Chelsea 3-2 Barcelona (European Football)

[jim the chin]

Well done to Chelsea for reaching the European Champions League Final after beating Barcelona over two legs of football. For all of Barcelona's possession, if they can't create good chances to score then they don't deserve to win matches. Chelsea probably had better chances to score, even if they had fewer overall. Fernando Torres being through on goal against Victor Valdes was like giving a retarded kid a boxing glove and saying "go on, take a free shot", and he went and knocked them out.

Barcelona have spent the last few years cheating their way through football matches they should have lost. They are the best team in the world, but they have over-achieved because they don't play fairly. Even today they were given a one-man advantage for a very debateable foul by John Terry. They were given a penalty for what looked like zero-contact against Fabregas. Even with these massive decisions going their way, they couldn't win, and couldn't even create clear-cut chances to win.

Chelsea defended magnificently and out-muscled Barcelona. They gave it all and got what they deserved. They will now play Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the final.

[Tembest]

This is one of the most ridiculous posts I have ever seen.
They had ten times more chances and better chances than Chelsea. They even had
3 basically empty goals and didn't score. This time.. they just couldn't score it seems.

Cheating in matches they should have lost? Oh my god.. You are fucking kidding me.
You are still talking about that one match where Dani Alves and Busquets filmed.
Drogba was laying on the pitch like a baby the entire fucking time. No contact
whatsoever.

Debatable foul by Terry?? Get real.. Even if he didn't really hurt Sanchez as much as
Alexis claimed it to hurt it was a clear red card. You don't knee someone in the back by
purpose when the game isn't there. How can you call it debatable? That's ridiculous.

Drogba's sliding tacke certainly hit Fabregas, although it doesn't matter... If you slide
from 3 meters behind and do not get anywhere near the ball but the attacker falls down,
either because of the contact or because he had to jump and therefore lost balance,
it's a clear foul! Drogba should also have been sent off at like 80' when he jumped like a
retard and touched the ball with his hand in Barca's end. If he didn't have a yellow card,
the referee would have given it for sure but he was afraid of sending him off. As usual...

Chelsea played nothing like even average. It's not even football. The only time they got
the ball inside Barca's box was from Cech's goal kicks or Ivanovic's throws. Ridiculous,
lame, disgusting, did not even look like football, they are horrible and even Madrid
deserves to win them.

Chelsea is currently playing same kind of football as Liverpool did during their champion year
in 04-05. Ball to Hyypiä, long ball, get the header and hope you are lucky enough to score.
They've done it even against teams such as Napoli this season. They can't even play
football against Napoli. Christ... Di Matteo such has a nice record from his games, something
like 8-4-0? But that won't continue for long, winning games with pathetic long balls.
Chelsea does not stand a chance in final, whoever they face.

[Brainbuster]

This is one of the most ridiculous posts I have ever seen.
They had ten times more chances and better chances than Chelsea. They even had
3 basically empty goals and didn't score. This time.. they just couldn't score it seems.

Cheating in matches they should have lost? Oh my god.. You are fucking kidding me.
You are still talking about that one match where Dani Alves and Busquets filmed.
Drogba was laying on the pitch like a baby the entire fucking time. No contact
whatsoever.

Debatable foul by Terry?? Get real.. Even if he didn't really hurt Sanchez as much as
Alexis claimed it to hurt it was a clear red card. You don't knee someone in the back by
purpose when the game isn't there. How can you call it debatable? That's ridiculous.

Drogba's sliding tacke certainly hit Fabregas, although it doesn't matter... If you slide
from 3 meters behind and do not get anywhere near the ball but the attacker falls down,
either because of the contact or because he had to jump and therefore lost balance,
it's a clear foul! Drogba should also have been sent off at like 80' when he jumped like a
retard and touched the ball with his hand in Barca's end. If he didn't have a yellow card,
the referee would have given it for sure but he was afraid of sending him off. As usual...

Chelsea played nothing like even average. It's not even football. The only time they got
the ball inside Barca's box was from Cech's goal kicks or Ivanovic's throws. Ridiculous,
lame, disgusting, did not even look like football, they are horrible and even Madrid
deserves to win them.

Chelsea is currently playing same kind of football as Liverpool did during their champion year
in 04-05. Ball to Hyypiä, long ball, get the header and hope you are lucky enough to score.
They've done it even against teams such as Napoli this season. They can't even play
football against Napoli. Christ... Di Matteo such has a nice record from his games, something
like 8-4-0? But that won't continue for long, winning games with pathetic long balls.
Chelsea does not stand a chance in final, whoever they face.

lol

[jim the chin]

This is one of the most ridiculous posts I have ever seen.
They had ten times more chances and better chances than Chelsea. They even had
3 basically empty goals and didn't score. This time.. they just couldn't score it seems.

I'm not sure what you call empty goals. The busquets chance had maybe 3 defenders in the way. The other one was offside. Other times they were closed down by good defending before they could control to shoot. Chelsea had few chances, but surprisingly, looked closer to scoring than Barcelona.

Cheating in matches they should have lost? Oh my god.. You are fucking kidding me.
You are still talking about that one match where Dani Alves and Busquets filmed.
Drogba was laying on the pitch like a baby the entire fucking time. No contact
whatsoever.

The Real Madrid match was the worst but there have been plenty of others including the matches against Arsenal. I'm not just talking about simulation, I'm talking about surrounding the ref asking for cards. However, it's not all the players fault. Last night Petr Cech got booked for absolutely nothing other than the crowd whining about how long it was taking him to kick the ball. The commentators were astonished how the crowd managed to get him a yellow card. It's the same at Old Trafford with decisions for United.

Debatable foul by Terry?? Get real.. Even if he didn't really hurt Sanchez as much as
Alexis claimed it to hurt it was a clear red card. You don't knee someone in the back by
purpose when the game isn't there. How can you call it debatable? That's ridiculous.

Terry said after the game that he went into the back of Sanchez after Sanchez checked his run. I would lift my knee to stop from going face-first into someone if they were less than arms-reach away already, I think it's a reflex action actually. It's certainly possible, and I find it hard to understand how the linesman could know what the intent was. Strangely though, he concluded the intent was to hurt the player, and strangely it was a red card rather than a yellow.

Drogba's sliding tacke certainly hit Fabregas, although it doesn't matter...

Did you see the replay?

If you slide from 3 meters behind and do not get anywhere near the ball but the attacker falls down,
either because of the contact or because he had to jump and therefore lost balance,
it's a clear foul! Drogba should also have been sent off at like 80' when he jumped like a
retard and touched the ball with his hand in Barca's end. If he didn't have a yellow card,
the referee would have given it for sure but he was afraid of sending him off. As usual...

It's not a clear foul if you go down with no contact, it's simulation. He didn't have to jump the tackle either, he went down with drogba's legs in front of him. There wasn't an attempt to jump the tackle.

Chelsea played nothing like even average. It's not even football. The only time they got
the ball inside Barca's box was from Cech's goal kicks or Ivanovic's throws. Ridiculous,
lame, disgusting, did not even look like football, they are horrible and even Madrid
deserves to win them.

Kalou should have made more of his chance. Lampard's through ball for Ramires's goal was beautiful.

Chelsea is currently playing same kind of football as Liverpool did during their champion year
in 04-05. Ball to Hyypiä, long ball, get the header and hope you are lucky enough to score.
They've done it even against teams such as Napoli this season. They can't even play
football against Napoli. Christ... Di Matteo such has a nice record from his games, something
like 8-4-0? But that won't continue for long, winning games with pathetic long balls.
Chelsea does not stand a chance in final, whoever they face.

Chelsea played the kind of football to beat a Barcelona team that is exceptional, but which builds slowly. So they defended in numbers and played counter attack. They did what they needed to do to win the game, as expected. They'll play differently against different opponents, and have.

[Tembest]

I'm not sure what you call empty goals. The busquets chance had maybe 3 defenders in the way. The other one was offside. Other times they were closed down by good defending before they could control to shoot. Chelsea had few chances, but surprisingly, looked closer to scoring than Barcelona.

I call it an empty goal when the goalie is not in the game anymore.
Barca had far better chances, and far more chances. Watch a full clip of highlights
if one exists and talk again.

The Real Madrid match was the worst but there have been plenty of others including the matches against Arsenal. I'm not just talking about simulation, I'm talking about surrounding the ref asking for cards. However, it's not all the players fault. Last night Petr Cech got booked for absolutely nothing other than the crowd whining about how long it was taking him to kick the ball. The commentators were astonished how the crowd managed to get him a yellow card. It's the same at Old Trafford with decisions for United.

Then hire professional referees goddamnit! Besides, it's what all latin teams do.
The culture is a bit different from yours... you know. Has nothing to do with football.
Cech's booking should have come sooner! He did it purposedly all the match and he knew
he was going to get a yellow card all the time. I don't know about your commentator but
at least mine kept saying from like 15th minute of the game "Cech can't do this for long,
he will be booked really soon." The reason he FINALLY got booked was because the ball
had gone for a goal kick. The ball boy threw Cech a new ball, but Cech threw it back and
went to get the ball from further behind the goal. If that is not delaying of the game on
purpose, I don't know what the hell is... Actually it pisses me off in general that you're
allowed to delay the game way way too much in football. You get cards way too rarely
for pulling crap like that. I don't care if it's Barca or Chelsea or Real who do it; they should
be booked right away.

Terry said after the game that he went into the back of Sanchez after Sanchez checked his run. I would lift my knee to stop from going face-first into someone if they were less than arms-reach away already, I think it's a reflex action actually. It's certainly possible, and I find it hard to understand how the linesman could know what the intent was. Strangely though, he concluded the intent was to hurt the player, and strangely it was a red card rather than a yellow.

Of course Terry says so... These days incidents such as those are investigated after matches
and might result in fees or longer suspension. Wake up.

Did you see the replay?

Yes

It's not a clear foul if you go down with no contact, it's simulation. He didn't have to jump the tackle either, he went down with drogba's legs in front of him. There wasn't an attempt to jump the tackle.

Not one commentator, not one paper writes it was an unjustified penalty. Just like
Terry's card. No one is defending Terry or Drogba but you. And please, don't bother
digging up a Chelsea paper that defends them.

Chelsea played the kind of football to beat a Barcelona team that is exceptional, but which builds slowly. So they defended in numbers and played counter attack. They did what they needed to do to win the game, as expected. They'll play differently against different opponents, and have.

Di Matteo's football is disgusting against all teams but such as Wolves.

[jim the chin]

They aren't debating the red card and the penalty because it didn't cost Chelsea the match. The red card had debatable intent, the penalty had no contact. Both went Barca's way. As for "not one commentator, not one paper", are you talking about Spanish sources? I've read some ridiculous stuff coming out of the Spanish press after this game, which `sore losers` doesn't quite cover.

Blaming Barca's antics on the "culture" doesn't make it right. Besides, I didn't see much of that from Real Madrid today, so I question your statement. I think it's more that Barca do it more than any other Spanish team and have set a bad example. Contagious cheating if you like. I'm sure it will spread from Spain to England soon.

Time-wasting pisses me off too, but Cech was booked at a time when he wasn't wasting it. I actually found the ball boys to be biased against Chelsea. They were throwing the balls at the Chelsea players with some pace as soon as a ball crossed the line. There shouldn't be that kind of bias, and if necessary they should bring in ball-boys from other places in Spain, but then Barca and UEFA seem to have a rather `cuddly' relationship.

I saw plenty of the game and don't know what these open-goal chances are. There were either defenders in the way, or defenders getting back in time once the ball had been controlled. I looked for a highlights reel with no luck.

[jim the chin]

Chelsea play Bayern Munich in the final.

Bayern beat Real Madrid on penalties. Both teams had 2 penalties saved before Sergio Ramos failed miserably and ruined his team's season. When he stepped up I gave him a 20% chance of scoring and I was right. The guy had fail written all over him. That was Roberto Baggio in WC94, what a muppet.

Anyway, come on Bayern! Now I just need Newcastle to get 4th in the Premier League.

-EDIT- Oh and an English team has got further than any Spanish team in the Champions League this season. England prevails! PWNED.

[Tembest]

I saw plenty of the game

I'm talking about both of the games.
But if you didn't see the games from the start to the end, there is no point in
arguing with me, or me arguing with you. I watched the first one twice and was
glued to the bench for the second game.

Barca is out, Real is out, this is football. Bayern deserved to go through, they
were equal with Real gamewise and created more chances. Chelsea didn't
deserve to go through. They were poor gamewise, had no control over the game,
were lucky to go through. But Barca would not have deserved to go through either.
If Barca can't score from multiple breakthroughs and some practically empty goals,
they don't deserve to be there either.

Congratulations to Bayern Munich.

[Tembest]

-EDIT- Oh and an English team has got further than any Spanish team in the Champions League this season. England prevails! PWNED.

You're kidding me, right? You do realise this is the worst season of English
football in a long long time, and overall they succeeded far worse than eg.
Spanish teams with 2 in top 4 of UCL. 3 teams in top 4 of UEL?

Or are you simply trying to annoy me by stating something like that?

For years, English have succeeded the best in European competitions, but
this season, when they do horrible, you praise them.... Whatever

[jim the chin]

I'm not trying to annoy you, I'm pointing out that England has got further than Spain in the top competition. We've talked about Spain vs England before, so it's just a bit of friendly rivalry talk. (I thought the "England prevails! PWNED!" would have given that impression)

I think we really need to end this idea that a team who passes the ball around all day without scoring is a team that deserves to win. That is not the object of the game. Chelsea deserved to win because they had a game-plan, they stuck to it, and they won. Barcelona had all of the ball because Chelsea let them have it. Barcelona would have had the ball anyway, but Chelsea factored this into their game-plan. Barcelona scored twice over 180 minutes, Chelsea scored three times. They deserved to win because they scored more goals, simple as that. Getting a thousand passes in a game has fk all to do with deserving to win.