Champions League — Quarter-finals

Wow, what a fantastic strike by Rice from a fair way out — superb curl to bring it back inside the post.

Sheddy would be proud!

It was a great strike Michael, but I still the goal was only really made possible by the ridiculous way the keeper lined his wall up imo🤷‍♂️

Tony, he went a yard outside the wall. No keeper would have pushed it that far. That was amazing.

Arse just shredding them at the moment. Terrific goal-line rescues to prevent a second.

Good lord, he just did it again. Never seen anything quite like that. Instant Sheedy-esque legend.

Sorry but that's rubbish, Tony.

They were covering that entire side of the goal and a bit more. The curve he put on it was just Existential...

And blow me if he's just gone and done it again. An absolute screamer from a dead ball, although this time the Arsenal players created the gap.

But it is almost exactly into the top corner. Amazing!

The wall wasn't right for the first one. But not sure it mattered. Both of the strikes were amazing. Inch perfect.

That's simply extraordinary. We'll see that for decades. The two greatest shots of his life 11 minutes apart.

Special. Never seen Two of that quality in a game. Three Nil as I Type. Superb Finish. Another 'Rice Like' Curler. Anyone know who Sheddy is ?!!!!

Arsenal have destroyed Madrid in the 2nd half.

We drew with them on Saturday

And three. Wow. This ain't the team we saw Saturday.

They were 2 unreal strikes

That was exquisite too!

Carlo might not be able to get them back from this...

Carlo looks like he needs a standing 8-count.

It's only rubbish to you, Michael, but definitely not to me. The second goal is something else, just like the first strike was, but why even have a wall for a shot that far out if it means the keeper leaves himself unsighted with two-thirds of his goal exposed?

Now it's three, I just hope that Arsenal keep going because Real Madrid have been very poor during the second period

They just showed the first again, Tony, from behind the goal. What exactly is wrong with that wall?

To make any statement like that denigrates the absolute and unequivocal brilliance of the strike.

Declan Rice has never scored a direct free kick before 🤣

Incredible stuff from Rice. The bend on the first one was unreal, see the replay from behind him? Second was like a laser guided missile.

Tbf the wall looked to be almost level with the post when it should be wider than that by a foot or so? That's what we were always coached?

Could have been 5 or 6 if not for Courtouis

But it still would have went in even if the wall was textbook given the bend on it

That there is a wall in the first place Michael. Honestly it’s a great strike, and therefore a great goal but for a thirty yard shot, I’d prefer my keepers starting position to be in the middle of the goal.

It’s a bugbear of mine, and does nothing for entertainment I know🤷‍♂️

Tony, from my eye Rice got more than a full yard of swerve. I just don't think anybody would have set the wall that wide.

Liam, really? That's crazy.

Wish Pickford was as good with his feet as Raya is.

Im delighted for Arsenal, who have gone from looking very snide, timid and cowardly on Saturday lunchtime, to playing like lions, during this second period tonight👏

Liam,

There was at least a full body in the wall beyond the line betwixt ball and post.

Tony,

"That there is a wall in the first place" — What the fuck? Are you saying there shouldn't have been a wall at all? Bugbears be damned — you're babbling now.

The goalkeeper had almost the entire goal covered and was barely inches away from saving it.

But no-one was saving that!

Still not over this tie though if Madrid get an early goal.next week

Has there ever been a more over hyped player than Bellingham? So anonymous

Madrid losing composure. Don't see that very often.

The goalkeeper had “almost” the whole goal covered and was barely inches away from saving it and “I'm babbling” Michael!?

It's a wonderful strike but inches are massive when it results in a goal, especially from so far out.

Courtois was miles away from saving the first! Didn't get near it.

It looks like the defender on the end of the left side of the wall is level with the post, but maybe there should have been five in the wall, instead of four, and push the defender on the end ie left, further out.

Still can't take anything away from the strike though.

You'd have stopped it, Rob.

I’d have had no need to dive, Mike. 😁😁😁

And Bayern blew it at home! Quite a day.

I am actually saying that I don't believe there should be a wall Michael. (Not a complete wall leaving a keeper, exposing so much of his goal.)

I've had this discussion with a few keepers and although none of them ever came out and agreed with me, a couple of them did say they had never considered not having a proper wall, but for shots so far out, I actually made sense.

Yes Rob. The end of the wall was level with post and not wider where it should be. Irrespective of where the ball is.

It's a moot point though as even if it was wider it would have still gone in.

Although maybe if it had been wider he might not have tried it?

Anyway, unbelievable strikes from a player who has never scored a free kick!

Always knew Everton were miles better than those Real Madrid upstarts, there's your proof! 😎

Hopefully even John Lydon is taking a break from moaning about everything to enjoy that

Thierry on the postgame show is absolutely glowing.

No, Liam and Rob. There was a full extra man wide of the line from ball to post. Look at it again.

Tony, I'll have to put some thought into your radical idea that there shouldn't even be a wall.

…

Okay, I've thought about it.

You're fucking crazy.

Who decided Daniel Sturridge was an ace analyst?

Clarence Seedorf, Wayne Rooney, Cesc Fabregas and... er... Sturridge in some embarrassing clobber.

Having watched a very different Arsenal on Saturday, it is now obvious where their focus and minds were.

Rice driving forward rather than his crab like strolling around football against us.

Take nothing away from them. Great result and some great goals.

Top class Arsenal and they have a good few missing.

That's Arteta getting another year. My two gooner mates want him gone.

I've looked at it Michael and the end of the wall is in line with the post? Doesn't matter where the ball is?

I'm with Clarence Serdorf who has just said the wall was wrong, not wide enough and should have had 5 players in!

Change of subject but this needs watching.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/656681596970558?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

Coming from you I will take that as a compliment Michael, but why do you always have to swear when directing somebody personally?

You not agreeing with me, isn’t a problem Michael, but, my own view is that I’m sure some of the Madrid players will be questioning their keeper for that first goal, even though it was an incredible strike, and he had already kept them in the game up to then.

I have an Arsenal mate who is not overly impressed with Arteta, Paul, and I said to him the other week that although they have been poor in the league and I don’t think they play aggressively enough considering the players they have, it actually wouldn’t surprise me if they won the champions league and it kept him in his job. We will see

Declan Rice - 'I saw where the wall was positioned and decided I could get it round it'

Tony,

There's having an opinion … and then there's saying something that is just fucking crazy.

Not having any wall at all would be just fucking crazy in that situation. End of.

All three superb goals. I have feeling it's going to be an all English champions league final.

End of! I haven’t heard that one for years Michael.

Instead of end of, can you explain why you think it would be crazy, in a calm and measured way?

Seriously the keeper had a wall, and this lead him to expose two thirds of his goal and resulted in him conceding a goal.

You have already said, that by having this view I denigrate the goal, but not once have I not said it was a great strike, Michael, so just like the keeper, I don’t think your angle is quite right!

I think it’s madness having a wall for shots so far out, if it means the goalkeeper leaves too much of his goal exposed, and especially if this means the keeper doesn’t see the ball properly until it has already gone past his wall.

The keeper had a wall tonight and Rice used it to his absolute advantage for his first goal, but do you seriously think Rice would have scored from that far out if the Keepers starting position would have been in the centre of his goal, and he’d had a perfect view of the ball when it was initially struck?

I honestly don’t Michael….and although I actually might be a little bit crazy or off the wall sometimes, I think my view is perfectly logical, when I question why one big wall is actually needed, for shots that are so far out.

Tony, you're right that a GK, middle of the goal, clear line of vision to the ball would be hard to beat from that distance. But you are wrong if you think the attacking team won't make a wall themselves anyway to obscure the GK's view.

Hence why a GK building their own wall and positioning it where they want it will always happen. If they build it right then it should take something truly sensational to beat them, as happened (twice) tonight.

Er, has there been a football match or two tonight that have any significance at all to the dire position, still, after decades, our club is still in, even if we have survived relegation again, somehow?

Bayern? Inter? Real? Arsenal?

These are clubs so far advanced for many decades from where we've been consigned to by hideous owners/bosses that I'm baffled as to why the moderators, whomever they now are, permit it==such comment on this site.

After all, mere mention of one predominantly successful North West club since the instigation of TW, and for decades beforehand in truth, has caused some of us to be red-carded by one "MK", who nonetheless now spouts above on any number of other non-entity clubs jousting for success whilst WE remain in a quagmire of mediocrity.

What is going on on TW MK?

Some posts ya just can't believe.

Mike

I agreed with your post then kept reading more posts now I’m wondering which one you meant or was it several? Lot of contenders.

'Some posts ya just can't believe'.

Spot on Mr. Gaynes. Were you thinking of that post that claimed that Beto's most recent pitiful one-on-one was not a "miss"?

Late to the party here but I do kind of agree with Tony.

The amount of goal that we concede from free kicks does my nut in, amount of time Pickford let's free kicks in by standing one side of his goal, the Man United Bruno one in the 2-2 draw pickled my head, wasn't even a good free kick so much.

Keepers need to start backing themselves in the middle of the goal

From that far out, a 4-man wall probably impeded the keeper's view more than it helped. I think it was 30 yards out, or close to it.

Maybe have just 2 as a precaution?

They're the professionals I suppose and I was never a keeper. If I was in the wall, I just did what we'd practiced and did what the keeper said!

Don, this was Michael's way of policing the forum and stopping non-Everton related comments littering the threads. Me being guilty and getting a MK "booking" on more than one occasion.

I don't mind, I'll watch any game of football if Everton aren't playing.

It does make me envious of where we could have been but for the obvious reasons you highlight.

Am I imagining this? But in days of yore, didn’t a defender mark each post, as added protection for free kicks, with the goalkeeper standing a little further in front of the goal line?

Terry Darracott and Mike Pejic John mate 58.

Good post Jamie, but this shouldn’t stop the goalkeeper taking up a more central position imo mate, especially because he can now put a couple of his own players either side of that opposition wall, (and a couple of blockers in front of it) which should then negate even extraordinary shots like the one Rice, hit last night.

Football to most of us is, or should be all about entertainment (if we weren’t so personally invested, it would probably be the only thing that mattered) and from an entertainment perspective Declan Rice scored a sensational goal, but just because I thought he was aided massively by the goalkeeper, the editor has called me fucking crazy🤷‍♂️

I find nothing wrong with Michael calling me crazy, but not when it comes to debating football, because the only thing I have ever took serious in my life is football, and even though I don’t take it anywhere near as seriously these days, I still love debating with knowledgeable and sensible people.

Great to see Arsenal reaping the benefits of the football lesson at Goodison last Saturday.

Two tasty fixtures tonight. Barcelona v Dortmund and PSG v Villa. Rooting for Villa, but having watched PSG against our neighbours, they look to be the best team around right now.

Danny I can see Villa getting a bit of a pasting tonight, If PSG convert half the chances they had against the RS.

Keep on teaching me Tony A (60). I don't think that I've learned more from anyone else on here, certainly not your 'arl fella'.

There's a column on the BBC-F site - "Unstoppable? Wall to blame? Keeper at fault? Rice's free-kicks analysed" - that shows that your opinion was not "fucking crazy".

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/ckg22y9rz96o

Tony, I agree with Paul. Regarding your free kick wall theory, In football we have to keep innovating and being creative. Sometimes left left-field thinking like you suggested breaks the mould. You are not crazy!

I don't know what the best ways to stop free kicks are. Perhaps the Pejic and Darracott method of covering the goal posts are, or another method. Certainly the one employed by Real Madrid didn't work.

You know your football, Tony.

Danny O'Neill 57:. stopping non-Everton related comments littering the threads. Me being guilty and getting a MK "booking" on more than one occasion.

I'm not having that.

'kin Hell Tony (A), you even explained to me what all those strange areas are south of The Rocket on Queen's Drive with their quaint names, Knotty Ash etc. Left turn for the M62 is the furthest south I've been, although we did go to Knowsley Safari Park when I was a kid. Might we have gone through say Childwall on the way?

I think I was close to a stint in the cooler, Paul!!

I doubt you'd have gone as far south as Childwall. Either East Lancs and drop down or through Huyton.

There is nothing quaint about Speke!! Woolton is nice though.

I've been to Huyton! That's another one ticked.

Woolton Village on a Sunday night can get a bit tasty with all the lemo heads.

Just read that Villa were playing Rotherham in the Championship 6 years ago.

The Rotherham story over the last 6 years has been amazing Liam.

The Rotherham story has rather murky non-football origins the last 6 years, Paul. It's grim that place.

In up-and-coming Halifax, the Piece Hall hosts an Echo & the Bunnymen/Mick Head double header in August.

You have to go to that Liam: Heaven Up Here is one of my top 10 albums and I think Mick wrote four or five of the others. Green, just fecking, green. If it's the first half of August, I might try and go.

Rotherham. Only been past it on the train, Liam. It looks grim, especially if it's raining. Just the right sort of place for knobheads who enjoy attacking asylum seekers' "hotels".

And then there is Steve Rotherham.

9th August Paul. I'll defo be going

https://www.thepiecehall.co.uk/event/echo-the-bunnymen/

Cheers Liam!

Anyone want Villa to lose?

Knotty Ash is actually before The Rocket, if you know the shortcuts and you're coming from Crosby, Paul.

I doubt you would have gone past Childwall to go to Knowsley Safari Park, because it is a couple of minutes drive, going south from The Rocket, and coming from Crosby, my guess is that the M57 would be the much preferred route; otherwise, it would have been that left turn onto M62.

I think growing up in Liverpool, a place where football means so much to so many of us, definitely made me want to understand the beautiful game, John, and my mate once told me a story of what Alan Stubbs allegedly said to Graeme Jones when he was working at Everton with Roberto Martinez, which I think sums up what scousers are like.

Jones apparently said they would never abandon their principles, and Stubbs replied that, although they might not abandon their principles, they would never be able to kid the Everton crowd, because our ex-captain's opinion was that at least 15/20% of the Everton crowd would be, or would have once been good footballers, and at least 5% of the crowd would have it in them to be good managers.

I have often wondered how close to the truth Stubbs actually was with this assessment, especially when you see a few hitting the crossbar during the half-time entertainment at Goodison Park!

FYI Tony: 5live commentary on PSG/Villa:

"The free kick is miles out but Aston Villa have a two man wall and now they are scrapping the wall".

Barca 1-0

Villa can't get the ball

Tony 76 - you can't kid a kidda, lar!

Great goal on the break. John McGinn brilliant.

Feck me - that overused cliche - against the run of play

I think a lot of teams have won the biggest competition in club football, by finding ways to score against the run of play.

I thought Forest had it to a T, under Clough, and they have also impressed me a few times this season, by being so clinical on the counter?

What a goal from Doue

Villa lads did not get close to Doue. Martinez? He had to move something there.

How good is Doue!

To play on the counter effectively, you need either real pace or skilful ball carriers when you have the ball.

Forest have both atm in Gibbs-White, Elanga and Hudson-Odoi.

Clough's Forest had John Robertson who was one the best players I ever saw at running with the ball and making chances out of very little.

Gary Birtles was quick Liam. And today we have erm no one like that.

Yes he was Paul and Trevor Francis and Tony Woodcock were no slouches either

I love watching defensively disciplined teams, playing purposeful, quick, counter attacking football.

Tony (90)
I think Chelsea were very good at that type of football under Mourinho.

The shite have scored more goals from counter attacks than anyone else so far this season; we are 17th with 2 goals.

Counter attacking is great to watch when it's done properly because it's done at speed and is exciting. The Elanga goal where he ran most of the pitch in about the same speed as Usain Bolt was breathtaking.

The majority of football matches are risk free pass-athons. Slow and without excitement.

This game is a good game to watch tbf.

I don’t think he won the champions league for Chelsea though Dave? Although I remember his Inter Milan team, knocking out the great Barcelona team, on the way to winning a treble which included the champions league.

I love watching skill, I love watching teams play with infectious energy, but I believe the biggest requirement in top level sport, has got to be discipline?

Barca 2-0 36-year-old

Great goal.

Brilliant wingplay.

If you don’t defend deep against this PSG side then one thing is certain, they will definitely open you up?

Yep Tony. As soon as Vills pushed up the pitch they were punished.

Rio Ferdinand is a poor commentator. Anyone can scream 'Whooaaa'

Villa must bring Ascensio on

Here's one for you:

Pickford or Martinez?

Martinez the bigger wind-up merchant.

Not as bad as McMananman, Liam.

Barcelona's keeper as composed on the ball as any of our midfielders.

Lewandowski. 36, if you could afford the wages you would surely??

Barca shredding Dortmund. Thanks to a striker who's older than Gana.

How's the Villa game?

2-1 would be a brilliant result for Villa

Yamal might just turn out to be one of the greatest ever. 4-0.

Tie over for Villa.

Some goals in this match... wow!

I dunno, Rob…

I think it is, Paul. Villa have got to come out at home and have a go. They simply can't afford to sit back like they did tonight.

PSG have the players well capable of hitting Villa on the counter attack at Villa Park and I fancy one or two PSG goals next week.

Having a goal keeps Villa in it.

But really, on paper, and without giving it the commentator's kiss of death, the prospect of a PSG v Barcelona final looks mouthwatering for the neutral.

I'm off to watch Iliman Ndiaye, My Story. More likely I'll have to finish it, as I'll fall asleep!

Not saying you wont be right big fella, but Villa will not sit back they will go for it - they have no choice - and while Villa Park is not as good as the Old Lady at night it will still be rocking.

Semis looking so far like PSG/Gooners and Barca/Inter.

That's all they can do, Paul. But that will leave them even more exposed to a very, very good PSG team.

For the purists, I think most would like to see a PSG v Barcelona final.