' when referring to Birmingham because Birmingham are called Birmingham and that is how they're distinguished. It would ridiculous for people to say 'Manchester this manchester that' because we'd have no clue which team in Manchester they're on about, so that's the reason why Man City are called City and Man Utd are called United. It really isn't because there is a massive conspiracy by Sky to promote the top 4 teams or because both these teams are now one of the biggest teams in the country. People have called Manchester City 'City' for years, even when they weren't in the top division. No one is saying either Manchester team owns the 'United' or 'City' name, but it's just the easiest way for everyone to distinguish football teams in everyday conversation.

I'll b staying up to watch tonight's matches. They both better be good, hopefully Chelsea and barca cruise.

5!

End to end stuff, this. This has been great so far. Has he been capped?

Ranocchia is excellent. How old is he?

Good pace to this game. The first half has really flown by.

That's a clear penalty.