Barcelona v Chelsea (The European Classic) (Oct 18 & 31)

Tweedledum wrote:Barca will qualify, partly because I fancy Chelsea getting something in Bremen.

Barca WILL IMo draw an English team in the last 16 as well, hope to God its not us.

Suspect knowing uniteds luck in the comp it'll be them

Thing is if we're beaten everyone will say we're failures again like after we lost to Milan. Despite them being the best team in Europe and us giving them a great game at Old Trafford.

@ Cesc-Fab.

Yorke - Cole wonderland.

Cesc-Fab wrote:Barcelona vs Man utd would be such a glamour tie.

The last time they played each other the two group games ended 3-3 twice.

Two of the best CL games EVER.

Rivaldo was awesome in them both

Mr Scholes says thats the best player he's ever played against and he's played against all the greats like Zidane, Ronaldo, Maldini etc.

Man Utd will never have a better side - EVER.

They had the undisputed best goalkeeper in the World.

They had a unit of a defence, Irwin, Phil and Gary Neville, Johnsen and Berg were are International class defenders. Stam was World class.

The midfield was unbelievable. Beckham - Keane - Scholes - Giggs - Europe has seen no better.

Despite Batistuta, Ronaldo and Kluivert being the top strikers in the world at that time they had the best striking partnership in Europe with Cole and Yorke.

And to that the likes of Teddy, Solskjaer, Butt, Blomqvist who were all steady reserves.

@ Tweedle

Spot on Rivaldo was awesome then.

We didn't maybe have the best collection of players in Europe but they all worked so well together.

Beckham, Keane, Scholes and Giggs had everything you'd need in a midfield.

& Yorke and Cole was a superb partnership, much better than sum of the parts.

Schmeichel and Stam were immense as well.

Ahh, a thing that wasn't picked up on last night (not from what I've seen) was just how bad Clive Tyldesley was & David Pleat for that matter.

He got the Ashley Cole incident wrong but wouldn't admit even after the evidence, got numerous other calls wrong and even failed to mentioned that famous night in Barcelona.

Looks like both sides are getting fined though.

Chelsea for picking up over 5 cards in 1 match.

Barcelona for Frank Rijkaard's outburst.

Maybe Mourinho will be gracious enoguh to loan Rijkaard and Neeskens his magic telepathic hat

The view of the match from Barcelona's website:

Barça had the game virtually in their pocket, but an injury-time equaliser for Chelsea saw victory snatched away and Frank Rijkaard admitted that "it was a game to win" before expressing his unhappiness at amount of added time.


"In these circumstances, six minutes is rarely added," the Dutch coach said about the decision that gave the visiting Blues enough time to mount one final attack that led to Didier Drogba's leveller.
Chelsea's games forced Italian referee, Stefano Fraina, to add moretime, but nobody expected it to be so much. Even could believe it when the referee blew up a minute sooner than stated after Jose Mourinho's had scored their second goal. "It seemed to me that the team that was fouling and wasting time has benefitted from the extra time," Rijkaard continued. Then the referee blew the final whistle a minute earlier and that is what made it difficult, although I know I have to accept it.
"It is has been a game we should have won, but we played and we drew. We were so close to winning and it is a real shame."

"We began well, dominated in fact, and scored an early goal, but Chelsea then took over a little bit. From then on it was quite an even game. In the second half they started strongly and we had to fight our way back into the game and think that we created plenty of chances to score. But in the added on time Chelsea had one chance to score and they did.

The official statistics from UEFA notes that Chelsea committed 29 fouls and Barça 14. Despite that Rijkaard noted: "It is not necessary to focus on how many fouls Chelsea did, it is a game for men and every team has the right to play how they want. They played well again and as a team can be very strong, but the six minutes will certianly have pleased them."

Quotes:

Puyol:

"We had the game in our hands and had to be intelligent. We had controlled the game and we had chances to score more goals."

Edmilson:

"Chelsea would not have deserved to win. We deserved to win."
"The worst thing about not beating Chelsea is having to listen to Mourinho talking rubbish."


Mourinho:

‘Tactically we were always under control against a very difficult team. Losing 1-0 after three minutes, there was a great reaction. We had a lot of chances to score and Valdes was brilliant.’

‘It is now 13 consecutive matches with no defeat and this is the most difficult group because it has three great teams plus one that can’t get points. When every other team gets six points from one team, it makes it even more difficult.

‘My team has played very, very well.’

Barca are living in some sort of dream world. I can understand saying they deserved a draw but a win? c'mon!

S4P wrote:
Edmilson:

"Chelsea would not have deserved to win. We deserved to win."
"The worst thing about not beating Chelsea is having to listen to Mourinho talking rubbish."

Barca

Valdes - 8
Zambrotta - 6
Puyol - 8
Marquez - 7
Gio vB - 6
Motta - 6
Xavi - 6
Deco -8
Messi - 8
R10 - 7
Guddy - 6

Subs: Edmilson - 7, Guily - 6

Chelsea

Hilario - 7
Bouhlarouz - 5
Carvalho - 7
Terry - 7
Ca$hley - 7
Makalele - 7
Essien - 8
Ballack - 6
Lampard - 7
Robben - 6
Drogba - 7.

Subs: J. Cole - 6, Kalou - 6.

Barcelona sound so bitter!

Thisa great rivalry! I can only hope they meet again in the knock outs

So in their past six meetings its now 2 wins to Chelsea, 2 to Barca and two draws - but Chelsea still have the record of not having lost with 11 men on the pitch and this is poignant

Chelsea really are the better side they are so effeicent. They deserved to win last night.

Chelsea>>Barca
True story

I think so. Though it may have been a different story with Eto'o.

Once Ballack and Sheva are properly settled it'll be scary how good they are

yours truly wrote:Chelsea really are the better side they are so effeicent. They deserved to win last night.

Chelsea>>Barca
True story

Ignorance is bliss..

But honestly, hats off to Chelsea, their game plan, of destroying the rythm of the game and harrassing us when we were in possession, worked.

I'm not being ignorant I'm jus giving my opinion and I think Chelsea are the better side. Deal with it. Yeh but your diving and trying to get Chelsea player's sent off wasn't much better was it?

yours truly wrote:I'm not being ignorant I'm jus giving my opinion and I think Chelsea are the better side. Deal with it. Yeh but your diving and trying to get Chelsea player's sent off wasn't much better was it?

The ignorance part was meant as a joke

And my comments about Chelsea's footballing style has nothing to do with cheating, it was simply stating their tactic, and that it worked..

Oleguerisntthatbad wrote:

yours truly wrote:I'm not being ignorant I'm jus giving my opinion and I think Chelsea are the better side. Deal with it. Yeh but your diving and trying to get Chelsea player's sent off wasn't much better was it?

The ignorance part was meant as a joke

And my comments about Chelsea's footballing style has nothing to do with cheating, it was simply stating their tactic, and that it worked..

I suppose they could have just stood off and given the Barcelona players all the space they wanted. I'm sure that Werder Bremen will try to play a very similar game.

Oleguerisntthatbad wrote:

yours truly wrote:I'm not being ignorant I'm jus giving my opinion and I think Chelsea are the better side. Deal with it. Yeh but your diving and trying to get Chelsea player's sent off wasn't much better was it?

The ignorance part was meant as a joke

And my comments about Chelsea's footballing style has nothing to do with cheating, it was simply stating their tactic, and that it worked..

Even though Chelsea managed to have the better of the chances?

Rosy wrote:

Oleguerisntthatbad wrote:

yours truly wrote:I'm not being ignorant I'm jus giving my opinion and I think Chelsea are the better side. Deal with it. Yeh but your diving and trying to get Chelsea player's sent off wasn't much better was it?

The ignorance part was meant as a joke

And my comments about Chelsea's footballing style has nothing to do with cheating, it was simply stating their tactic, and that it worked..

I suppose they could have just stood off and given the Barcelona players all the space they wanted. I'm sure that Werder Bremen will try to play a very similar game.

Giving us loads of space would have been wonderful .. Of course nobody expected that, but personally I was a bit disappointed at the fact that the game got so messy and scrappy. I am sure that Werder will try to do the same I just doubt that they are as good as you at it.

Tweedledum wrote:

Oleguerisntthatbad wrote:

yours truly wrote:I'm not being ignorant I'm jus giving my opinion and I think Chelsea are the better side. Deal with it. Yeh but your diving and trying to get Chelsea player's sent off wasn't much better was it?

The ignorance part was meant as a joke

And my comments about Chelsea's footballing style has nothing to do with cheating, it was simply stating their tactic, and that it worked..

Even though Chelsea managed to have the better of the chances?

Well, we normally play possession football, with long build ups and then a sudden speed change. When Chelsea broke the rythm of our game then it made it much harder for us to get the passing flowing.

So that makes them better than you does it not?

Its nothing bad towards your club - the amount of money Chelsea have ploughed in is disgusting

Tweedledum wrote:So that makes them better than you does it not?

Its nothing bad towards your club - the amount of money Chelsea have ploughed in is disgusting

I think with Eto'o back and the team back to full speed (we have been awful most of this season) then we are better than Chelsea, simply because the passing is good enough to allow us to keep possession for longer periods and thereby deny Chelsea the opportunity to destroy the rythm.

Chelsea are much better this year though.

Essien has stepped up, Boula is a vast improvement on Ferreira, although you couldn't tell last night. They also have Ashley Cole who when on form is a top class full back. And thats not even counting the two truly world class players they have bought.

When Chelsea get up to speed they could be devastating.

We were wondering if they would be weakened by having to play Ballack and Lampard together but it doesn't look so.

So back at ya oleguer

Tweedledum wrote:Chelsea are much better this year though.

Essien has stepped up, Boula is a vast improvement on Ferreira, although you couldn't tell last night. They also have Ashley Cole who when on form is a top class full back. And thats not even counting the two truly world class players they have bought.

When Chelsea get up to speed they could be devastating.

We were wondering if they would be weakened by having to play Ballack and Lampard together but it doesn't look so.

So back at ya oleguer

Well Messi is getting better, in theory Zambrotta should improve the fullback position, Xavi is slowly getting back to his old self, Valdés is getting more stable, I think that Guddy when integrated will prove to be better than Larsson, Iniesta might get his definitive breakthrough this season..

Remember that our attack was been hampered by an injured Eto'o and a 50% Ronaldinho..

Your move Tweedle

Well I think I won

check mate

We have to remember the squad depth at Chelsea means that they will be strong WHOEVER gets injure Oleguer. Seriously, I now think they're better than you, though its mighty close and on your day you are easily capable of beating them

Tweedledum wrote:Well I think I won

check mate

Aren't you an Arsenal fan Tweedle? What are you doing???

Everybody is missing the important injuries/out of form players we have.

People are saying "Oh Barca are not as good because Eto'o is out and Dinho is out of form" and they're right, it does have an effect on them (hugely).

But very little is made of the fact Chelsea played both games with their 3rd choice keeper. As excellent as Deco's goal may have been, I would've backed Cech to save it.

And Sheva has been very much in and out. By February or March time, I think he'll be 3x as effective as he is at present.