(UEFA) Football Thread - Football not Soccer

[sttngfan1701d]

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.

Maybe if Drogba were not such a diving cunt and if some of the other Chelsea boys cared more about playing football than keeping their hair cuts pretty they could have scored a second goal instead of just destroying the game.

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.

 

[TheArsenal]

You guys here wonder why English football has lost a lot of sympathy lately? Look at the way Chelsea "plays", look at how fucking boring intra-English games are in the EC and you have your answer.

Platini is that you?

To be clear though, poor reffing or not, I'm glad to see Chelsea sitting at home.

 

[Garak]

.....cared more about playing football than keeping their hair cuts pretty they could have scored a second goal instead of just destroying the game.

When did this turn in to a conversation about Arsenal?

You guys here wonder why English football has lost a lot of sympathy lately? Look at the way Chelsea "plays", look at how fucking boring intra-English games are in the EC and you have your answer.

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.

 

[Tomalak]

How did Chelsea setlefor 1-0 they created several chances and 4 penalties after they scored but they weren't going to be stupid and leave holes at the back. Fans need to remember that football is about defending and attacking not just attacking though how anyone can declare Barcelona were attacking last night leaves me confused because 1 shot on goal is not attacking...

All Barca did was run around for 90 minutes doing nothing while so called Chelsea bordem created about 8 chances.

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.

 

[Iasius]

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.

 

[dragunzng]

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".

 

[Iasius]

A bit of a tongue-in-cheek article, but as a Werder Bremen supporter, I found it hilarious nonetheless:

It’s possibly the most bizarre way that any club has ever progressed into a major European final.
Werder Bremen’s third goal - the one that eventually saw them progress past Hamburg on the away goals rule - arrived in extraordinary circumstances.
As Hamburg defender Michael Gravgaard looked to safely guide the ball behind the line for a goal-kick, it instead took an incredible diversion after hitting a ball of paper that was lying unobtrusively on the pitch before striking the unfortunate centre-back on the leg and going behind for a corner.
As the commentary team joked at what a freak goal it would be if Werder netted, Frank Baumann did just that to send the underdogs into the Uefa Cup final, where they will play Shakhtar Donetsk.
An assist for the ball of paper was later awarded by Uefa.
So while Diego, after a terrific performance, will be missing from the final through suspension, Werder need not rely on their star playmaker but instead make sure that the apparently innocuous (but secretly deadly) white ball of paper makes it to Istanbul alongside the rest of the squad, first class and all.
Perhaps most ironic is that the paper was thrown onto the field by Hamburg supporters. The club have unofficially confirmed that they have identified the individual responsible, who will now be banned for life. Martin Jol also has one free swing at him.

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.

 

[Tomalak]

Perhaps most ironic is that the paper was thrown onto the field by Hamburg supporters.

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.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

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!

 

[Tomalak]

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!

 

[Starkers]

Almost reminiscent of the paper cup incident when Derby beat Forest 4-2 a few seasons ago!

 

[TheArsenal]

Alan Shearer's no genius. But those subs made him look awfully damn good.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

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.

 

[Hermiod]

Steve Coppell has resigned.

 

[Starkers]

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...

 

[Tomalak]

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.

 

[TheArsenal]

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.

During the match itself, Jon Champion sounded so emotionally excited, I swore he was going to cry.

 

[Jax]

So whose going down ?

and will the media stop running the stupid reports that Wenger wants the REAL job...NOT A FUCKING CHANCE REAL

 

[Roger Wilco]

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...

 

[Tomalak]

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.