UCL: Chelsea v Barcelona

Omfg... Alexis... So damn close. Sooo unlucky.

Looking very shaky at the back... Mascherano owned early by Drogba. Got to be tIghter.

Fabregas should have absolutely buried it in the net...

Fuuuuuuuuuuu.... This is a joke. We just killed them and are behind. How didn't we score then...

Gotta say it... Messi cost us that goal. He has to get one back.

I am furious, we had 4 shots on goal at least 2 90% goals. And the first chance they get they score. Messi blew this, he needs to score one i agree with BarcaKizz

Terrible finishing costs at this level. 3 clear chances = no goals. One Chelsea counter = goal. Pathetic shots by Alexis and Cesc. Pedro should come in.

I fkn hate chelsea. If they win this, I'm gonna be so angry... I want us to come out and rub their noses in the dirt. Let's be ruthless now... Got to score, score a few thankyou.

Wtf Alexis...

We are going to lose this match. This is going to be one of those games where we blew all our chances.

Yeap. we blew them!

Credit has to go to Chelsea for their discipline tonight.

I don't want to talk about this game. I can't talk about this game. Game at the Camp Nou is now far more important than he Clasico. Very pissed off right now.

I lost my sh*# so hard when Pedro hit the post and busi smashed it over. Oh and Puyol's flick. Ffs we had like 6 clear chances

I am not too worried, because we were creating chances a lot. It was just the finishing that cost us. So we can still win this tie and progress.

But, Pep should not start with Cesc in the second leg.

Too mad at these chanches missed.Fab and Alexis should not start again anytim soon after these disgraceful performances.Fab created some chances but he missed two clear chances.

Yes. But there's a bad feeling about this week, like we're gonna get robbed. They're gonna come out and say "oh we dominated" etc etc... Then f***in take your chances!!!!

cex and sanchez should have had a brace each

Slightly concerned.

We'll come at them full force at home, and I expect at least 2 goals. But to be safe we need 3, because a 2-0 at home is a pretty precarious situation against Chelsea. Set pieces are going to be nerve wrecking to watch, especially considering chelsea didn't even score off a set play today. One goal from them is almost guaranteed given that we're bound to be attacking more.

1-0 : unacceptable because it takes us into extra time
2-0 : too risky against Chelsea's aerial threat and lady luck
3-0 : ideal

Not a prediction. Just an observation..but at least it's not a goddamn 3-1 against Inter eh. Back then I knew we were in trouble. Now, I'm wary but looking forward to a good game. In the end, I'm confident we'll make it. It's just a matter of one goal, and the floodgates will open

who wins by luck must be banned from football. what a disgrace game is this. thats why i love tennis more

I hate fabregas with a burning passion right now. Comes in destroys our system and plays a worse game than a drunken giraffe on stilts. Don't even mention the one good pass he made it was just to troll cules. Well it's pep's fault just as much shoving iniesta on the wing to accommodate the most disinterested man in london tonight.

Edit: the knee had to be jerked

aw cman guys...keep it together...this stuff happens in football all the time ( France - Senegal anyone ? )

At least they didn't resort to thug-like challenges. Kept it clean for the most part. Cahill was pretty good, and Meireles marked Messi pretty well. Defended in numbers, and defended well

Jesus ppl, dont turn this section into Real section loool! Stop the knee jerk and the hate towards Cesc and Sanchez pls. Loool!

It was just one of those games. Chelsea played well but any other day we would have scored and the picture would be so different. It will be harder for us now but still, we should do it.

Dont panic and knee jerk like the Madrid fans!

Where do I even begin? A 1-0 is about as terrible a result as anything imaginable in the first away leg in UCL. It's almost as bad as the 3-1 against Inter - just very marginally better.

1. I said some time back that our forward line worries me and tonight proved that it's probably our biggest weakness even more than our defense. At one time we had Messi, Eto'o and Henry. Then last season we had Messi, Villa and Pedro. This season - well what can be said. Simply put Messi is the only goal scorer. This brings me to my second point.

2. If Messi is my only goal scorer then even if he is the world's best play maker and we are facing a parked bus, I still would play him close to goal. Today he spent or was made to spend far too much time in midfield.

3. As for Alexis, with due apologies to dani and mole, I am just not convinced. Yes he is done a few good things but it's more about what he has not been able to do. There are a lot of one footed players but he is probably the most one footed of all high profile players. He can barely touch the ball with his left foot. It has cost us in the past and tonight it cost us at a very crucial moment. The second problem I had with him is that if Messi any time managed to go close to goal which didn't happen very often but when it did, who was most responsible for being next to him in support. I suppose Alexis and he was nowhere to be found.

4. As for Fabregas, yes he did make a couple of decent final passes but how can you justify playing at the expense of a forward if you miss that many chances?

5. Now on to Iniesta. Here I am really confused. In the first half Pep keeps him confined on the left and he gets to participate little in the game. Yet almost every moment he does get it he plays really well including that almost assist for Alexis and that almost penalty. Pep realizes his folly and moves him to midfield in the second half. Then in a somewhat baffling manner Iniesta just flops. When he should be trying to dribble and take on the parked bus, most of the times he is just making sideward passes. It's as if amidst this constant changing of formations and tactics he really cannot understand how much is he to go forward and how much is he to stay behind.

6. Oh wait I am not done with Messi yet. At times he needs to realize that no matter how much of a genius he is, there are times when there are just too many bodies in your path and your shot has no chance of going in. Some time back we had discussed if there is still anything Messi can improve. I guess tonight showed that he could work some more on his imagination because what he does best will not work every single day.

7. Now on to the big boss himself. Pep, you have given us so much. It seems unfair saying anything harsh to you. However so have so many of these players. This is rant time and so I have to speak about you as well. This season has been your worst and this match will probably represent it best. Hardly anything was right from the selection to the tactics. The changes tried to make things little better but just a little better and that too largely didn't work. None of us want you to leave at the end of the season but after this match there would be a small group of people who may not mind seeing your back. Both your big buys of this summer, Alexis and Fabregas, have not worked well enough. If we had last year's lineup, surely we would be doing better.

8. A lot of people here talked about the mismatch. However as has been said so many times football is not played on paper. Also there are many different ways of playing it and there is no need to say more than that.

9. Well all said and done luck played a huge part, Two big chances hit the bar and post. On another day both are goals. Maybe someone up there feels that after 2009 Chelsea deserve some luck against us. If we had to concede what I can only call a sucker punch, then did it have to right at the stroke of half time? You would have head before that is the worst time to concede a goal. The player's body language and morale was clearly down when they came out for the second half.

10. What sucks most is that we are now in a much more precarious situation than Real Madrid. This also demoralizes us for the Classico. Honestly I think that signs in the air indicate that we are going out of UCL next Tuesday and ending up without winning any of the two trophies that really matter. Yes I know I am a pessimist but looking at the team today and even this entire season with special emphasis on the forward line, I give us very little chance now. We shouldn't get too frustrated though. I don't really have a right to say that after this rant but still. I have believed for some time that the cycle of Pep and Xavi's Barcelona and the days of their unquestioned domination is coming to an end and tonight might just be the point when the curtain starts falling. If that does happen I like all of you will still be proud of all that the team has given us during the last three and half years or so and will fondly remember those many glorious and joyous moments.

Sanchez showed that the first time in his career he played in CL semi-final a big game. He was so afraid that i think he pissed his pants thats why guardiola subbed him. Cuenca would do better than alexis. Fabregas was good at passing but he missed chances so he flopped too. and seems busquets never shot the ball he got surprised when he saw the ball coming to him and kicked it into air. he should improve his shooting. brilliant DM but he needs some Alonso skills too

I dont have much to say really.

You cant win CL games, matter fact, many games, if your going to mis 6 obvious chances.

I dont expect every chance to go in, I dont even expect half of the chances to go in when Messi is your only finisher...but you cant miss all 6 and win.

Terrible result.

I cant even complain about tactics and performance, because minus a few, the performance was more or less good enough.

I didnt enjoy Iniesta on the flank, but he kept width, took people on 1 v 1 and didnt congest the middle. Its not like we didnt create chances because he wasnt in the middle and we lacked width.

As I said, you cant miss that much and win.

Their goal, their only shot on target, its like the perfect storm for losing.

Its very annoying losing to a side, who frankly, are so inferior.

Oh and I gotta say it. Cesc was called a big game flop for Arsenal and he hasnt done much to change that rep for us.

Pep is obsessed with playing his 2 boys Cesc and Alexis... We need MVP back, simple as that, these guys will never be that good. Ffs why hasn't Thiago been given a chance on the wing?

The Lizard King wrote:Meireles marked Messi pretty well

Now isn't that surprising? A player who is known to be a poor tackler managed to man mark Messi for an entire game. At one time J.Zanetti was needed to man mark Messi and even that used to surprise people. So what the hell is happening now?