I struggle with this. You are absolutely spot on about the structural issues, but this match was comfortable until then and that was, from what I saw, they're only real chance once again. Between the new manager bump and the 1 chance 1 goal shit, we have to be incredibly unlucky.
Initially I wanted Ajax to go through with us (because of the cheating ground rolling Spanish feckers) but the b*tching coming from some of the Dutch on here has made me rather pleased they're out. Getting to the last 16 is good for this young team.
Yeah it's going to be tough that's for sure but am I right in thinking only a draw between them would have meant we would have finished top of the group?
The structural issues are young players all over the place adapting to one another and a manager who has never managed at this level before. It's different from playing. Playing helps, but it's not managing.
Regarding luck, referring to the campaign as a whole. We were hugely lucky against Valencia and had slices of luck against Ajax too. If you weren’t having your nerves jangled in today’s second half I don’t know what to tell you. It should have been comfortable on the scoreboard well before remy scored. That it wasn’t once again is a concern. Young players or not, it’s a consistent problem and tactically we are not where we need to be. FWIW, I have reset my bar for this season to a much higher level now we are closing in on Christmas. These are relatively great problems to have compared to what I had expected (I.e. lacking in any sort of goal threat), so take this for what it is. Standard Chelsea fan griping
Speaking of luck we either face Bayern, Juve, Barca, PSG or... Leipzig. Most likely a really good test for our young guns. Bring it on!
Tammy, Mount and Pulisic have been revelations. Especially Tammy. The great fear going into this season was that we had no striker to lead the line and score the goals. Turns out we have one of the best young talents in Europe; big, strong, confident and most important of all he scores goals. Now we can go back to griping about our defence.
I will say credit to Zouma for the last ditch tackle in the box on the break. He gets his fair share of criticism but he did well in this game.
Win the first round and you got a top seeds draw..,..or tbh. this year if we ain't going to win it all which is Plan A-Z as always, an early exit to a team we are not expected to beat, will allow us to concentrate on a League Top 4 spot. (Unless it is against Sorri-ball, then Lamps job is on the line)
I've seen this thought all over the place and I think it's a bit simplistic/naive. It's a team sport. We played rather average on the whole in what was a pretty even group outside of Lille. I'm not a Barkley fan by any stretch, but that's not what caused us to finish second. There are so many "what-ifs" involved. Besides, if we won the group, we would have faced Lyon, Dortmund, Napoli, Atletico, Atalanta or Real. I mean, whatever.