UEFA Champions League, Round of 16 - Tuesday, February 20th, 2018 - Chelsea FC vs FC Barcalona

True. Conte said as much.

 

Once again the view from the ground is vastly different from the view from TV. Pedro had a storming game he was all over the place and his pressing led to us getting the ball back on numerous occasions and upset Barca's rhythm.

I am just getting my voice back I just Love these games against Barca they really bring out the best in the Stanford Bridge crowed.

I must admit to wanting the ex gunner to start but that is why I sit in the west stand and Conte is in the dugout.

Willian was outstanding and I hope he keeps his place for Sunday. Kante was also back to his best. Difficult to point to any under performers a great team effort and the game just flew by.

 

Oh and we have games v City and United to deal with.

 

United is in 4 days and we have a day of rest on them which helps when you add no travel. City isn't till march 4th so we should be well rested but they'll prove difficult. We need 3 from united and 1 from city and we're in great shape.

 

Our best bet, which is a lot easier said than done, is to try and score as early as possible. If we can grab the first goal, Barca will have to go into all out attack and we can switch to counter attacking football the rest of the match even if they get one back. I wouldn’t be surprised if we use the same gameplan as we did against Atletico away, Barca will be expecting the same plan as yesterday imo and will probably adjust by not starting Paulinho (if Valverde has any sense at least)

 

I could not support a team that had Suarez in it.

 

How do you feel about Diego Costa?

Or... Roman Abramovich?

 

That's how everyone feels about Luis! If Chelsea bought Luis and he won the title next season... trust me, you'd love him. He's an amazing maniac.

 

No, he represents everything that is wrong with the game. Biting players on more than one occasion. Cheating, diving. All of it. Bite someone at your job and see what happens to you.

Costa wasn't quite at that level. Neither was Drogba.

Roman, we've had this conversation before. It's very possible that he's one of the Russians (there are many) who own a part of Trump. He's friends with Putin, who is a war criminal, murderer, dictator, you name it. It's hard to overlook that.

 

I at least prefer to feel a bit queasy supporting those right shits. Which is why, for instance, I'm quite happy for John Terry to keep a bit of distance from the club.

Yeah, I said it.

 

Oh, one quick thing - can we stop calling Hazard a false 9 when we play this way? Hazard basically plays as a real 9 in this formation, nothing false about it.

 

There was only one true false 9 in our history ...Fernando Torres.

 

That had nothing to do with how he played the 9 other then the fact that he was shlt

 

Yep, the only true "false" 9.

 

I cheer for a basketball team that had Bill Laimbeer in it.

 

This was a throwback Chelsea performance. One of those performances that show why I love this club. I absolutely love when we are backs against the wall and everyone is doubting us and we put in a world class performance.

We should have won, and I don't think anyone can argue that, against Barcelona.

I can't remember another team ever limiting Barca to such little chances offensively.

The XI was spot on, tons of lads had great performances. I would have went with Willian / Hazard / Pedro up front as well, but I think at the Nou Camp we should go with Morata with Hazard and Willian on either sides. Pedro contributes more defensively then Hazard but when Hazard is playing off Morata he is much more lethal offensively.

This team is crying out for a top CM to slot in next to Kante. Cesc played better then I expected but in games such as these we really need a world class CM to be the missing piece to our puzzle.

 

I thought the ref was rather 'selective' in his interpretations of what was a foul and what wasn't.