I was so happy 60 minutes into the match ... yes, Ibra missed an absolute sitter in the first half, during a period when the Arse should have been buried under an avalanche of goals, but it was all set straight at the start of the 2nd half -- Zlatan made up for it with 2 well-taken goals, and a rout looked on the cards again ...
Walcott has only one strength: pace! it was obvious what they would try to do with him: feed it into him on the break or when he is at full pelt up the touchline, and see what happens ... all Barcelona had to do was to man-mark him, stay goal-side of him, and the threat is nullified ... but no ... the goal still could have been prevented, but Víctor Valdés' effort to save a not-too-impressive shot from Walcott was poor, and the ball snuck through ...
then, Ibra gets taken off for Henry?! wtf?! in an extremely rare occurrence, I actually agree with Eyal -- Pep is not someone I rate that much ... yes he has been very successful, but I don't think he is a tactical genius by any stretch of the imagination ... Yaya Touré has long been suffering from a back injury, and he has never been fully fit, so not picking him was no stroke of genius ... but taking off the goal-hero, when he was in form, confident, and hungry for his first hat-trick with his new club, especially to bring on a has-been, was just dumb ... Messi had not done much of note in the match, and Pedro was fading ... bad decision to take off Ibra then ... and unsurprisingly, there was no focus to the attacks from that point on ... Henry, true to form, did nothing ...
the penalty looked dubious -- it looked like Cesc had kicked Puyol in the process of shooting ... unfortunately, I have not gotten a detailed look at a replay yet ... so there is no point arguing it further now ...
very disappointing ... the Arse should have been decimated, but instead they have been given a lifeline ... still, we should be able to close it out at home ... we better, after giving this first leg away like that ...
).