Ade Alves wrote:Of course Chelsea will be favourites, with their home record and the away goal tonight.
But dismissing the tie as being game over would be stupid.
Bar 15min in the first half and a 20min period in the second half, Chelsea were ordinary at best.
And while they created chances, we created more.
Kuyt had a chance early on, Babel flashed a volley just wide, Torres missed 2 chances and Gerrard was denied suberbly by Cech.
Cross should never have been allowed to get in to give Riise a problem if you ask me and even if he used his right foot it still it was destined for the back off the net. He also had Anelka right behind him lets not forget.
Get it out for a corner/throw and re organise.
Special mentions for Kuyt who was suberb in the first half and Babel in the 2nd half, he really utilised his pace much more effeciently and was less predictable making it harder for Chelsea to get at him like they did early on the game.
Alonso, for an hour gave a master class. His passing, touch, use of skill, retaining of the ball were all suberb
Skrtel was fuckin' boss tonight, you could see Drogba constantly trying to pull to Carra's side because he wasn't getting anything off Skrtel. I haven't seen any other defender make Drogba look so easy to handle.
I know Agger did well against him in the 2nd leg last season but he Skrtel was on top form tonight and was my MOTM. It's a pity he didn't get the clean sheet he deserved.
On a short note about the 2nd leg......................
It will be interesting to see if Grant will play as most people expect, settle for a 0-0 or will tell his team to go out and get a goal to more or less kill off the tie.
Obviously circumstance are different, but having watched them play Boro and a couple of other teams recently home(and away) they have been far from impressive espcially when teams have a had a go at them.
Oh and before I forget, the additional time was bull $h!t.
2005 it was over 6 minutes for what I still don't know.
2007 it was 4 minutes.
and now this.