UEFA Champions League/Europa League 17/18/19 April *** Spoilers ***

Robbo said:
Football is not 'going down that route', this is just how you play against a considerably superior team. You counter attack and defend as well as you can.
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They didn't even try to counter. They had 10 men in their own half and just hoofed it away as fast as they could. They had one lucky break and kudo's to them for taking that chance but 150 odd passes complete to 750 odd for Barca, 60% off possesion for Barca and only 1 shot on target from Chelsea tells the whole story.

Don't get me wrong if I was a Chelsea fan I would be loving it but not being related to the club I think its a downright embarassment that they needed to resort to playing so badly, infact they didn't play for 89 minutes.

Tummy said:
So not full strength.

People might think I'm being bitter or funny, but I'm a football purest and a student of the game. I don't think that's how you play football, I don't think if you know anything about the evolution of the game; history of tactics, evolution of play, you don't enjoy watching Chelsea or any other side play like that.

In all honesty, if that's as good as English football is in Europe, I don't want to watch English teams in Europe.

The Arsenal tie last year was an absolutely fantastic game of football, could have gone either way.

Barcelona are a force of nature at home, I'm sure they won't be as sloppy with chances, after all 15 shots on target away against this 'amazing defensive performance'.
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Agree.
 
Not surprised Busquets missed that at the end, he is literally goal-phobic and will usually do anything to avoid having to shoot (luckily he plays in a team where you can over-play and take another pass despite being in on goal and still win).

Good win for Chelsea. Barca are simply too good in attack for a team that aren't a natural passing/possession side to try and have a go at them. Chelsea played to their traditional strengths, and it's not the first time a team has beaten Barca like that. It's not pretty but it works and provided a far more interesting bit of chess than watching Barca smash a team who can't defend 5-0. Having a slice of luck helps too, and they got that.

Whether they can do it again at the Nou with a ref who will bottle decisions (because all of them do) in front of the huge crowd and pressure, wailing for cards after every tackle... I hope Chelsea go through just to see Barca cry and put the sprinklers on at the end again because they couldn't take seeing another team celebrating on their turf.

EDIT - also Real's best spells against Barca have been when they bossed them - stopping them from getting any sort of extended possession and being a constant presence in their half, even we didn't manage that and both our goals at the Emirates against them were counters.
 
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Tummy said:
So not full strength.

People might think I'm being bitter or funny, but I'm a football purest and a student of the game. I don't think that's how you play football, I don't think if you know anything about the evolution of the game; history of tactics, evolution of play, you don't enjoy watching Chelsea or any other side play like that.
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I agree, I don't enjoy watching a team play like that but it's how I'd expect any team to play against Barcelona. You do that or you lose.

Teams have to accept they can't match the likes of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta when it comes to attacking.

Tummy said:
In all honesty, if that's as good as English football is in Europe, I don't want to watch English teams in Europe.

The Arsenal tie last year was an absolutely fantastic game of football, could have gone either way.

Barcelona are a force of nature at home, I'm sure they won't be as sloppy with chances, after all 15 shots on target away against this 'amazing defensive performance'.
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Arsenal did have a different approach, so maybe it can work, but most teams won't play like that.

Anyway, there's a good chance they'll be torn apart at the Nou Camp so you can look forward to that. :p

No1newts said:
They didn't even try to counter. They had 10 men in their own half and just hoofed it away as fast as they could. They had one lucky break and kudo's to them for taking that chance but 150 odd passes complete to 750 odd for Barca, 60% off possesion for Barca and only 1 shot on target from Chelsea tells the whole story.

Don't get me wrong if I was a Chelsea fan I would be loving it but not being related to the club I think its a downright embarassment that they needed to resort to playing so badly, infact they didn't play for 89 minutes.
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I wanted Man Utd to play a full strength attacking side and have a go at them in the final last year, but it wasn't to be.
 
Purdy said:
I'm sure a player has been sent off for a second yellow on dives before? Or wasting time? Like Ramos and Alonso last year was it not for Real?

Yeah, plenty of contact when he stamped on Busquets and then dived :D
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Difference with Drogba tonight and the Real Madrid players was that the ref can't prove that Drogba was feigning injury hence you can't book him for time wasting all the ref could do is add the time on at the end.

As for the second part if you're referring to the incident I think you are then you've got it the exact wrong way round, Busquets stood on Droba's foot not the other way around :)
 
Moses said:
Their main priority was to not concede, tonight. They're thinking about the two leg aspect, obviously. If it was 0-0 tonight, they'd 'only' have needed a score draw, next game. There was no point being more attacking and losing that potential away goal advantage.
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Perfectly understandable, it's not however reason to abandon football all together.
 
Extremely poor goal from Barca's perspective.

Extremely poor misses from Barca's perspective.

Good result from Chelsea's perspective.

The tie should have been over tonight. Yes, Chelsea done the best they could have done probably, no matter what their tactics.

Going to be an interesting second leg.
 
If Chelsea were playing oh so rubbish why didn't the amazing best team in the world Barcelona adapt? Why not draw Chelsea in and then get them on the counter instead of passing the ball 700 times. Why is it solely Chelsea's fault?
 
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Tom84 said:
Difference with Drogba tonight and the Real Madrid players was that the ref can't prove that Drogba was feigning injury hence you can't book him for time wasting all the ref could do is add the time on at the end.

As for the second part if you're referring to the incident I think you are then you've got it the exact wrong way round, Busquets stood on Droba's foot not the other way around :)
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Second part, no I haven't was first half, after losing balance whilst ontop of Busquets foot Drogba chances direction and velocity throwing himself. Hence Barca got a freekick.
 
Excellent performance from Chelsea. They had to work very hard against the best team in Europe, and the world.

There's of course a difference in ability and relative strengths and you have to use it in order to overcome teams with the likes of Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas etc.

I think people are just bitter that their teams didn't just beat Barcelona 1-0, and are using it as an attempt to have a go at Chelsea. Which is fine, you're entitled to do that if it makes you feel better.

Barcelona play a very sterile kind of football that I can't stand to watch. There's very little heart, and passion that goes into their game.

And frankly, whatever people wish to say, it won't take away the indisputable fact that Chelsea beat Barcelona, and that they worked extremely hard, especially considering their congested schedule, and of course the Spanish team had a nice winter break, oh and of course it's Barcelona.

Go away miserable people. :D
 
Robbo said:
I wanted Man Utd to play a full strength attacking side and have a go at them in the final last year, but it wasn't to be.
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You've got to admit, De matteo's decision to actually play midfielders in the middle and not two past it wingers was a master stroke!
 
Hahahaha @ all the Chelsea hate. As has been mentioned above, this is exactly how Inter beat Barcelona so it obviously works. Why hate on a team for trying to win the match? Chelsea can't pass the ball like Arsenal and even if they could, they are still not as good at it as Barcelona so you'd just be giving up the tie.

Good job Chelsea.
 
Tom84 said:
Has Busquets ever scored for Barca? Great player but he was the last person Barca wanted on the end of that chance
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Yes, but only a couple (and that own goal against us). If you watch a lot of Barca games, even the rare occasion he's put through on goal, he will always look to square it to one of the attacking players rather than shoot. Goal shy.
 
Tummy said:
So not full strength.

People might think I'm being bitter or funny, but I'm a football purest and a student of the game. I don't think that's how you play football, I don't think if you know anything about the evolution of the game; history of tactics, evolution of play, you don't enjoy watching Chelsea or any other side play like that.

In all honesty, if that's as good as English football is in Europe, I don't want to watch English teams in Europe.

The Arsenal tie last year was an absolutely fantastic game of football, could have gone either way.

Barcelona are a force of nature at home, I'm sure they won't be as sloppy with chances, after all 15 shots on target away against this 'amazing defensive performance'.
Click to expand...

Playing fancy football doesn't win you games which has been Arsenal's downfall in recent seasons. Chelsea played to their strengths and kept compact. You cant expect them to play open attractive football against clearly the best team/player in the world and not get spanked. It would just be idiotic.
 
Moses said:
What's the alternative? Play half as defensively as they did and still get ****ed? We saw tonight, that even with their extremely defensive tactics, they still took a battering/got lucky.
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Look to play a bit of football, I thought the counter attack was really good. More of that and Chelsea could have done real damage tonight. Alas they didn't seem to want the ball.

Bloodshot said:
Hahahaha @ all the Chelsea hate. As has been mentioned above, this is exactly how Inter beat Barcelona so it obviously works. Why hate on a team for trying to win the match? Chelsea can't pass the ball like Arsenal and even if they could, they are still not as good at it as Barcelona so you'd just be giving up the tie.

Good job Chelsea.
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Did you watch Inter? Inter didn't play like that.

Chelsea didn't 'try and win' they 'tried not to lose' and everything else was a bonus :)
 
Chelsea were absolutely superb tonight and beat Barcelona the only way they could by defending in numbers, playing on the counter attack and working their asses off. Did English football proud :)
 
Moses said:
Tummy, I can imagine you in the WWI trenches, saying without a hint of irony, 'dulce et decorum est pro patria mori! Over the top, lads... march in formation, it's the honourable thing! Ignore the inevitability of the Maxim machine guns, die well!'
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Eh? How does one relate this to that? :p
 
sanaxe1 said:
If Chelsea were playing oh so rubbish why didn't the amazing best team in the world Barcelona adapt? Why not draw Chelsea in and then get them on the counter instead of passing the ball 700 times. Why is it solely Chelsea's fault?
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People are talking as if Barcelona were poor tonight, which is nonsense. Their finishing was the only disappointing aspect of their game tonight, it's not like they sat in front of Chelsea and didn't create anything.

Also I loved ITV glossing over Lampard's dive and Terry's clothesline on Sanchez, we'd have never heard the end of it the other way around. :o
 
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