Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:Robbie Rotten wrote:I wasn't actually thinking about us when mentioning the Inter comment, I just thought it could have held influence on the game.
Of course you weren't. I believe you.
The fact that Liverpool were on a longer and even more arduous trek across Europe never crossed your mind when you were saying that Inter had an advantage because of Barca's travelling.
Quote:Those kind of games, in order to win them you have to be razor sharp, on your ball for 90 minutes, preparation and tactics have to be spot on, if not, it can be very costly. I felt Uefa could have delayed the game for a week or so, I'm not sure how it is for supporters, but I'm guessing they'll have to drive/train it there, too?
The dates for the semi finals were set. If UEFA start altering dates just because air travel isn't available then sides will be putting in appeals for all type of innocuous reasons if a couple of star players are out.
We're in the business end of the season, for most of the sides they are also involved in tight title challenges. Altering games just because air travel isn't available would be out of order IMO. The travelling sides have just got to suck it up and get on with it.
Quote:It doesn't help that we had to play on a Monday, either, despite us and Fulham being the only sides left in Europe, you'd think we'd get a Saturday kick off with our extra long drive to Madrid.
You've got the advantage of playing at home in the second leg. You'll be happy because of that. Because of an Icelandic volcano Bayern, Inter and Athletico gained an advantage. You're not happy about that, so you want the date of the game changed. UEFA are dead right to say tough 5hit. If you were the home side and Athletico were travelling to Liverpool you wouldn't care less about their inconvenience. You'd want to keep the advantage you've received.
Teams can use adversity to bond themselves together or they can let the adversity be an excuse for their failure. Given the overwhelming vvankfest that's been thrown for Barca, they should have been good enough to shrug off the coach travel.
You can make all the accusations you want, when I wrote the comment about Barca, it was purely about Barca, I wasn't hinting at an excuse for Liverpool or thinking about Liverpool when I wrote it, I was thinking about Barca as I felt it was unfair that they'd received a hindrance for such a major game.
This isn't about consistent changing dates, it's just about being a little more flexible during times when something is clearly affecting the competition. How are our supporters supposed to get there? Why can't they just delay the game for a few games for the benefit of our team and supporters? If Atletico had to travel, I'd say exactly the same as I'd want a fair tie and I'd see it as unfair on their supporters and team, because it is. The whole 'home and away' advantage is mythical, what good will having them at home in the second leg be if they beat us 3-0 at their place because we had disruptive match preparations?
You can say all you like about Barca and the vvankfest, maybe the coach travel didn't affect them, maybe it won't affect us, but we'll never know but what we do know is they put in a sub-par performance against Inter. As I already said, these games are hard enough to win alone, without having added obstacles. Atletico, Inter, Hamburg and Bayern won't face such obstacles in a couple of weeks, we'll obviously have to accept it and get on with it, but it isn't 'fair' on the teams or the supporters.
