Unprompted, Arsène pointed out that “Robben did well; he dived well, and he dived well again tonight and that’s what I spoke about yesterday and it happened today. Nothing new.” It’s undeniably true. Time and again, under the slightest of nudges, the lightest of contact, even the ghost of a whisper of a caress, Robben collapsed in a heap or splayed out like he was being thrown from a saloon-window in a crappy spaghetti-western. He wasn’t alone, of course, as Lahm, Martinez, and others fell to the ground like Muppets or Shakespearean actors paid on a per-dive basis. All that was missing at times was for one or another Bayernian to exclaim something along the lines of “Mount, mount my soul! thy seat is up on high;/ Whilst my gross flesh sinks downard, here to die.” Indeed, some of them fell so slowly, so dramatically, that they might have had time for a longer soliloquy.
It comes as a bit of poetic justice then that Podolski dropped the Hammer of Mjolnir on them on what might have been a penalty. As he cut left to chase down a through-ball into the area, he outran Lahm to the ball, nudged him aside (or did Lahm merely trip?) and cut along the endline. Perhaps sensing that hsi teammate had flubbed his lines, Mandzukic jogged along behind Poldi with his arms as if he couldn’t believe the injustice of it all. However, Poldi danced into the box before slamming the ball through the roof of the net. Done. Dusted.
Now, of course, it wasn’t enough to right wrongs, and we’re still out of the Champions League. Then again, Robben wasn’t done, earning a spot-kick at the other end when he lost his footing, fell to his knees, and Kos bumped into him from behind. How the referee fell for it is beyond me, but karma is a bitch, ain’t it? Fabianski denied the spot-kick.
Still, it makes me wonder. If Bayern are so great, so magnificent, so goddamned invincible, why the hell do they have to resort to such shameless simulation? 49 consecutive wins in the Bundesliga. Aside from the pointless 2-3 loss in the group-stage to Man City, they haven’t lost in the Champions League since facing us last year. In fact, all of that flopping around like electrocuted fish suffering from grand mal seizures while overdosing on heroin make me wonder just how terrified Bayern were of us in this match—and in the first leg, come to think of it, when there was just as much of it going on. It’s a little bit grubby if you ask me, hardly befitting a squad that fancies itself champions of anything.
shut up you sissies, you lost fair and square. go back to london and stay there. maybe if you're good we'll let you have can mandzukic for next year.
Pot, meet Kettle; Kettle, meet pot.
what's that supposed to mean? if you're suggesting Arsenal players dive, or they dive as much as Bayern's, prove it. I don't remember a single instance of a Gunner falling over as many times as Robben or Martinez did. who among the Gunners has a rep for diving as bad as Robben, tell me that.
Pep's Barca teams were shameless divers as well. He gets them to work hard, but he's much like Mourinho in that he is more than happy to see his players flop around if anyone happens to run within about a yard of them.Go back and watch some of those old Barca/Real games… they were unwatchable from all the flopping and screaming.
robben is a natural born diver and for the rest of the squad, they had been train by Pep, Bayern last year were not dirty as this year.
no thank you for your desperate offer to offload him.
The ref chief for UEFA games shd have a report on every ref's performance. Frankly some of these guys are not up to the mark.Those who award penalties must be scrutinised in great detail. You never know his decision decides the result.
What it means is every team has players that go down in a stiff breeze and it's a bit rich this complaint coming from a useless shit cunt who never saw a bit of cheating from Ljungberg, Henry, Pires, or all any of the long list of Arsenal cheats. In conclusion, fuck you precious.
Henry and Ljungberg never cheated – you're making it up as you go.Robben's behaviour was filthy and disgusting. The ref didn't do much better by failing to deal with it.
“you lost fair and square”How are we meant to take a statement like that seriously? We can see that you support diving by failing to acknowledge it – shame on you.