Don’t be so sure on that. Navas played tonight, most likely imposed himself to Lope as being fully ready and wanting to help the team (but clearly wasn’t even near 100%) and he didn’t come out injured so could continue to play now and leave Vidal benched undeservedly, while putting in abysmal performances.
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Please tell me that we don’t have to put up with that ref in the 2nd leg, it seems that his understanding of the rules say it’s ok to push opponents to the floor in order to win the ball. I lost count of how many times Dortmund got away with this tactic including the clear push on Papu that led to their 3rd goal.
Then there was Haaland holding back Escudero & Fernando (one in each hand) at a corner to prevent them defending the ball.
I thought we made far too many mistakes in the first half, Dortmund were quite happy to wait and watch as we passed the ball from side to side until we misplaced one and let them surge forward.
Our defence could not cope at all with their bullying tactics, Kounde looked for once like the boy he is playing against men, Navas in my opinion is sadly well past his best ( whether it’s due to the accumulation of injuries or age I’m not sure) and should not be starting.
I thought Papu did ok, at least he was trying to move the ball forward. I felt sorry for Yen as he had no service at all and spent most of the first half defending.
The last ten mins of the 2nd half we played a bit better and at least had a go at them, let’s hope we carry that on into the 2nd leg. All is not lost but a 2 goal advantage is going to be tough.
And after all that. The only topic on Gol tv Spain is … Should R Madrid sign Haaland or Mbappe
I give up.
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I was listening to the game while working tonight. I have to say that this sounded like the most insipid performance I may have ever witnessed from this club in all the years I’ve been following them.
They seemed like rabbits in headlights, petrified the of being caught on the counter, so were only playing balls sideways until they got picked off.
I feel like Rakitic doesn’t merit a place in the side right now. I think Lope messed up tonight and really has to open his eyes to a more expansive game plan, especially with Papu in the side, but perhaps that’s just wishful thinking! I hope that Lope looks at himself and his tactics, rather than writing off the result as a freak accident.
Anyway, Navas and Rakitic should’ve been on the bench.
As has been said above, performances against the big sides haven’t been good enough at times (what has happened to the cojones on display Vs Bayern in the Super Cup?!)
There’s still a slim chance in the return leg, but I think that conceding three in the first leg is always going to make it difficult, especially when considering the away goals rule.
I hope tonight doesn’t damage our confidence too badly, especially in the second leg of the Copa.
¡Nunca te Rindas!
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THIS. Dortmund was dangerous with or without the ball, so we were overly cautious.
AND THIS. The only good thing from this result is that we cannot rest on our laurels in the return leg. We’ll have to go at them from the 1st whistle. And we hardly ever start games that way. We can still be patient, but definitely more forward-thinking.
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Overall we still have a chance with superb preformance in the second game. They don’t have good defence. Rakitic shouldn’t play in the second match and I don’t know, if acuna is coming back, he could be big upgrade on Escudero. Really hard position that we put ourself in, but I see hope for the 2:0 win.
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We should approach the game aiming for 3 goals on the return leg night, can’t lose anything at this point. We go for 3, even if we concede 2 in the process it’s still extra time. If we go for 2 goals only we’ll get eliminated. We should go all in.
I’m also saying this considering that they’re not known for very tough defense, although they defended well against us last night, but that was more because of our lack of ideas going forward and we saw how almost everything changed when we had pacier midfielders in Oscar and Oliver.
If all is well, I’d start like this in the next game:
Bono
Vidal - Kounde - DC - Escudero (or Acuna if fully fit by then and that he plays at least 1 match before, though I doubt it so Escudero it is)
Jordan - Fernando - Oliver
Suso - YEN - Papu
Second half subs: LDJ (if YEN doesn’t score at least 1 goal, LDJ is more dangerous on set pieces and crosses and BVB are known to be pathetic defending those as I’ve watched them concede many goals that way), Munir and Oscar, maybe Gudelj later on for fresh legs in the midfield.
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Also another problem that I have with this team is not being aggressive enough in certain games. We don’t need to be Getafe or Atletico (although they’re much milder now), but often it looks like the players are fine with letting opponents pass through. We need to push more, tackle more, shout more, kick more and get some tactical yellows so that the opponents know that they can’t maneuver however they please.
We were much more passionate and active during the EL mini-tournament and if we don’t get that ‘mojo’ back soon, we’ll risk even reaching the final or winning the CDR (which we fully deserve) or even have a proper chance to doing something vs. Dortmund.
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This is a tough call. We have the semi against Barca on the 3rd of march, then the 2nd leg 6 days later!
What we don’t need is extra time v Barca. It will be interesting to see what teams both clubs put out for the semi with the "must win " games coming up fast, hopefully Barca will rest a few.
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I think you are right Jim. the CDR is their only chance of a trophy this season, they will probably come out all guns blazing and change things around in the 2nd half when they are 3 or 4 up.
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They definitely will as you mentioned Brian. However, if we screw that lead up and go to extras or end up losing, we’re done for the season as well. The only thing that’ll keep our hopes up and help us fight for the remainder of the season is if we reach the CDR final.
From now we only have Osasuna and Elche in between as ‘easier’ games (which are still tricky), as we’ll face Barca in the league at home, Barca away in CDR and BVB away in CL.
The disastrous scenario would be if we get eliminated from both CDR and CL, but I think it’s fair to expect that we’ll at least reach the CDR final, it would be massive for us - plus we won’t have a top-team opponent like RM or Atletico in the final, rather Bilbao or Levante (rooting for Levante!).
So the next 5-6 matches will more or less make or break our season and we need to approach one game at a time. Hoping for the best scenario!
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100% I don’t know why we played them so soft. We needed to be physical with both and failed to do so early. Once we started coming in hard on challenges and went with the back three, we improved.
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One last thought before thinking about Osasuna.
We lose 2-3, against a magnificent team and there is not one of us, not one, who does not think we are going to come back.
To bed with pride brushing my bald head.
As my friend Santi says:
We are fucking Sevilla Futbol Club!
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Haaland and Mbappe showed us that you don’t need to hassle around too much to create goal scoring opportunities. Their sole presence is a threat itself.
We would be much better at the front provided we had a world class striker. And yet we even struggle to score against Huesca.
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Sorry @TimSpence2 and @SurreySevilla my schedule was all crazy today so we just got this done late. Hopefully we can get you on soon.
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Some good analysis.
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I actually think, Dortmund adapted well their gameplan from the start but also ´overperformed´ in a way. And also we made them look good, in the things they are good at and credits to them for converting it deadly.
Lesson learned I hope, adapt and we can surely bring it too them in the second leg.
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I wonder why Papu didn’t get the 24 for the Champions league?
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Bad news… Dortmund thrashed Schalke 0-4 today, they are in top-form.
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I hope it’s only Schalke that made them look like that. But from the goals and highlights, Dortmund are looking like Bayern of last season.
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That freakin Haaland goal from today though. Good lord!
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