10 minutes to go, Kezman's on for Drogba. Lets see what he can do here in this cameo. I wonder if Jose's so upset with Eidur's profligacy in front of goal that he's now set to ride the pine, or if he was resting him for the Arse? Hmmmmm...............
Ooof. McCarthy scores. 2-1 Porto. I don't overly care, but I prefer not to lose games, no matter how little they matter.
Meanwhile, Werder score; Valencia now is surely out of it. They'd have to score 3 times in the last 5 minutes. Arrividerci Claudio.
So, are Arsenal now going to win their group. Would be nice to have another team in the 'possibility' pot for us.
They're loving this over on the Arsenal board, stupid gits. Didn't they realise this was a meaningless match?
I think it matters psycologically to players. As of before today, Chelsea thought that they are practically unbeatable. If they lose today, they might be thinking about in on Sunday and that's no good.
My thoughts exactly. Full time. 2-1 Porto. Jose loses his first game in Europe in ages. Meh. We didn't start our full side, and by all accounts they weren't all that interested in the game. So - I'm not remotely concerned. Bring on the Arse. I saw them crowing about this result too. *shrug* If they think we'll be down because of a reverse in an entirely meaningless game with a bizarre formation, more power to us.
lousey match. badbad game for Cech, Carvalho, Bridge, Drogba & a couple of others. i know it was a nothing match, but it's still a botheration. Porto won it from two moments of individual skill. whatever, well done to them.
A loss is a loss, means you weren't good enough. Don't care what side or formation he put out, if the other team didn't play particularly well, then with the depth of talent we have, we should be winning. It'll give them a good kick in the arse, wake them up and let them know that they have to earn wins. Last season we lost only one away game in the Europen Cup and we got knocked out because of it, this time it can be looked back upon as a result to work on what went wrong whilst still in the next stage. First time in quite a while we've lost a game after taking a lead, counting last season as well!!!!!!!!!!
I believe Arsenal do indeed win their group. Good stuff. Now then lads, when they draw Barca in the second round, and we draw 'anybodyelseunited' - make sure youse all drop by and thank them
How many games has it been since we lost to City? Also, i am extremely dissapointed. We should not be losing games like this. I realize we can't win them all and that if a team is better than us on a certain day, then tough for us. But i won't believe that Chelsea tried as hard as they can. I mean, as an athlete, i hate to lose, even if it doesn't matter. It hurts your self-esteem as a player and as a team. I don't know if this will give them a good kick or not, but this is a horrific result. Very, very mad. Plus, Cska is out.
On the bright side. If we were gonna lose A this was probably the one to lose. Wont cost us much if anything. As long as the lads keep their confidence up and get back to it when we play on the weekend.
I think we were on a 12 match unbeaten run before this game. Hardly 'horrific' though imo. Not good? Yes.
Horrific? Why? Its a completely meaningless game! Two years ago, on the progress to a CL victory Milan lost to Real after being through already. Didn't hurt them any. No one got injured, we rested some players, and now we can move on. This whole game was a circus, what with the tight security, and us not even practicing in the stadium due to safety concerns. We played this game at .75% pace, and Arsenal had to play all out to win. Would I rather win? Sure. Do I overly care? No, not at all. And the more you care, the more it affects you. I will be perfectly happy if the players say some standard "bad loss" things, and then shrug and move on to concentrate against Arsenal. This game may as well never have happened.
Good points there Phoras, but... dont' you think it matters to players? I mean, sure it's a meaningless game in terms of standings, but you think they wanted to lose, no. Obviously Arsenal is going to say, "ha ha, they are not that good" and i don't care about that, but what if our players are going to start thinking "hmm, what the hell was that, did we just lose?' i hope it won't have any effect on Sunday's clash, but who knows. It would have been better to tie this game at worst. I don't know why, but now my day is ruined.
Chelsea has a responsibilty to the thousands of people who payed extortionate ticket prices to see tonights game to put on a good show. I don't know what Chelsea's pricing structure is like but if its anything like Arsenal's your probably talking about over £50 a ticket. Now Im sorry but you'll never convince me that its acceptable for a team to shrug of a game as "unimportant" and still have the audacity to charge the earth for admission, without ever having any intention of turning up to play a game of football. £50 for the privelidge of "being there when the magic is made". Please. I wouldnt expect anyone but the most blind zealot goes to football matches to be entertained. Not to bask in some percieved glory. Not all results are going to be magnificent but from what you say Chelsea did the bare minimum they had to here? You din't care because you saw the game on TV, thats fair enough, but Id be interested to hear if any match attendies are so blaze? Ahem. Sorry. Any excuse to rant about modern ticket prices and I just go off one one. Appolagies
If we played all out and lost, of course. But from what I've read we treated this as a walk in the park, and lost narrowly. Given that the players know they didn't do their best, how upset could they be? If I hand in a paper in a class I'm guaranteed an A while half-assing the project, why would I be upset by a low grade? Its not like I tried and failed; I didn't really try. How upset do you think players get over friendlies? (Wayne Rooney excepted, of course.) England has an appalling record under Sven in friendlies, a wonderful one in competitive matches. For us, this was a friendly. We lost. Meh. Move on.
This was at Porto, so I don't buy that. And those fans that choose to go to an away game with the team firmly victorious in the group shouldn't expect too much. That's not to say Chelsea should say "fcuk off" to their traveling fans, but really, I think most of those fans (if many came at all) fancied a trip to Portugal in midweek. I wouldn't be opposed. If you want to complain, go talk to Barca, who fielded about 5 players I'd never even heard of today, and they actually had something to play for!
From what i saw Chelsea players were professional during the entire game, obviously they knew it wasn´t a crucial game but they still tried to make their game and win, in fact IMO "only" Lampard and Drogba didn´t gave their best, i was expecting Mourinho to put players like Huth, Johnson, Cole, Kezman etc, so he didn´t make our life easy... In fact with a ridiculous tactic like ours with our president being accused of corruption and after losing at home against one of the last in our league this victory couldn´t be better. Good luck for you guys against Arsenal hoppefully you will win and continue your magnificent run to the title.
Can i just say two words. Shite happens. Thats football. Move on. Get a new girlfriend. Get a new job. Go on a holiday. Buy a car. Get your haircut. Have a threesome. But dont complain about football. Simple as.
To be honest, I was quite shocked at the players Mourinho fielded! I was expecting Cudicini, Johnson, Geremi, J. Cole, Kezman, Huth. Low and behold Drogba, Duff, Lampard, Carvalho, Ferreira, Gallas, Bridge, Terry, and Cech were lined up on the field. Plus Robben and Tiago were subbed late in the game. Mourinho was obviously trying to win this game, not so sure the players were 100% in the game though. Porto, by the way, are a decent club, and have the capacity to compete against any elite team. But I am a bit surprised they were able to come back. Duff, Ferreira, and Parker seemed to be the most involved. Lampard, Drogba, Terry, Carvalho, seemed disinterested.
Mel, you're quickly becoming one of my favourites around here. I agree with everyone's points so far. I don't believe this will have ANY effect on our game on Sunday. It's funny, but the Gooners are so desperate to grab onto any slight slip up to make themselves feel better that they'll be tossing this game around up until Sunday. Fine. Let them. I prefer the future myself. There seems to be a serious side effect of going on an unbeaten run in the league - expectations placed too high, and sheer desperation. I think that's part of the reason they are having such problems with the team "spirit", if you will. Blame game is being played in training, in the locker rooms, I'm sure. I feel good about the boys. Though I will admit, while I was watching the UEFA text commentary while I worked, I silently started a little Kezza chant in hopes the boy would burst out.
Chelsea never looked all that good. Some nice moments. Lampard should have squared to Drogba for a guaranteed goal to go up 2-1. We ceded way too much space. At times looked like some of the guys were playing in fear of picking up a knock and sitting on Sunday. Not all that surprising. Once it was clear CKSA was drubbing PSG, Porto were do or die and Chelsea had nothing really to play for. That said, I fecking hate losing. Hate it. Put me in a bad mood. Now the arse have a nice boost of confidence and they didn't need to leave it on the pitch which means they are going to by psychologically up and psychologically rested on the weekend. Still, we will tear them apart. Just need to wait 'till Sunday.