Champions League Chelsea vs. Barcelona

[mancity25]

It makes me laugh when people say Di Matteo got his tactics right last night.... when he didn't. Besides the obvious (stopping them from scoring and winning 1-0), how exactly did his tactics stop Barcelona?

To be exact, he got lucky... really lucky. People may say they defended well, but Barcelona had 24 shots at goal, 80% possession, 600 more passes, countless good chances and hit the bar and post. That doesn't seem like a team that defended well in my opinion. Yes, they defended well in parts.... but that's down to the fact they had 10 men behind the ball for most of the match; even the greatest of teams aren't going to get passed a team that park the bus that easily. You may say they kept Messi quiet.... but that's not the case. Messi, at times, got through quite easily, taking it passed 3 or 4 players, at times, and setting up a few chances.

Now if Barcelona had finished some of those good chances, people would have been saying how shit Chelsea was and how he got his tactics wrong. Barcelona won the game for Chelsea.... with their terrible finishing, not his tactics.

 

[bluemoon32]

It makes me laugh when people say Di Matteo got his tactics right last night.... when he didn't. Besides the obvious (stopping them from scoring and winning 1-0), how exactly did his tactics stop Barcelona?

To be exact, he got lucky... really lucky. People may say they defended well, but Barcelona had 24 shots at goal, 80% possession, 600 more passes, countless good chances and hit the bar and post. That doesn't seem like a team that defended well in my opinion. Yes, they defended well in parts.... but that's down to the fact they had 10 men behind the ball for most of the match; even the greatest of teams aren't going to get passed a team that park the bus that easily. You may say they kept Messi quiet.... but that's not the case. Messi, at times, got through quite easily, taking it passed 3 or 4 players, at times, and setting up a few chances.

Now if Barcelona had finished some of those good chances, people would have been saying how shit Chelsea was and how he got his tactics wrong. Barcelona won the game for Chelsea.... with their terrible finishing, not his tactics.

Chelsea won 1-0....end of story, nothing else matters.

 

[Blue>Red]

It makes me laugh when people say Di Matteo got his tactics right last night.... when he didn't. Besides the obvious (stopping them from scoring and winning 1-0), how exactly did his tactics stop Barcelona?

To be exact, he got lucky... really lucky. People may say they defended well, but Barcelona had 24 shots at goal, 80% possession, 600 more passes, countless good chances and hit the bar and post. That doesn't seem like a team that defended well in my opinion. Yes, they defended well in parts.... but that's down to the fact they had 10 men behind the ball for most of the match; even the greatest of teams aren't going to get passed a team that park the bus that easily. You may say they kept Messi quiet.... but that's not the case. Messi, at times, got through quite easily, taking it passed 3 or 4 players, at times, and setting up a few chances.

Now if Barcelona had finished some of those good chances, people would have been saying how shit Chelsea was and how he got his tactics wrong. Barcelona won the game for Chelsea.... with their terrible finishing, not his tactics.

been trying to say this all day, if clearcut chances were buried or fell to messi, it would have been 4-1 and people would be hailing it as one of the greatest away performances in champions leagur history with 80% possession etc, but in the end it doesnt matter and i hope barca put 28 past them next week

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

It makes me laugh when people say Di Matteo got his tactics right last night.... when he didn't. Besides the obvious (stopping them from scoring and winning 1-0), how exactly did his tactics stop Barcelona?

To be exact, he got lucky... really lucky. People may say they defended well, but Barcelona had 24 shots at goal, 80% possession, 600 more passes, countless good chances and hit the bar and post. That doesn't seem like a team that defended well in my opinion. Yes, they defended well in parts.... but that's down to the fact they had 10 men behind the ball for most of the match; even the greatest of teams aren't going to get passed a team that park the bus that easily. You may say they kept Messi quiet.... but that's not the case. Messi, at times, got through quite easily, taking it passed 3 or 4 players, at times, and setting up a few chances.

Now if Barcelona had finished some of those good chances, people would have been saying how shit Chelsea was and how he got his tactics wrong. Barcelona won the game for Chelsea.... with their terrible finishing, not his tactics.

been trying to say this all day, if clearcut chances were buried or fell to messi, it would have been 4-1 and people would be hailing it as one of the greatest away performances in champions leagur history with 80% possession etc, but in the end it doesnt matter and i hope barca put 28 past them next week

Barca have 80% possesion every game its not some new fantastic thing thats happened. You play them and hope for the best DM did what he could do with the team he had it worked. But Barcelona fans have to stop crying over it at some point

 

[GHoddle]

Castiel give me a staight answer...Yes or No were you lucky to win that match?

I thought we fully deserved to win. It isn't about luck. We had a very specific strategy for them and we executed it perfectly. Thats all you can ask the team to do. You can't account for chance. In 2009 we executed the same strategy perfectly and many said we "deserved" to go through then but we didn't. If we can execute the away strategy perfectly then we've done all we can to win this tie. The rest is out of our hands.

Yes or No?

They weren't lucky because there's no such thing as luck. The clean chances didn't fall to messi because of the way Chelsea played. Everyone knew Barca would have chances but it wasn't coincidence that they fell to less clinical players like Fabregas and Busquets.

 

[mancity25]

It makes me laugh when people say Di Matteo got his tactics right last night.... when he didn't. Besides the obvious (stopping them from scoring and winning 1-0), how exactly did his tactics stop Barcelona?

To be exact, he got lucky... really lucky. People may say they defended well, but Barcelona had 24 shots at goal, 80% possession, 600 more passes, countless good chances and hit the bar and post. That doesn't seem like a team that defended well in my opinion. Yes, they defended well in parts.... but that's down to the fact they had 10 men behind the ball for most of the match; even the greatest of teams aren't going to get passed a team that park the bus that easily. You may say they kept Messi quiet.... but that's not the case. Messi, at times, got through quite easily, taking it passed 3 or 4 players, at times, and setting up a few chances.

Now if Barcelona had finished some of those good chances, people would have been saying how shit Chelsea was and how he got his tactics wrong. Barcelona won the game for Chelsea.... with their terrible finishing, not his tactics.

been trying to say this all day, if clearcut chances were buried or fell to messi, it would have been 4-1 and people would be hailing it as one of the greatest away performances in champions leagur history with 80% possession etc, but in the end it doesnt matter and i hope barca put 28 past them next week

Will Chelsea up their effort and defending on Tuesday? Will the luck be with Chelsea again? Will Barcelona miss all those chances again?

I highly doubt it.

 

[City Raider]

The thing that surprised me most about Barca was there absolute insistance to play Messi through the middle. He barely moved from outside the width of the box the whole match.

Evertime he picked it up, he had 3 players minimum to beat. The space was wide where he'd have had loads of 1 on 1's going into the box.

It was a bit arrogant really, this is the way we play and we ain't changing for you. Guess they've earned that right though.

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

It makes me laugh when people say Di Matteo got his tactics right last night.... when he didn't. Besides the obvious (stopping them from scoring and winning 1-0), how exactly did his tactics stop Barcelona?

To be exact, he got lucky... really lucky. People may say they defended well, but Barcelona had 24 shots at goal, 80% possession, 600 more passes, countless good chances and hit the bar and post. That doesn't seem like a team that defended well in my opinion. Yes, they defended well in parts.... but that's down to the fact they had 10 men behind the ball for most of the match; even the greatest of teams aren't going to get passed a team that park the bus that easily. You may say they kept Messi quiet.... but that's not the case. Messi, at times, got through quite easily, taking it passed 3 or 4 players, at times, and setting up a few chances.

Now if Barcelona had finished some of those good chances, people would have been saying how shit Chelsea was and how he got his tactics wrong. Barcelona won the game for Chelsea.... with their terrible finishing, not his tactics.

been trying to say this all day, if clearcut chances were buried or fell to messi, it would have been 4-1 and people would be hailing it as one of the greatest away performances in champions leagur history with 80% possession etc, but in the end it doesnt matter and i hope barca put 28 past them next week

Will Chelsea up their effort and defending on Tuesday? Will the luck be with Chelsea again? Will Barcelona miss all those chances again?

I highly doubt it.

yes but if i said to you that Chelsea would go to the nou camp with 1 goal advantage and no away goals to worry about you would of laughed at me

 

[MSP]

The thing that surprised me most about Barca was there absolute insistance to play Messi through the middle. He barely moved from outside the width of the box the whole match.

Evertime he picked it up, he had 3 players minimum to beat. The space was wide where he'd have had loads of 1 on 1's going into the box.

It was a bit arrogant really, this is the way we play and we ain't changing for you. Guess they've earned that right though.

Chelsea deliberately left them space on wings as they knew Barcelona can't match their defensive line height and they had enough men in the box to stop low crosses.

It was very good performance by Chelsea and I really can't understand why people refuse to recognize that. It was long time ago some team limited Messi as Chelsea did last night and that's the main job to do when you're playing against Barcelona. He barely stepped in their box last night.

Of course they have much more options to go with but as we saw those options are far less dangerous.

 

[TCIB]

The thing that surprised me most about Barca was there absolute insistance to play Messi through the middle. He barely moved from outside the width of the box the whole match.

Evertime he picked it up, he had 3 players minimum to beat. The space was wide where he'd have had loads of 1 on 1's going into the box.

It was a bit arrogant really, this is the way we play and we ain't changing for you. Guess they've earned that right though.

Chelsea deliberately left them space on wings as they knew Barcelona can't match their defensive line height and they had enough men in the box to stop low crosses.

It was very good performance by Chelsea and I really can't understand why people refuse to recognize that. It was long time ago some team limited Messi as Chelsea did last night and that's the main job to do when you're playing against Barcelona. He barely stepped in their box last night.

Of course they have much more options to go with but as we saw those options are far less dangerous.

Agreed, the stench of some misplaced bitterness is in the air in this room.