Sad indeed

How to have 20 % posession and still win by sheer luck @ Chelsea

thing is barcelona might have 80% ball possession, but they do nothing with it, they only retain the ball

do nothing with it? guess the spectators made over 20 shots then.

barcelona can't shoot, only guy that actually has any accuracy is mascherano and messi's left foot (cause his right foot is dead blind), they just keep pushing one team waiting for them to make a crucial mistake so that they can enter the net with the ball

they did nothing? two goals and a penalty should have been enough in any way, chelsea's luck was out of this world last night. barcelona's 'tactic' of playing with a team of (seven) midfielders was bound to run into problems at some point, shame it was against a team that went 4-5-0 similar to inter two years ago. at home chelsea won with one shot on the goal, now this.

the 2-2 looked like something out of the parks on sunday afternoons all over europe, one guy playing the lone 'striker' screaming 'here, here!'. granted, torres has a knack for killer goals, i vividly remember when he made fun of lahm :p

barca needs a proper striker (on the bench, atleast) who knows how to do headers and two wingers that bring the ball in every now and then, just to have that option against teams going all defensive.

barca were much luckier when they "won" against us at the bridge a few years back so don't give me that shit. also barca haven't beaten us in the past 7 meetings so we must be doing something right and we just don't lose at camp nou.

was funny to see barca run out ideas vs. 10 men on about 75 minutes and start crossing against a team thats like two metres taller than them. guess they're used to playing physically weaker defenders in la liga week in week out.

but yes we're all luck no skill worst team ever.

CFC4L

They spent so much effort to get Fabregas in their colours and all they have him do is pass it to Messi/Xavi on the edge of the area, then when the game needs someone to urgently play a killer ball they sub him out for a kid or Keita.

It's comical, if there's ever a guy who I'd put money on to create late chances against ten man defences it's Fabregas and they sub him off...

It was funny seeing Barcelona line up against Chelsea in the second half. It was like 540 vs 136 but none of them moved at all.

he was probably the most dangerous player of the tie - a few good chances at the bridge, one or two yesterday and he won the penalty too.

barca need to hit the weights. i mean drogba caused problems from so many long balls just by being able to out muscle two guys and chest/head it down. i remember one time in the first leg too when alexis ran into terry's chest and almost knocked himself out, not to mentioned their non existent physical/aerial threat from corners and crosses.

guess 99thousand passes outside the box doesn't win you la liga and champions league ;((

It was the same against Real Madrid too...

Barcelona versus stubborn defence in must win game; bench Fabregas for Thiago so you can keep possession more then bring him on as your last sub when there's no time left (and at one point it looked like they were going to bring on Pique...)

I guess Fabregas isn't conforming enough to playing eternal keep ball even when you are losing in the 89th minute of a CL semi-final. He tries to, you know, create goals a bit too much; only Messi is allowed to do that.

cmon...

they scored more goals -> they won... easy as that...

Sheer luck, right haha. 2 great goals. Chelsea locked down one of the greatest teams to ever play football, and the greatest player of all time, and they did it 2 games in a row - That's no feat to scoff at.

y u so nub

barcelona = cooller

Overrated and finish 3rd-4th place?

I agree.

Wouldnt that be strenx?

what a rubbish semi final, it looked like a game of handball.
tomorrow will be much more exciting for sure! go Bayern!

So this match wasn't exciting for you?

yeah...

a good game for me is when the TWO teams play positive & attacking football, the game goes back and forth, and BOTH have chances. The tension was there obviously, but did you really see a good game?

if chelsea didnt have chances how the fuck they scored 2 goals :-0

true, a lesson in efficiency I guess. Didn't make it a good game though

It was a great game but I still think Bayern - Real last week was better. Both teams were playing on the counter for 90 minutes. Hoping it will be just as exciting.

Any Aldershot Town fans here?

just a little bit of data:
Chelsea beat Barca
Liverpool beat Chelsea
Wigan beat Liverpool
Swindon beat Wigan
Aldershot beat Swindon
So therefore Aldershot are the best team in Europe/World

i once railed linkin
who once fragged cypher

therefore i beat cypher! QED

exactly

FERNANDO TORRES!

Fabregas bringing Barcelona down to Arsenal levels? :o

No, Fabregas pld well.

Bait moar plz

:D

Shouldn't you hate Torres for being an Atletico player? I don't understand how fanboyism works. :(

i liked the match.. it was really tense
good job Cheslea for pulling through with that insane bus parked in the box.

i'm happy when the underdogs win! so.. go go Bayern!! :D

should have been arsenal.

although i hope di matteo makes an account on esr so i can plus him.

they always try to walk it in

yeah, good match.
Match would be a little bit different, if not Terrys`s red card. Play 10 vs 11 against Barcelona is insanly hard.
About ball control, everyone who knows a little more about footballl, knows, that doesn't mean much, just for low skilled fans, that 70% ball control by barca in every match looks insane.
Dunno what barca players was thinking yesturday, they could do low passes to goal field like 50 times, so random ball from legs, could be kicked... they was just passing around goal field all day long. I was LOLING SO LOUD :)))))))) I know, they are pro, they know what they do, but they got nerv-fcuked...
ps. I am Real fan (10 years atleast) and still thinking that Barcelona is #1 team in a world.

Peñarol #1. Uruguay es best.

Enjoyed the game alot and found it entertaining that Di Matteo was using Mourinhos old passive and clustered defence. Nothing new really just doing what most teams with physical players should be doing vs Barcelona. Worked like a charm and Barcelona really didn't have any solution to it, even with Bosingwa and Ivanovic as central defenders. It was kind of replay of what happened vs Inter two years ago and I still don't get why they haven't opted for one or two target players that can be a threat in the air while they fit into Barcas style of play. I guess Ibrahimovic was partly a solution to that, but is unfortunately not there anymore. Not saying he was a clear choice in the starting eleven or that he should have played in a central role instead of Messi, but he could have offered more options in a game like this.

Still, i was hoping Barca would go trough to the final and hopefully play Real.

Random thoughts: ball possession means shit (to a certain level) and Barca is probably still the best team overall but the gap's closing in on them quicker than expected.

Fact: Valencia is the best team in the world and Atletico were lucky last week ;)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-...5929_n.jpg

HHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAICANTREADMEXICANAHHAHAHAAHHA

let's score some penalties?
sure, i'll bring kaka
okay, make sure u bring ramos too

:@

http://i.imgur.com/nzx0O.jpg