What a disgrace for Chelsea yesterday. They played like the Faroe Islands. 18 legs in their penalty area and relying on Stuttarts own goal! I only recall one shot on Stuttgarts goal. Anyone can win like that. I hope Stuttgart is paying them back at home.
ooohh what a great match review. Chelsea didnt even have to play great to beat a mediocre outfit like stuttgart . You ever heard of tactics eh?
And those tactics are? Sleep on the ball! The goalie even got a yellow for timing. Johnson did nothing but pulling shirts. One freekick after the other for Stuttgart. I have to say the only Chlelsea who played well was the goalie. He held those 13 shots from Stuttgart. Excuse me but thats not why I watch soccer!
Ein 1-0 Sieg weg von Hause ist für jede Mannschaft ein gutes Ergebnis, besonders in einem europäischen Spiel. Es ist egal, wie Chelsea gewonnen hat - Stuttgart war nicht gut genug.
Klar war das nicht gut genug aber die haben gekaempft wie verrueckt waerend Chelsea wie Die Faroer gespielt haben. Das ist ja alles was ich sage.
Interesting view that you have. Of course, the preformance is being hailed as a tactical masterpiece by those in the game - but, you hold onto your opinion fella. I dare say if the result and venue were reversed for the first game you would not be so sour.
Which was nonsense, btw - he was setting up the kick for someone else. And put in an inch perfect cross. If Meira doesn't BARELY deflect that, it goes right to Crespo. Easily the best cross of the night by either side. As for his defense - it wasn't that bad at all, considering Lahm was played as a winger; he spent no time in his own end. Maybe if he had, Johnson wouldn't have been able to roam freely along that flank, huh? What 13 shots? On goal? Or in Carlo's general direction? Stuttgart threatened exactly twice - the header by Kuranyi and the shot by Meissner. All of their other attempts were weak, wide of goal, or never made it on goal. You need to get more than 2 legitmiate chances at home if you want to win. For all the whining, Chelsea had as many great chances to win the game - 2. Eidur even spurned one of them. OK. The exciting world of David Hasselhoff's singing is awaiting you with bated breath.
I heard it was a defensive masterpiece. I fell asleep. Good for Chelsea, though. It's all about the result, I guess.
Stimmt, Chelsea hat Glück gehabt. Aber eine gute Mannschaft kann gewinnen, auch wenn sie schlecht spielt. Wichtig ist, kein Tor wegzugeben (kann man das sagen?).
To be perfectly honest, if it hadn't involved Chelsea i would have found it somewhat too tactical for my liking as well. However, what the thread originator has failed to see is that this was the first leg of the biggest club competition in the world and at the knockout stage. If he wanted to watch flowing and beautiful football he should have stayed away from the first leg matches as they are historically all defensive struggles. The second leg will see much more attacking football as it's a case of all or nothing.
Re: Re: Stuttgart - Chelsea It doesn't take a tactical genius to put 8 defenders in the box whenever the opposing team gets the ball. Effective, but boring.
Re: Re: Re: Stuttgart - Chelsea Um, another interesting view. I see though, that the fine points of the game were totally lost on you!
What comments? The fact is, despite Chelsea's supposed defensive display, they held the ball about 46/7% of the match, and a good deal for most of the 2nd half. They also created as many good chances as Stuttgart. If playing at home you can't convert your chances, of which you had few, its not my fault. As for your point about Lahm, you said he'd have played back if he'd had to. Well gee, which side did Johnson's cross come from? Lahm's? NO! I guess Chelsea's tactic worked perfectly. And where did Geremi's through ball come from? The right? Yup, sure did. So I guess Chelsea's counterattack tactic worked. Besides, you should be happy. If this game had ended in a zero zero draw, the game in London would have been worse than Valenica vs. Bayern for the CL final. Stuttgart is the team that likes catenaccio, but now they have to attack to win. Otherwise, they'd have made our performance in this game look like Madrid of the 50s. Someone accusing a Stuttgart opponent of playing defensively is sort of like Italy complaining about a defensive style of their opponent.
This was a highly competent away European performance from Chelsea. Never fully stretched and could have wrapped it up with a second goal. The group stages are over, this is the serious business of agregate scores and away goals, you'll never see two teams relentlessly attacking each other in the first leg. Certainly Chelsea offered more and played more attacking than Real Madrid did against Bayern. Kudos to them.
And that is what the CL 'league table' format killed off. Hopefully, they'll get rid of the other mini-league soon too.
If Stuttgart were a decent team they should have created chances, they didn't. They lacked any imagination and did not deserve much considering they were the home team.
Yes I saw those % of ball possession and they looked quite surprising. Its just quantity and not quality. I just plain disagree that Chelsea created nearly as many chances as Stuttgart. A couple times and not more they got away with the ball but thats the nature counterattack soccer. Do you remember when Lahm was out playing two defenders jumping right between them and getting within 5 meters of the goal just to be stopped by another 4 defenders? Thats just plain sad. They were fighting like crazy against this gui mass of soccerlegs and shirt pulling arms. But in the end you are right. They did not use their chances and it is probably better for Stuttgart not to be accused of Faroe Island style soccer in case of a 0:0.
champions league is high stakes and ranieri's job is on the line. You dont go to tricky away venue and play fancy football in the situation . You should tell the stuttgart coach to keep his mouth shut after his pre game boasts about how they were definitely going to win 2-0.
Do you remember Eidur's chance with only the goalie to beat after Crespo draw all the defenders to him? That's the best chance either team had other than the own goal. Could easily be 2-0 and the tie would be over. Stuttgart just got lucky. Thats just plain sad.
Link please? Perhaps you read something in an English tabloid paper?? l saw all of Magath's pregame interview on tv...not once did he 'boast' of 'definitely' beating Chelsea 2-0. It was all the same cliche'd coachspeak that all trainers use...'Chelsea are a dangerous team... we'll have to play well to win...blah blah blah...' Sure it was a good result for Chelsea. Obviously they played tactically. But I, too, was really disappointed that a wealthy, talent-laden club like Chelsea wouldn't be more brave against a small budget, no star team like VFB. Seems like most commentators on the match agree that Chelsea were outplayed...but, then, moral victories don't help one advance in the Champions League.
Are you kidding? This is exactly what talent-laden clubs do: they get results and they frustrate the hell out of you. "brave against a small budget, no star team"? Do they give style points for bravery?