Chelsea (3-0) Olympiakos Discussion Thread

vs.

First Leg: Tuesday 19 February (Karaiskaki Stadium) Olympiakos 0-0 Chelsea

Second Leg: Wednesday 5 March (Stamford Bridge)

Group Stage Form

Chelsea: DWWDWD

Olympiakos: DWLDWW

Should get through without any major problems. Hoping for a win in Greece which will effectively kill off the tie before the 2nd leg in London.

Last 10 games:

Olympiacos : DWWDWWWDWW
Chelsea : WWWWWWWDDW

Larissa 0-0 Olympiacos
Olympiacos 2-1 Skoda Xanthi
Iraklis 1-2 Olympiacos
Olympiacos 1-1 Panathinaikos
Olympiacos 4-0 Panathinaikos
Ofi 0-1 Olympiacos
Olympiacos 1-0 Aris
Apollon Thessalonikis 0-0 Olympiacos
Panionios 0-4 Olympiacos
Olympiacos 1-0 Ergotelis

Chelsea 1-0 QPR
Chelsea 2-1 Everton
Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham
Birmingham 0-1 Chelsea
Everton 0-1 Chelsea
Wigan 1-2 Chelsea
Chelsea 1-0 Reading
Portsmouth 1-1 Chelsea
Chelsea 0-0 Liverpool
Chelsea 3-1 Huddersfield

Champions League record 07-08:

Olympiacos : DWLDWW
Chelsea : DWWDWD

Olympiacos 1-1 Lazio
Chelsea 1-1 Rosenborg

Werder Bremen 1-3 Olympiacos
Valencia 1-2 Chelsea

Real Madrid 4-2 Olympiacos
Chelsea 2-0 Schalke 04

Olympiacos 0-0 Real Madrid
Schalke 04 0-0 Chelsea

Lazio 1-2 Olympiacos
Rosenborg 0-4 Chelsea

Olympiacos 3-0 Werder Bremen
Chelsea 0-0 Valencia

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Btw watch out for Raul Bravo (The Real Galactico)

TM wrote:Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Btw watch out for Raul Bravo (The Real Galactico)

Does he play CB now? If so I fully expect him to take care of the Drog.

The Times is suggesting that Avram Grant may start without John Terry, Frank Lampard and Nicolas Anelka in a rotation policy with a view of the Carling Cup Final.

Terry has only just come back from injury, so I think Grant is making the right decision because in the past he has suffered when he has come back into the XI and is overworked straight away.

Makelele, Essien, Ballack and Drogba is still an exceptionally strong unit.

Terry and Lampard will play the Carling Cup final, so leaving them out tonight makes sense. If I were picking the team, I'd play:

Cech; Ferreira, Carvalho, Alex, A Cole; Makelele, Essien, Ballack; J Cole, Malouda; Drogba

(Carling Cup final : Cech; Belletti, Carvalho, Terry, Bridge; Mikel, Essien, Lampard; Kalou, Anelka, Drogba)

Drogba better watch out!!!

Don't forget Lua Lua the crazy sumersaulting man.
Hoping for a 1-0 Chelsea to keep things interesting for the second leg. My tickets came in on friday and would prefer if there was something riding on the game.

Don't you mean 1-0 to Olympiacos?

If we win 1-0 tonight the tie's over. Sorry to sound arrogant, but I don't see Olympiacos winning at the Bridge.

You're probably right S4P but if I was thinking on the basis that if Chelsea win by a slender margin away then Olympiakos are more likely to try and attack and make the 2nd leg a decent specatacle whereas if they win 1-0 at home they will just come to the Bridge and defend.

Anyhoo Hopefully the game tonight will be a good one ending with a Chelsea win

I see your point now. I just think that if we win tonight it's effectively tie over. So yeah, let's hope for a win

S4P wrote:Cech, Belletti, Carvalho, Alex, Ashley Cole, Essien, Makelele, Ballack, Malouda, Drogba, Joe Cole.

Subs: Cudicini, Lampard, Obi, Kalou, Wright-Phillips, Terry, Anelka.

--------------Cech
Belletti-Carvalho-Alex-A Cole
------------Makelele
---------Essien--Ballack
J Cole------------------Malouda
-------------Drogba

Looks like Avram's trying to kill this tie off tonight.

C'mon!

The only thing that worries me is the ref. He's given some very soft fouls in favour of Olympiakos. Short game for Chelsea is good but longer balls have been hopeless.

Another poor free kick.

Cowardly refereeing decision up the other end upset Belleti.

Good performance from Ballack, some lovely control.

Kalou misses yet another chance

Olympiakos 0-0 Chelsea

Chelsea were held by Olympiakos after an unconvincing display in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on a cold night in southern Greece.

John Terry and Frank Lampard were left on the bench but the Blues were largely untroubled in a quiet first half in which Ricardo Carvalho went closest.

The visitors showed more ambition after the break but failed to create much.

Salomon Kalou shot tamely at the keeper when through late on and Chelsea will hope for much better in a fortnight.

With their formidable home record, they will be favourites to reach the semi-finals for the fourth time in five seasons.

But even though the competition's meanest defence recorded a fifth straight clean sheet, the fare served up in unseasonably harsh weather for Greece hardly set the pulses racing.

Olympiakos have plenty of experience and nous about them, with an average age of a shade over 30 in their starting line-up and 10 league titles in 11 years.

Chelsea were happy to concede possession to them and while Predrag Djordjevic and Luciano Galleti buzzed around early on to keep England left-back Ashley Cole busy, the final ball was often lacking.

At the other end, the Blues appeared to have the edge in terms of pace and movement off the ball.

Florent Malouda's snapshot was well saved by 36-year-old keeper Antonis Nikopolidis, who also kept out Ricardo Carvalho's firm header after Juliano Belletti's deep free-kick was flicked on by Florent Malouda.

The visitors had a scare moments later when Djordjevic's corner was helped on by Ieroklis Stoltidis' head and the were relieved to see Vassilis Torosidis fail to make clean contact.

Having seen what Olympiakos had to throw at them in the first period, the Blues showed greater ambition after the break, with both Coles, Ashley and Joe, featuring more prominently than they had earlier.

But with Didier Drogba appearing to struggle with a tight hamstring on his comeback after African Nations duty, they lacked a cutting edge.

Indeed, Chelsea needed keeper Petr Cech to save low down in his first meaningful action in the 57th minute when Galletti teed the ball to Djordjevic from a free-kick.

Kalou, Nicolas Anelka and, belatedly, Lampard were introduced by Avram Grant in a bid to find some sharpness in the final third but they failed to make much of an impression on the home defence.

Kalou could still have won it right at the end but his control let him down badly and he shot weakly at Nikopolidis to sum up his team's efforts.


Oh dear

Ugh, what a shite performance from Olympiacos, which didn't help us one bit. They were so unambitious, unadventurous and basically the complete opposite of what I expected them to be. I expected them to react to the crowd and really go for it, which would've left excellent chances for us to counter.

Substitutions were too late. I thought the back 4 and Makelele were awesome, Cech might as well have had a night off, Ballack and Essien did themselves well. The front 3 were awful, only when Anelka came on did things improve.

What a chance for Kalou right at the death too.

Can see them doing a "Rosenborg" at the Bridge, which will piss me off no end.

Oh dear? Oh dear what. Very solid away performance, should have won it at the end.

S4P wrote:Ugh, what a shite performance from Olympiacos, which didn't help us one bit. They were so unambitious, unadventurous and basically the complete opposite of what I expected them to be. I expected them to react to the crowd and really go for it, which would've left excellent chances for us to counter.

Substitutions were too late. I thought the back 4 and Makelele were awesome, Cech might as well have had a night off, Ballack and Essien did themselves well. The front 3 were awful, only when Anelka came on did things improve.

What a chance for Kalou right at the death too.

Can see them doing a "Rosenborg" at the Bridge, which will piss me off no end.

Such things are always possible but we should have far too much for this side.

Not being funny, but how did Raul Bravo play?

Rosy wrote:Oh dear? Oh dear what. Very solid away performance, should have won it at the end.

A draw is a very good result, but Olympiacos were there for the beating. So unambitious and yet this was actually their strength because we were too afraid of committing too many forward. If they play like this at the Bridge they'll lose by 2-3 goals.

After the first half I was really hoping we'd push on and kill the game tonight.

He didn't play TM.

Cheers S4P.

S4P wrote:He didn't play TM.

I was going to say he had a very quiet game

The ref was absolutely shite too. In the end our players didn't even bother challenging 50/50s as the ref seemed to think that any kind of physical contact should result in a free kick.