I am waiting for you to have a reason to post this one.Good gracious what a shame of lost potential for this kid. setak on April 19, 2012 at 7:52 am stevepising on April 19, 2012 at 1:09 pm No thanks!My view is that Chelsea stuck to too rigid a game plan. @Ira: “Why would you be a fan of a team that doesn’t play entertaining football ? ZM implictly acknowledges this when he wrote late on:‘Chelsea taking the lead in the first half was key to the rest of the game. It’s so much more annoying that he is such a good player as well.I agree with you on this, especially the Drogba comment. This was key: Chelsea sacrificed their numbers to completely close Messi out of the game, in the hope no one else would score.
Chelsea vs Barcelona ... F 24/04/2012: Barcelona: 2-2 Chelsea F 18/04/2012: Chelsea: 1-0 Barcelona F 06/05/2009: Chelsea: 1-1 Barcelona F 28/04/2009: Barcelona: 0-0 Chelsea F 31/10/2006: Barcelona: 2-2 Chelsea jupiter 53 on April 19, 2012 at 2:53 am Woodyche on April 19, 2012 at 12:44 am patrick on April 19, 2012 at 4:30 pm iwan on April 19, 2012 at 10:43 am not much brilliant passing going on there, though Boy’s, It’s not the length, but the width that counts…In reality though, since Chelsea will largely be playing in their own half, we are looking at just over 10 square metre extra for each player.if u take the absolute numbers like u did when calculating the increase, each chelsea field player would have to cover 7000/10=700 square metres or 350 if they “play in their own half”. Barcelona, even by their standards, went for a ball-hoarding approach. It’s silly to pretend that is not a tactical decision.the point is, how can you complain about someone diving when you have at least two players who are well known divers playing in your side? Chelsea raced into a three-goal lead in 19 minutes, with Eidur Gudjohnsen, Frank Lampard and Damien Duff on target for Jose Mourinho's side. This strays pretty deep into hypothetical territory, but I feel that Barca are inherently unbalanced without Abidal this season. But the problem for Barca is that they need to score early to make the progress a bit smoother. He just left Koscielny and allowed him a free header that came back off the post.Barcelona did not finish clinically but so were some of the breaks from Chelsea – especially Meireles – had there been a better passing midfielder, definitely could have picked mountain loads of space that barcelona left behind.. And Barcelona defending !!! I don’t think I can remember a single bad call from the game.I think that Abidal’s absence has unbalanced the back 4 in a fairly crucial way. It has been said for many years that a well-disciplined and organized line of 4 with the holding midfielders can defend miraculously against many attackers. Anonymous on April 20, 2012 at 12:02 pm I’m not criticising Chelsea or attempting to downplay their result.I’m just having a hard time accepting that I spent the whole game last night thinking; ‘Barca don’t look comfortable on this surface, there’s no space’, only to find out that there just as much space as at the Nou Camp. Will on April 20, 2012 at 4:56 am The Nou Camp will be a different prospect and Chelsea cannot simply park the bus and hope for a 0-0.On the night Barcelona were not at their best. It’s a very simple game.Could have used Tello, although that is a big gamble considering it would mean taking off Iniesta or Cesc.Game was not all that enjoyable, but Drogba, my god what a big powerful machine.i find his rolling about on the floor obnoxious as well, but you can’t deny the man is very good when he’s upright, and I say this as a neutral with respect to Chelsea.I think RDM deserves huge credit. Vlad on April 19, 2012 at 9:29 am Footballadept on April 19, 2012 at 2:10 am