Champions League Group Stage: December 5, 2012- Chelsea FC v. FC Nordsjaelland - [R]

will have the juve game open at the same time, its gonna be electric

To be fair, if we don't end up qualifying, then we only need to look at the Juve game at home.

Anyway, this just has to be FSW's first win as Chelsea manager, right?

my thoughts exactly..... Win and ahhh win. Hopefully it'll be enough

we need this! we so badly need this win, i hope JT gives the mother of all speeches!

So a Chelsea win and a Shakhtar win sends us through, yeah? Any other pair of results and we are out?

Thanks, UEFA, for suspending Adriano for this one

Nope. I believe it's that simple.

A loss to Nords and Sunderland should cook Fat Bastard's goose, I'd say.

To be honest, I wouldnt be surprised with a scored draw. Guessing 1-1.

If we don't beat them and the Ukrainians do us a favor, he'll be gone by morning time. Are y'all jokes?

I'm oddly optimistic about our chances of progressing.

Shakhtar beating Juve at home is not beyond the pale. We've seen just how well Shakhtar plays as a team.

Rafa has to get his first win against the Nordsjaelland. He just has to. This is way more of a gimme than West Ham. If we can't beat them tomorrow, I agree with the above posts: Rafa is out in the morning. The embarrassment would simply be too much, not just for failing to progress (which arguably can be blamed on RDM partially), but for failing to beat a team that we, on paper, should crush at home. (Then again, we're not sparing our own blushes in firing a guy who's been in charge of only a few games, are we?)

Shakhtar 2 - Juve 1
Chelsea 3 - Nordsjaelland 1
(Please...)

Like I've said before: I learned my lesson from last year's UCL campaign. We are NOT out of the competition until the final whistle's blown and all's said and done.

They (Nords..) looked quite capable of playing us tooth and nail. A draw may be in the cards.

that would be embarrassing

So, any idea if Terry, Sturridge and Lampard are still going to be out for this game? Seems like any one of them could be pretty useful on the field today, or even as a substitute.

In any case, given what we've already seen of Shakhtar, a win by them against Juventus is definitely on the cards, while a win against Nordsjaelland at home in a must-win match shouldn't really be unattainable. Of course, they can definitely play, but nonetheless last time it did seem like Chelsea's greater class and experience eventually came to show through, and that should hopefully remain the case so long as Chelsea plays decently and takes the chances which Nordsjaelland will be likely to give. It would probably be worthwhile to have players like Hazard running at defenders and going for goal more often - and in general to try and maximize the goal threat from the midfield players - so that a bit more initiative and 'selfishness' could well be called for, especially against Nordsjaelland, where mistakes should arise under pressure.

If all else fails, just rehire Drogba for the second half.

the squad is fully capable of a win. despite the result, the first half of the west ham game shows the team can still create. that game should have been put to bed and west ham should have been demoralized before the comeback even started. even after the first goal, the boys looked like they would immidiately answer and almost did.

not too dissimilar to what was going wrong under RDM at times. NOT CONVERTING CHANCES.

Terry and Lamps are out. There's speculation Danny could make the bench, though. Link.

Also, while I don't like to over emphasize the effect of playing home or away, Nordsjaelland was at home last time, so I expect at least a little less "zest" in their play today. I just can't see us doing anything but winning today.

The wildcard is Shakhtar's willingness to go for the W. If they lose, they finish 2nd in the group, and that should be enough reason for them to go all out against Juve. I think they'll go for it tonight. Don't think I've never rooted so hard for a Ukrainian team.

Just thought of something:

Let's say Shakhtar loses to Juventus.

Let's say we thump Nordsjaelland by a large margin (say, 3-4 goals).

(Lots of assumptions here, but go with me for a moment.)

Now, the first tie-breaker in the UCL is head-to-head record, right? If Shakhtar loses and we win today, we're even on 10 points in the group, our head-to-head will be even (wins at home for each), so then the second tie-breaker is goal differential, right? Right now Shakhtar is +5, Chelsea is +1. If we thump Nordsjaelland like we did the first time, we could very well put ourselves above the Ukrainians on GD and progress with Juve.

So confusing! Do I have this right, though?

If I do, that's even more reason for Shakhtar to go all out tonight.

Definitely not. Our only hope is second place. I'm just exploring the possible avenues through which we can progress.

W.R.T. to CFC, I don't know how to be embarrassed anymore.

Right. I addressed that. Our head to head with Shakhtar is even, home wins between each. Second tie-breaker is GD.