UCL: Chelsea v Barcelona

Have you seen Luiz since Di Matteo? Alex and Cahill are nothing compared to this Luiz lol

And I wouldnt say Mata is their ONLY threat..not at all. Drogba wasnt quick in his prime, thats not his strength...sleep on himand he can stil punish you. Ramires and Kalou cant be slept on either, especially not the former.

luiz was at fault from benficas goal together with Cech, so i dont think he has improved much since di mateo.

Let's put it this way

There is more chance of Leonardo Di Caprio staying alive in Titanic 3D, than Chelsea eliminating Barcelona in CL Semi.

Mascherano was at fault for Milan's goal.

yep, he was, i didnt like masceranos match a lot, though he had some inmense tackles.

That will be our starting line up. The front 3 is the only thing that will change.

Congrats on making the final BTW :,(

free_cat wrote:yep, he was, i didnt like masceranos match a lot, though he had some inmense tackles.

I beg to differ. Though he WAS responsible for the goal, his game was otherwise, great. Made great tackles and showed a lot of authority in defence.

danyjr wrote:Just a quick history, these were the squads last time the two teams met 3 years ago:

Starting: Valdes, Dani Alves, Toure Yaya, Pique, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Keita, Messi, Eto'o, Iniesta

Starting: Cech, Bosingwa, Alex, Terry, Ashley Cole, Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Anelka, Drogba, Malouda.

Subs: Hilario, Ivanovic, Mikel, Kalou

Impressing. Both teams have pretty much kept the majority of their starting line-up.

Valdés, Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Pedro/Cuenca, Alexis.

Čech, Bosingwa/Ivanović , Luiz, Terry, Cole, Essien/Mikel, Lampard, Ramires, Kalou, Torres, Mata

Except for one small fact. The one side is pact with past their best players. Chelsea 3 years ago is nowhere near Chelsea today. Benfica with 10 men and 3 playmakers manage to carve them open with short simple passes. Ever seen that short simple passing somewhere?

shinigami99 wrote:

free_cat wrote:yep, he was, i didnt like masceranos match a lot, though he had some inmense tackles.

I beg to differ. Though he WAS responsible for the goal, his game was otherwise, great. Made great tackles and showed a lot of authority in defence.

He still was responsible for the goal

The Franchise wrote:Have you seen Luiz since Di Matteo? Alex and Cahill are nothing compared to this Luiz lol

And I wouldnt say Mata is their ONLY threat..not at all. Drogba wasnt quick in his prime, thats not his strength...sleep on himand he can stil punish you. Ramires and Kalou cant be slept on either, especially not the former.

You fear Kalou?
Guy is stealing a living at a top club.Drogba is a worry.Pique couldnt deal with Ibra so if Drogba is on his A game could cause us a few problems.
Still am super confident about this tie.
Chelsea dont have the midfield to stop ours.Most importantly they have neither the midfield or the defense to stop Messi.He is going to have a field day with them.

Kalou is a strange player..the exact kind of player you forget about but every so often shows what the big deal was meant to be about.

Not fear, but he is someone easy to forget who could go under the radar.

I agree about the midfield of Chelsea. Dont know if you saw, but Aimar was getting by Mikel consistantly and finding space in between the lines to turn and run at the defence.

Perfect position for Messi to exploit.

[quote="alexjanosik"]

The Franchise wrote:Have you seen Luiz since Di Matteo? Alex and Cahill are nothing compared to this Luiz lol

And I wouldnt say Mata is their ONLY threat..not at all. Drogba wasnt quick in his prime, thats not his strength...sleep on himand he can stil punish you. Ramires and Kalou cant be slept on either, especially not the former.

Defending high up the pitch Drogba is not a problem. He is big but too slow. Torres? He loves through balls but Lampard is more hunting glory blasting for goal than to actually provide it to him.

Dont have to be super fast to get in behind on a high line, its about timing of the run more than anything.

Of the course the faster you are, the easier it is.

The Franchise wrote:Dont have to be super fast to get in behind on a high line, its about timing of the run more than anything.

Of the course the faster you are, the easier it is.

Yes it is. But there is still the run to the box before the defenders catch up to you that is ahead. And it is not Drogba's style. He create space for other.

Did any see what they tried against Citeh by any chance? They sat back and lost 2-1. Yaya Toure found acres of space.

Where's Oriol Romeu? I thought it was clear he plays better games than Mikel... Woudn't mind him having a few minutes against his old club.

mikel is much better than romeu

Lets hope Alves injurry isn't that bad. We will still beat Chelsea but Im looking to the Clasicos and well we need Alves and his dangerous runs to destory the Madrid defense. Montoya is a more defensive full back but he isn't the same as Alves and well he also doesn't have the experience as Alves. Lets hope Pique is back from injury soon and have a back four of Puyol, Masch, Pique and Adriano. Lets hope Adriano does not get injury otherwise we will be in deeper trouble.

Our Schedule is aggressive, or seems like it... Chelsea 18th, Classico 21st, Chelsea 24... Crunch time !!

Our other Classico opponent gets Bayern on 17th and 25th, that seems more realistic.

We had better cycle players well and rest some, they are in for an intense 6 days.. hey at least only the first match will be away then its home for the rest.

Chelsea just scored 5 in a single game. I don't know about you guys, but in my eyes Chelsea look as competitive as they ever did. They're like a new team. I'm expecting a very tough and physical match - exactly the kind we struggle in.

None should worry about the outcome of one match, not to mention that the scoreline did not represent how the match went at all. Spurs hit the post 3 times and Chelsea scored a completely illegitimate second goal which changed the dynamics of the match completely.

Barcelona should be scared of Drogba though. He is on form. He is going to make it hell for Barcelona's defenders who will not a match for his strength. Today, he made chances out of nothing, like Messi does, but in a different way.

Meh, game changing goal wasnt a goal.

I wasnt impressed by their performance to be honest. It wasnt really reflective of any game vs us.

I am sure it will be hard, in the semi it nearly always is, but this Chelsea isnt anything like the old Chelsea. They leave so much space all over the pitch and are tactically open.

Luiz doubtful for Champions League tie with Barcelona after picking up hamstring injury in FA Cup semi-final

Surely it is UEFAlona somehow getting opposition defenders injured. First Thiago Silva, now David Luiz.

^
Your right, it was us who forced Thiago Silva and David Luiz to play all matches and out do themselves.

danyjr wrote:Luiz doubtful for Champions League tie with Barcelona after picking up hamstring injury in FA Cup semi-final

Surely it is UEFAlona somehow getting opposition defenders injured. First Thiago Silva, now David Luiz.

Too many mind games...

danyjr wrote:Luiz doubtful for Champions League tie with Barcelona after picking up hamstring injury in FA Cup semi-final

Surely it is UEFAlona somehow getting opposition defenders injured. First Thiago Silva, now David Luiz.

I saw the Chelsea vs Tottenham game yesterday, he was badly injured, he requested to be replaced. He wont play in my opinion.

Dude is that Rita Ora in your avatar?