I can understand International friendlies. It's too risky to throw untried/young players into competitive games. But why have them at stupid times like now or 3 days after the season starts? They should just have a disagnated few weeks after the league seasons finish to have some international friendlies, not now.

Nevertheless, I decided to watch Holland-Germany. And what almost shocked me is that this moment a farewell for Kluivert, Reiziger, Davids and van Nistelrooy was organized. A bit strange, considering the first 3 players retired long time ago. Very awkward.

Davids is still playing, he only recently got the highlight of his career with a MOTM performance against Torquay

Saw the 1st half of Italy-France.

Good Montolivo-assisted El Sha goal. Balo also played a nice ball to Monto.

France's goal by Valbuena was really great. he made that Juve player by the name of Bazagli look a bit like crap...

Monto was boss and Verratti looks like a more agile version of Pirlo. really impressed with him. well done Italian clubs including us... if they weren't such cheap basterds the kid wouldn't be playing in France now...

Zlatan hat-trick, been Sweden's best player, closely followed by Joe Hart.

Joe Hart

Fair play Zlatan, but Hart is a shambles nowadays.

Didn't watch it. Only surprise is that we didn't lose by more, what a dreadful squad.

Your Hart hatred is hilarious.

Make that 4 goals, huh? Best striker alive today, by a (country) mile. Pun always intended.

Wasn't Hart World's third best goalkeeper after Casillas and Buffon?

Anyway, I got a slightly teary eye when I found out Ibra had scored 4 goals (because of excitement as if he's still a Milan player). and there I thought I had no feeling for him, I already miss him.

People over here always call him overrated, not that good, etc. Yeah, okay.

Nah, I rated him 18 or so months ago, particularly when he was at Birmingham, remember debating with you about you seeing him as being arrogant and I defended him and said he should be playing because he was that good! & in all honesty by some distance is still our best keeper. Though the amount of calamity's he's had in recent years it's becoming a worry. He's a decent shot stopper in the main but crosses he's still very very suspect on and that's what holds a good keeper back from being one of the best, look at Dida for example.

He's still a good GK but is overhyped when you hear things like 'as good as Gigi in his prime' I mean, come on man.

He has his great nights like against Dortmund which people will plaud, yet at the weekend when he made a pretty bad error all the pundits etc blamed it purely on the centre backs and 'the keeper couldn't do anything about it' if that's De Gea they would slaughter him for it.


Not in a million years, there are some like me of course but the vast majority call him 'one of the best in the world' etc over here absolutely no doubt about that one.

Fair play for scoring one of the greatest goals ever!?

Falcao for me. But Ibra is sensational and along with Falcao, Cavani, RVP and Aguero the best.

Everyone I know says he's overrated, the same can be said of those on ITV/Sky. Always talk about how never performs in the CL and isn't that good, etc. I've got into many a arguement with people because they don't think he's that good.

Ah nah, I'm not having that, there's no chance that's the general vibe. You're either really unlucky or just exaggerating the truth here, . Jamie Redknapp called him the 'worlds best' a few months back on Sky. Roy Keane is the only one who gives Hart a toughish time on TV, the rest of them love him. Tonight they are going to lay some blame on him because he was poor, very poor though in the main he can do no wrong.

Even when he had a howler a while back I remember them plauding him because he came on TV and said he made a mistake, thus spinning a bad professional mistake into a positive in an instance, don't think there's too many occasions our media do that, particularly with footballers.

Not me, I'm in your camp then. Besides, "great" goalkeepers are never easy to find, they are so few.


All quality strikers, some possessing more completeness than others. I'd personally add Gomez and Huntelaar (as a poacher with an eye for goal) to the list for myself. The thing with Ibrahimović is that with experience behind him, martial arts training and fitness, and an intimidating physical presence, he just has that extra bit of consistency.


So true. Though I personally think that was City's oil money speaking in this particular case.

Think there's some crossed wires here. I was talking about Zlatan, not Hart.

EDIT: I can see why you'd think I was talking Hart. Didn't see Zeddie's post, I was replying to acid calling Zlatan the best.

Ibra's last goal is one of the best goals I've seen.

Yeah a mix up, but I actually got it that you were talking about Ibra. And well, since I never was the one to call him overrated, I have little to add to this matter. Always felt he had an attitude about him, a swagger of sorts, and an egotistic individual like him always preferred to be the biggest fish in the pond. Which he was most of the times.

But regardless of that, with age (he's into his 30s now), even Zlatan is aware of the fact that he has little time at the very top. And hence, you see some humbleness from him, like when he refers to Silva and Milan too. This was the same guy that preferred Ronaldinho out, but then again he was the same guy that scored tons of goals for us.

He had his fair share of CL disappointments, but calling Ibra overrated in of itself is the most overrated statement ever. Not to mention terribly wrong on so many levels. One can count talents like him on one's hands, and still have fingers to spare. Ibrahimović never was "AAA", but by golly, he's the first name in the "AA" column.

And seeing as how we are struggling with "B" and "C" level guys in our team now, that's something!

Video, or it didn't happen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZmp_AgPbt8


that is beyond insanity. i have watched it over 10 times. wow just wow... def one of the greatest goals ever scored. arrghhhhhhhhhh

I just came here to post that. Absolutely incredible!

Was an amazing goal.

To bad it was just a friendly..

Holly **** what a goal. it's one of those goals only he can score. Messi's and Ronaldo's never mind even trying. if they're magicians, Ibra is God.

Ibra thinks he's the world's best player. Tonight, he was.

Would you guys call this Ibra's absolute peak? The best display ever from him, for now and ever?

I don't know about that, but I'd say, at 30, he's in the peak of his career. It sucks so much we had to sell him, along with Thiago. Those two really made the difference for us.

So very true! Do agree about peak, I think he just can't get better from here on. Or very little chance of it happening now that he's 30. But once you consider all that he's accomplished (and consistently) on a personal level these past 8-10 years, few have matched, let alone bettered it. Few, if at all.

I do hope he wins the CL this year or the next. Chelsea had their fairy tail, wouldn't mind a PSG one now. And well, if we are to somehow start a new project with Pep next season, fingers crossed PSG wins it this year.

some may call this late, but whatever...

Z L A T A N !!!!!!!

Ah Yeah, Zlatan gets called overrated all the time over here. Thought something weird was going on if you were referring to Hart!

It's a very nice goal but I'm the only one who think that people overreacted?

Yes, you are.

One of the best goal ever? Really? Keeper made a mistake, Zlatan made a spectacular bicycle kick to an empty net but it's not in one of the best ever category for me. That for goals like Maradona's vs England. I'll even take Sheva's goal vs Juve before this one.

Who cares about the keeper's mistake? Zlatan's acrobatics, given the distance and difficulty, was out of this world. How can that not be frigging amazing?

I think any open goal can't be considered one of the best either. Petrov scored from the half way line with a half volley on his weak foot, but the keeper was 10 yards off his line, which takes away from it.

Yes, distance and difficulty but it still a kick to an open net. Amazing but not 'omg out of this world amazing' like some made it to be.

It ultimately came from a poor error by the opposition.

It's not even Zlatan's best goal to me, granted he has an illustrious collection but it doesn't pip the one he scored for Ajax in my mind where he seemingly took on about 8 players.

To each his own then.

Much better yeah.

It's the world we live in now, everything is 'the best ever' nowadays, certainly in sports, particularly Football. Suppose it goes hand-hand with social networking etc. Everyone gets on board and you can generate a lot of hype easily for something.

It's a goal to remember obviously but does it pip ones scored in European Championships/World Cups/European Finals/Domestic League games? No. For me the 'greatest' has to be in concept too and based on the scenario the game is in, how can anyone define it? If a guy does that in a park and it's filmed on a iPhone and uploaded to YT does it get this title? Nope. Ultimately it was just a meaningless friendly.

Just a really great goal, let's leave it at that.

I'm sure I'm alone on this but I don't even think Hart made a "mistake". name one other player that could make a goal out of that ball and I'll take it back. usually they attempt to control the ball, turn back and take a shot at goal only for it to be blocked by the defenders or the 'keeper himself. I think Ibra's sheer intelligence and his otherworldly execution makes this one of the best goals ever. not to mention it's a one of a kind goal. Maradona's goal vs England was carbon-copied by Messi even better (though against an inferior team), but who can do this? players don't even try to do something like this (because they'll probably embarrass themselves trying). that alone is enough for me to call this one of the best goals.

this.

i certainly do not call every good goal one of the best i've seen and honestly i dont recall the last time i called a current goal one of the best i ever saw but this goal was magical. it took me to a place i have never been in football and it was beautiful.

Still can't believe we gave him and Silva away for pennies

Yeah, I don't give a damn about Hart, but watching Ibra score like this makes you wonder...

We all know what Ibra could do, it doesn't have to make me wonder

He literally took us to the last 2 days of the league last year while having this coach and 1/2 of the team injured throughout the entire season. THAT is what Ibra can do.

Look at us now

...makes me wonder why we shipped him off so easily - that's what I meant to say

Wages, needed to cut on them.

Yep, but look at where we are now

We're about to lose big time on CL money and next year we won't even be in the competition, so we're still going to register huge losses which outweigh the wages of Ibra and Silva considering we made nearly 40m out of the CL alone last season

We already were in a bad situation, that's why we are here now.

what han is saying is that by the end of this season we'll probably have been better off not selling ibra and silva cause we're gonna incure financial losses for our performances. and thats not the only loss, there's things like ticket sales, merchandise and probably price cut by our sponsors and endorsers when their new contracts come up and many other marketing aspects that bald head should have really thought about.


this should've been berlusconi when galliani suggested the sales of ibra and silva.