Ronaldinho says - no English team will go through

[JAzz]

sorry arsenal fans...

You have a point but your team hasn't exactly set the world on fire. Since your treble you have one a grand total of 1 tie in the knock out stage of the European cup. Yet Man utd are seen as a good European side, all good trashing the poor sides but always get found against the top sides, kinda like us......

 

[SteveH]

Finally.
Someones said what ive been thinking.

Its funny though, how everyone but Chelsea fans think that they`d get beat by Milan.
Personally, i think that Milan are just better. Simple as. But thats just me.

Finally, an unbiased view Your worse than my eye-tie m8, you don't even understand when your being biased.

Of course your going to think milan are better, your flipping sig ***** them.

Anyway - Chelsea were without Drogba & Robben that match. I don't rate Drogba, but he's got a prescence and can intimidate defences. Robben's out of this world, and with Robben on the left and Duff on the right that is the tantalising. Combined, they are awesome. With the presence of Lampard, and the holding force of Makalele that Midfield is, imo the most solid and attack/defence minded in the world. Lets remember they havn't been playing together for long, let them gel - then lets drool.

Defence. Yes, Milan have a better defence - but they're nearly dead. You seem to write them off, yet their record is brilliant.

I don't understand why your comparing Chelsea and Manu. Oh, Manu couldn't break them down - they had rnv, rooney, giggs, ronaldo on the pitch.. Chelsea deffo can't. What a load of BUNKEM! Chelsea scored four, yes FOUR goals past Barcelona, Manu would not of got one the way they played against Milan, and what I saw of the match - Milan were hardly breathtaking - I mean, ffs.. it took an underperforming Chelski player to put Milan through

So lets see. The CL, is.. atm a gamble. Teams have that many injuries.. refereering has been so inconsistant this year (Even collina has been crap)..

 

[Chris1712]

Finally, an unbiased view Your worse than my eye-tie m8, you don't even understand when your being biased.

Of course your going to think milan are better, your flipping sig ***** them.

Anyway - Chelsea were without Drogba & Robben that match. I don't rate Drogba, but he's got a prescence and can intimidate defences. Robben's out of this world, and with Robben on the left and Duff on the right that is the tantalising. Combined, they are awesome. With the presence of Lampard, and the holding force of Makalele that Midfield is, imo the most solid and attack/defence minded in the world. Lets remember they havn't been playing together for long, let them gel - then lets drool.

Defence. Yes, Milan have a better defence - but they're nearly dead. You seem to write them off, yet their record is brilliant.

I don't understand why your comparing Chelsea and Manu. Oh, Manu couldn't break them down - they had rnv, rooney, giggs, ronaldo on the pitch.. Chelsea deffo can't. What a load of BUNKEM! Chelsea scored four, yes FOUR goals past Barcelona, Manu would not of got one the way they played against Milan, and what I saw of the match - Milan were hardly breathtaking - I mean, ffs.. it took an underperforming Chelski player to put Milan through

So lets see. The CL, is.. atm a gamble. Teams have that many injuries.. refereering has been so inconsistant this year (Even collina has been crap)..

praise be true brethren.

Oh and drogba actually has a fairly decent goals/game ratio, hes just injured a lot.

 

[Goatboy]

Might want to edit that sweary out quick matey

Might want to edit that so it sounds a bit less gay.

This is a thread about the manly world of football there's no scope for words like 'sweary' in here.

 

[Goatboy]

Since your treble you have one a grand total of 1 tie in the knock out stage of the European cup.

In fairness all English teams are **** in CL, it's a case of simply not being good enough, we've done a bit better in the UEFA so it's not really the style of football or any other excuses like that.

 

[Jimbeam3678]

Might want to edit that so it sounds a bit less gay.

This is a thread about the manly world of football there's no scope for words like 'sweary' in here.

Won't even rise to that

 

[sunama]

Anyway - Chelsea were without Drogba & Robben that match. I don't rate Drogba, but he's got a prescence and can intimidate defences. Robben's out of this world, and with Robben on the left and Duff on the right that is the tantalising. Combined, they are awesome. With the presence of Lampard, and the holding force of Makalele that Midfield is, imo the most solid and attack/defence minded in the world. Lets remember they havn't been playing together for long, let them gel - then lets drool.

tbh, i think this is as good as the current set of players (at chelsea) can get. the theory of gelling is questionable (just as the theory of young teenage players getting better with age...but thats for a whole other thread). when a team is new and playing bad, they can only get better and watchers will put this down to the team 'gelling' (when in fact it isnt that they are gelling, its just that they couldnt get much worse than they were). but when a team is playing good (chelsea, say), there isnt much room for improvement. i dont believe in the theory of 'gelling'.

Defence. Yes, Milan have a better defence - but they're nearly dead.

lol

I don't understand why your comparing Chelsea and Manu. Oh, Manu couldn't break them down - they had rnv, rooney, giggs, ronaldo on the pitch.. Chelsea deffo can't. What a load of BUNKEM! Chelsea scored four, yes FOUR goals past Barcelona, Manu would not of got one the way they played against Milan, and what I saw of the match - Milan were hardly breathtaking - I mean, ffs.. it took an underperforming Chelski player to put Milan through

finally someone having a go at man utd. now i get my chance: the way milan played was impressive. the reason i say this is that they stopped man utd from playing their game. they held possession, but didnt really attack hard. 1-0 is what they wanted and patience was the key. they knew man utd would try and turn the game into a high scoring one - man utd's strength. so they simply prevented the game from turning into a multiple goal fest. by slowing the game down, they frustrated man utd and man utd's players simply got bogged down and lost heart. not many teams are capable of doing this to man utd and this is why milan's performance is being being rated so highly. milan stopped man utd scoring for 180mins - thats impressive. who was the last team to achieve this feat?

man utd didnt look good because milan didnt let them show how well they can play. if man utd played barca, you wouldve seen a goal fest (barca wouldve won or drawn) but you would see exactly what man utd are capable of.

to someone who knows nothing about mourinhos track record (and recent form), for sure milan are absolute favourites - by miles. however, consider the fact that chelsea showed they can beat (arguably) the best team in europe (top team (barca) in the no.1 league in europe (spanish)), you now know that mourinho is still getting everything right, just as he did last year and the year before that; and that chelsea can not only play for 1-0 results (they have lots of them when robben doesnt play) but can also win high scoring games against high scoring, attacking teams.

i actually think that a team that plays slowly, for a 1-0 result is exactly the sort of team that chelsea would play best against (think, ac milan). the game will be tactically very heavy and mourinho should easily win that battle. chelseas most difficult opponents will be a team that plays super attacking, almost chaotic football, with lots of long balls and some hard tackling (bolton and man city played like this against them iirc) and this is not how milan play.

 

[*FLASH*]

its the same story all the time....

Chelsea will go out Milan are great blah blah blah

Chelsea will wipe the floor with Milan and I dont think Milan will score even with Shevchenko available.

I hope its the final.

 

[BoomAM]

Wouldnt normally bother. But as your a clayhead.

Combined, they are awesome. With the presence of Lampard, and the holding force of Makalele that Midfield is, imo the most solid and attack/defence minded in the world.

Not the best. V.good. But a toss up between theres an Kaka/Gatuso/Seedorf/Pirlo.

Defence. Yes, Milan have a better defence - but they're nearly dead. You seem to write them off, yet their record is brilliant.

Nearly dead? Maybe. But considering the speed of some of Uniteds players, all of the defence had them well under control. Old yes. Bad no. AC Milan have arguably the best defence in the world at the moment, regardless of age.

I don't understand why your comparing Chelsea and Manu. Oh, Manu couldn't break them down - they had rnv, rooney, giggs, ronaldo on the pitch.. Chelsea deffo can't. What a load of BUNKEM! Chelsea scored four, yes FOUR goals past Barcelona, Manu would not of got one the way they played against Milan, and what I saw of the match - Milan were hardly breathtaking - I mean, ffs.. it took an underperforming Chelski player to put Milan through

Bare in mind that Milan didnt even look like they were trying against United. Ive seen them play properly, and if they played properly, they would have beaten united by more than what they did.
And Chelsea regect or not. He scored. But bare in mind that we have super pippo & shevy back for the next set of CL results, without Crespo, we still have one of the best strike partnerships around.

I also find it amusing, that everyone that i see that i know supports United, or Liverpool, or even Arsenal, or other supporters, think that Milan will annihilate Chelsea. They wont annihiliate them, but it`d be a close game.

 

[sunama]

Bare in mind that Milan didnt even look like they were trying against United. Ive seen them play properly, and if they played properly, they would have beaten united by more than what they did.

dude, get real. milan were trying. i think what u meant is that they werent attacking hard. but remember, if u attack man utd hard, milan would get exposed at the back and man utd in all probability wouldve scored. in fact, i think if milan tried to attack man utd, man utd wouldve outscored milan over the 2 legs. milan manager got it absolutely right - he stopped man utd from playing attacking football and told his players to be patient. im sure he told hs players that if they are patient, they will definitely go through; if they are impetuous and attack desperately, then they would be in danger of conceding heavily. he probably even showed them tapes of what man utd could do if a team played attacking football against them (think juventus). so in all honesty i think milan played as well as they could against man utd, getting their tactics 100% correct.

I also find it amusing, that everyone that i see that i know supports United, or Liverpool, or even Arsenal, or other supporters, think that Milan will annihilate Chelsea. They wont annihiliate them, but it`d be a close game.

im man utd through and through and am observing, milan and chelsea as a neutral but i dont see milan beating chelsea. chelsea are too strong and i think mourinho learnt his lesson after losing to newcastle - he wont be making 3 subs at half time and finishing the game with 9 men.

we've spent most of this thread arguing about who is better, chelsea or milan. wouldnt it be funny if both get knocked out in the next round and never get to play eachother?

 

[LionOfJudah]

If Collina hadn't made a mistake right near the end they would have got beaten

I just thought in the 2nd leg Barca were just terrible in defense and Chelsea found it too easy just to go straight through their defense in the first 20mins. Even when it went to 3-2 Chelsea couldn't get near them for long periods and Cech kept them in the game, Barca had like 66% possession and a pass completion % of something like 80%

Possession don't count for diddly, goals is what counts. and a win is a win. Yes collina made mistake but you cant expect him to see everything + it balances out for drogba sending off in 1st game.
Also why is everyone off saying Milan is best team? Just cause they beat Man u fielding an unfit RvN? Yes Milan is a great side but then Chelsea are great this season as well. Chelsea might defend with 75%of their team but rather that then defend with 1%of your team and lose 10 nil. As long as you keep a clean sheet you have a chance of a draw or a win.
When Chelsea wins 1-0 everyone says boring boring football and dont give credit to the team. Have you all forgotten the days of the Arsenal 1-0s?? That's when Arsenal were described as efficient weren't they? so why the bias?
Also after all those comments when Chelsea turn out a magnificient performance and blitz Barca who are playing some of the best football in Europe instead of people saying fair play you want to play the result down on Carvahlo's fooul or with comments like Milan better.
ACCEPT the Chelsea win GRACEFULLY
And why don't you for once get behind your fellow English teams (esp when Man U and Arsenal aren't gonna be even in the quarters this year)???

 

[JAzz]

Why is everyone saying Milan is the best team? Because they have just overturned a 7 point deficit in serie a, 2 seasons ago they won the CL, last season they probably would have won it if they hadn't had one very off night in Spain, because they have an awesome defense, an awesome attack. You say they beat Man utd with an unfit RvN but Milan did it with by far their best player Sheva who is very important to the Milan side, is almost like what Henry is to us. They imo outplayed Man utd home and away, beat them home and away. Not many sides do to man utd what they did.

Arsenal did defend quite a lot in the past but we didn't resort to that with our £200mill squad, we made use of what we had.

I've never said you aren't a good side but imo Milan are the best side in Europe. I didn't think you were all that against Barca, in the first 20mins you were brilliant but apart from that Barca looked easily as good if not better and had it not been for a mistake from Colina were gonna go through.

 

[sunama]

And why don't you for once get behind your fellow English teams (esp when Man U and Arsenal aren't gonna be even in the quarters this year)???

its human nature to always think that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. so in this case, the foriegn teams must be better than our domestic teams...surely? because they are foriegn

even when chelsea beat the favourites barca, the english fans will come up with excuses of how chelsea didnt deserve to win. and how (even after getting beat) barca are better. to me, barca lost fair and square, over 180mins. the decisions all evened themselves out over 180mins. milan (foriegn team) play their boring 1-0 football and that is "skill". chelsea (english team) play 1-0 and they are classed as boring and not very good.

similarly when man utd won the treble, english fans were saying that man utd were not the best side in the CL. they came up with many reasons, but i believe the main one was that they didnt want to admit that the english premier league was probably the best league that season. the final was played over 92-93mins, not 85mins - bayern got it wrong when they counted their chickens before they had hatched.

i think its time for english fans to recognise the greatness of the english league and its teams.

 

[JAzz]

And why don't you for once get behind your fellow English teams (esp when Man U and Arsenal aren't gonna be even in the quarters this year)???

Why should I support English sides, am I under some kind of obligation to do that? There are very few clubs in England I like, Man utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle are certainly not one of them so I couldn't give a crap how they do in Europe

i think its time for english fans to recognise the greatness of the english league and its teams.

I'm sorry but this league us NOT as great as some make it out, entertaining yes but certainly not great. It is not a coincidence that only 1 english team has won the CL and that CL was very fortunate, it isn't coincidence that English sides time and time again get found out in Europe. Main reason imo is the style of the league here, all gung ho and no tactical play. Look at Bolton, all they do is lump balls upfront and use their strong strikers to win the ball, they try to kick lumps off you if you are technically better and their style is just plain poor. In England though it is seen as grinding results out, in Europe from what I've seen that is frown apon so teams actually play. Hence the Milans and Madrids being technically so damn good.

 

[sunama]

Why is everyone saying Milan is the best team? Because they have just overturned a 7 point deficit in serie a,

well chelsea havent had to overhaul a 7pt lead. in fact they've added to a big lead. they could well finish 10-15 pts clear. milan are not in this position. based on these stats, chelsea are clearly better. right?

2 seasons ago they won the CL, last season they probably would have won it if they hadn't had one very off night in Spain,

yeah, but they lost.
mourinho - chelsea's current manager - won it!!!

there is so much bias against english teams i dont believe this. i may as well say that "last season man utd probably wouldve won the CL cuz they only got beat narrowly, in the last few mins by porto, who ended up winning the CL". the fact is that neither milan or man utd won.

because they have an awesome defense, an awesome attack.

chelsea are gonna break the record for the least amount of goals conceded this year. milan will not break any defensive records this year. therefore, statistically, milan dont have a better defense than chelsea.

chelsea scored 4 goals in one game - now thats an attack. milan cant score 4 goals against good opposition, but chelsea have proved that they can.

hence, this proves that chelsea are better in defense and in attack.

once again, it begs belief how some people rate foreign teams over english ones. their opinion is that the foreign team is better, even though the statistics show otherwise.

 

[sunama]

In England though it is seen as grinding results out, in Europe from what I've seen that is frowned upon so teams actually play. Hence the Milans and Madrids being technically so damn good.

yeah lets all be bored to death by milan and their 1-0 slow style of non attacking play.

and by real madrid who are so good that they didnt make it to the next round of the CL, while chelsea and liverpool did.

i get the feeling that even if english teams won the CL and uefa cup for 10 yrs in a row, there are still gonna be people who say that the english league isnt the best.

damn, im beginning to sound like a damn chelsea supporter now and i hate them!!!

why cant we have the arguments of old, arsenal v man utd, henry v RvN - which is the better. i preferred those.

 

[TheTiger]

why cant we have the arguments of old, arsenal v man utd, henry v RvN - which is the better. i preferred those.

Because there is no arguement. Man U > Arsenal, RvN > Henry

 

[maby66]

it isn't coincidence that English sides time and time again get found out in Europe

I think you're speaking as an Arsenal fan there - other English sides have done, and continue to, do well.

Edit - also agree with Sunama - Chelsea have made up ground on an all conquering, unbeaten Arsenal side and continued on to their present position.
Why does that count as nothing against the similar acheivement of Milan?

 

[m1ke]

sunama, i dont think barca were ever the favourites. they finished second in their group (to milan) and would be out if the two games vs milan had been a knockout tie. the difference in quality between the top teams in the cl is very small, and i think luck plays a very big part in some of the outcomes, especially in the latter stages. i think/hope it will be a milan-chelsea final, but wouldnt like to call who would go on to win it.

 

[TheTiger]

I think you're speaking as an Arsenal fan there - other English sides have done, and continue to, do well.

Well, not necessarily. Other english teams have done slightly better than Arsenal, but on the whole haven't done that great