I agree with Angel: all-English games are normally the ties I enjoy most in the Champion's League. Man Utd v Chelsea, Liverpool v. Chelsea...contrast that with Milan v. Juventus, the only Champion's League final I got sick of and turned off in 10 years of watching. I'd much rather watch an all-English tie in the CL or an all-German one in the UEFA Cup than one involving two Spanish or Italian clubs. Drogba is dumb, I agree. But as for the rest of your comment, I draw your attention to the 4-4 draw with Liverpool recently.
Platini is that you? To be clear though, poor reffing or not, I'm glad to see Chelsea sitting at home.
When did this turn in to a conversation about Arsenal? Defense wins championships and they held arguably the best team in the world with the best player on the planet to 0 goals for 180 minutes. No small feat. They should have buried their chances though. But we all know English football has lost a lot of sympathy because of the money involved in it, has nothing to do with style of play. In fact, teams all over Europe try to emulate Arsenal and their flowing, attacking style.
Statistics are pretty pointless. Barca had 70% of possession away from home, had one shot on target, and scored it. The only stat that counts is the final score, and Barca won. Chelsea's display at the Nou Camp showed a chronic lack of ambition. They had ten men in their own half for most of the match. It was clear their intention was to defend for dear life, then try and win at Stamford Bridge, despite Hiddink promising they would attack. To be fair, it's exactly what Man United did last year. The only English team who went to Barcelona and had the bollocks to attack in recent years was Liverpool in 2007, and they were rewarded with two away goals which won them the tie. This was achieved with far scarcer resources than United or Chelsea had - Craig Bellamy scored the winner for fuck's sake! Away goals are so critical in these games, so for Chelsea to scarely bother to try and get one was monumentally stupid. Even when it was obvious that Barca weren't as good as their hype suggested, Chelsea still defended. Even at home, against ten men, with Barca out of ideas, Hiddink took off a striker for a fullback, determined to keep his lead. They were only 1-0 up, a single lucky goal for Barca would see them win the tie. Iniesta scored that goal. Regardless of the penalty decisions that weren't given, to sit on a 1-0 lead was stupid, as it would be in any match.
Yay! Werder wins in Hamburg 3-2 going through on a 3-3 aggregate. Unfortunately, Diego is not available for the final due to yellow cards.
Thanks for providing the Chelsea clips guys. I also saw the highlights on SuperSport earlier today. I don't agree with their actions, but I can totally understand the outburst. Ballack looked like he was about to bite the referee's head off "Grendel style".
A bit of a tongue-in-cheek article, but as a Werder Bremen supporter, I found it hilarious nonetheless: It was in fact a piece of paper thrown onto the pitch by a Hamburg supporter. It was part of their display of support (not sure how to translate that one) before the game. A video of the piece of paper in action can be seen at that website (from which the quote was taken). See also: Google translation of a fansite. Reportedly, Paperball is in negotiations to move to to Juventus Turin or Bayern München. PS: That was also the first goal Hamburg conceded this season after a corner kick.
Great stuff. Surprised Real Madrid aren't being linked with a swoop for the piece of paper. Florentino Pérez will probably bid €40 million for it.
That's amazing! Man City in a £100m swoop?! Reminds of last season's FA Cup game between Sheffield and Man City - loads of balloons were hovering around the City penalty area, and a cross in from a Sheffield attacker hit one of them and bounced into the path of one of his team-mates, who promptly buried it. Sheffield went on to win with that goal! Even better, a City defender - Michael Ball I think - went to clear that cross and kicked one of the balloons instead!
That was so funny. Joe Hart pointedly started stamping on the balloons to try and exonerate himself. There were a lot of the blighters though!
The press have talked him something rotten. You'd think no one else would come up with the 'tactical masterstroke' of putting on the club's best striker when a winning goal was needed with 20 minutes to go. Gosh, if only Wenger, Ferguson or Rijkaard ever thought of it. Sheffield Utd v Burnley play-off final - quite pleasing I guess. I'd like to see Burnley go up as their cup heroics showed they can mix it with the big boys reasonably well... but equally the fantastist in me would love to see Sheffield go up and sign Carlos Tevez with all the money they got from Tevezgate.
I'm not surprised Coppell decided to leave. Seems a very decent bloke and is obviously accepting full responsibility for not getting them promoted. Be interesting to see where he ends up manager now (if he does) and also how well Reading do without him. I think I'll be cheering on Burnley now, although given how rich Utd now are maybe I should be hoping they go up rather than potentially dominate the Championship next season...
Wasn't Coppell close to resigning last season? Seems like a decent bloke, but perhaps burnt out by a promotion season followed by two long, hard years in the premiership.
So whose going down ? and will the media stop running the stupid reports that Wenger wants the REAL job...NOT A FUCKING CHANCE REAL
Yeah, Wenger and Real Madrid sounds like pretty much the worst fit imaginable. But they might offer him a shitload of money, so who knows...
Maybe he'll do an "Agent Wenger". Go to Madrid, sign Adebayor, Eboue, Diaby and Silvestre for a combined €200 million, sell Higuain, both Diarras, Sneijder and Castillas to Arsenal for a tenner, then pop back to Ashburton Grove with a bag full of duty free booze and fags.