** Uefa Champions League, Semi-final ** *spoilers*

The Pat said:
Surely Bojan's chance was the best?

Also I think Cech was great, he didn't start out all that convincingly but got better and better as the game went on.
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Yeh maybe, only thing i can think of is it was slighlty too high for him so he couldnt get over it. Looked a sitter in real time tho.
 
Well last night I learned that Nokon is a jizz lobber, he shall therfore be known as such from this day forth.
 
They're two of the best divers around, that's for sure.

Barca should have won by at least 2, and that's based solely on the great chances they had. It should've been 3 if they'd been given a penalty and Ballack had been sent off for two yellows, which he should have. The penalty claim was worth a shout, but probably too close for the ref to be sure.

Bojan's chance was a sitter. I'm reasonably certain that Eto'o would've blasted it in if he'd been on.

Very disappointed with Chelsea. They have an excellent team, but they lined up like Valladolid and parked the bus. Very reminiscent of the first game of the Liga season. Can't believe how poor the Barca finishing was.
 
Weebull said:
I don't get the "Barca/Messi were/was poor" comments. They weren't, Chelsea just shut them out really well. If Henry had shown some slightly better decision making in the couple of fantastic chances he had, the ref had spotted his blatant penalty, Eto'o had buried the 1-on-1 like he should have, and as a whole they'd relied a bit more on speed than intricacy, it could have been embarrassing. Chelsea, on the other hand, had the Drogba chance, and that was it.

I'm not knocking how they'd played, as it was clearly the best thing to do, but to claim Barca were rubbish for struggling, and yet still coming close, to break down one of the best defensive units in the world, is a bit silly.
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It was the constantly wayward and wild shots that Barcelona had. Only 2 I remember tested Cech and those were the 1-on-1's. As for the individual players, so many Barcelona players were incredibly sloppy with their passing.
 
naknakkus said:
Bojan's chance was a sitter. I'm reasonably certain that Eto'o would've blasted it in if he'd been on.

Very disappointed with Chelsea. They have an excellent team, but they lined up like Valladolid and parked the bus. Very reminiscent of the first game of the Liga season. Can't believe how poor the Barca finishing was.
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Eto'o has a few inches on Bojan so you're probably right. It seemed just a bit too high for Bojan.

I think in a Champions League Semi Final, Chelsea played how I expected them to play. If Barca did get a goal, then at the 2nd leg Chelsea would have to chase the game and gaps would open up. It's not the prettiest of games but it was the right thing to do in my opinion
 
NokkonWud said:
It was the constantly wayward and wild shots that Barcelona had. Only 2 I remember tested Cech and those were the 1-on-1's.
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Cech made good saves against Henry, Alves, Eto'o, and Hleb. I had a feeling he'd play well last night after his recent run of poor form.

Bojan missed a header from 4 yards. I'd say Barca had plenty of chances to score.
 
naknakkus said:
Cech made good saves against Henry, Alves, Eto'o, and Hleb. I had a feeling he'd play well last night after his recent run of poor form.

Bojan missed a header from 4 yards. I'd say Barca had plenty of chances to score.
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Yes, they did. But their finishing was poor. Bojan tried to power a header he only needed to place, which was the easiest of the bunch. But those were the best chances over 90 minutes, at home, that was poor.
 
Poor for Barca, certainly, but it should've been enough to see them win the game. I couldn't see Chelsea lining up the way they did if they were to play at OT, for example. Here's to hoping that the Stamford Bridge game is better for the neutrals.
 
Can't critise chelsea to be honest, they contained Barca at home and will now take them out at home. Barca will score I'm sure at the bridge but chelsea will score more.

Anytime these spanish clubs come up against a premier league side I end up thinking they are hugely over rated.
 
I've never seen Chelsea approach a game so defensively before and I didn't know they were capable, it was a classic European away performance that the Italians were famed for. It shows that GH really knows how best to use the players at his disposable to do the job he wants doing, it's no wonder he's done so well with underdogs and lesser teams in the past.
It wasn't pretty and we could really of done with an away goal but you can bet that Chelsea are far happier with the result than Barca are.
Since 2000 there have been 14 0-0 first legs in the CL with the away team going through at home on 10 occasions so history says it's not that bad a result:)
 
Beerbaron said:
:eek: :confused:

The only team to keep a clean sheet at the Nou Camp in a year since Man Utd this stage last year.
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Yeah I just thought they'd try and put Barca's defence under a bit of pressure, instead they ruined one Semi Final of the CL, fair enough it kept them in the tie, it's just boring :/
 
They mentioned this on TalkSport yesterday, saying "Tomorrow's Discussion: Barcelona. Are they all that?"

We, as the British viewers have always had a tendency to lean on giving more credit than it's due outside of our own leagues. It was only last year that Ronaldo wasn't the best player in the World, it was Messi, but I can guarantee if Man Utd had Messi and Barcelona had Ronaldo it would be the other way around. Now this season we have Man Utd/Liverpool aren't the best team, Barcelona are, they're destroying everyone.

I think the fact that the last 2 games where Barcelona have been unable to score at home being against 2 English sides a year apart shows something for the quality of La Liga.
 
People should really give Barca some credit for stopping Chelsea creating chances instead of just assuming Chelsea didn't want to create them.
Barca thoroughly dictated the play and possession in 65% of the pitch, Chelsea couldn't attack.
 
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