Sport Football Thread 2011/2012

[DC Lemon]

That wonderful moment when Puyol decided to let JT know that he'd injured his wrist.

[Art Vandelay]

Drogba is just pulling the kind of bullshit Barcelona do when it suits them. It might be annoying to watch but it's working an absolute treat so far.

[Guest]

Cahill is having quite the match...

[Timmo]

There's no-one better at playing alone up front in a defensive formation than Drogba, he's a nightmare.

[Guest]

Meireles should be booked for that blatent lunge on Messi. Nasty.

And Drogna should be done for time wasting. I hope he's hurt this time, serve him right.

Torres to batter two now?

[El Pibe]

Haha Drogba is amazing! It's funny seeing Bsrca getting all upset because they're not exactly angels when it comes to this - Mascherano was certainly guilty of plenty of acting.

All as bad as each other!

[Naysonymous]

Cahill is having quite the match...

He could play until he is 40 and never do anything quite as brilliant as this again though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96l9q_XSOV0

[Guest]

What. A. Finish. Amaze.

[Chewylegs]

Fair play Chelsea, did what they needed to, got the goal and parked the bus.

[Rocafella]

That's all you can do against Barca. Camp out, be organised, counter and hope you get real lucky and Chelsea did that so fair play.

[Shimmyhill]

I'm glad that the Champion's League is the one thing a Russian gangster has yet been able to buy and long may that continue

Odd thing to say given how Spanish mayors have been buying it for years!

Drogba was a twat with his diving but apart from that he was bloody brilliant holding the line and scoring, he was to draw against Spurs the other day too - second wind or indian summer i guess!

[Lucky]

Fair play to Chelsea, you can argue they got battered but the final score reads 1-0 to Chelsea.

So much for an el Classico final, they both lost.

Could still happen of course.

[Angles Morts]

Barca obviously dominated, but it seemed to me that Chelsea managed to avoid being pressed into nothingness like most of Barca's opponents do. Either that or I'm used to team picking up scraps against the Matalans.

[SaintM]

You can't go toe to toe with Barca, so Chelsea did really well for me and were deserved winners.

[Gringo]

I'm not a Chelsea fan by any stretch, in fact I rather loathe them but they did very well tonight. I have to laugh at this nonsense someone got posted up on BBC live text.

"Effective but ugly tactics from Chelsea, not how the game should be played."

This is perhaps the only way to play against Barcelona. They're too good to go toe to toe with. I hope Chelsea go and get a result in the Camp Nou. Like someone has mentioned previously, I to am sick of Barcelona dominating Europe.

[Sirloin]

I'm glad that the Champion's League is the one thing a Russian gangster has yet been able to buy and long may that continue

So the Karimov regime's backing of Barca not count then?

[exwhyzed]

I'd rather Barca dominate than see John Terry with Old big ears

[Revival]

Thats the best game Ashley Cole has had all season, Great performance.

[dan_tm]

At the end of the day they got the win and obviously that's all that matters, so fair play to Chelsea, but I don't see the sense of pretending they actually stopped Barca creating chances and "did what you have to do" against them. Barca were just poor at finishing the several chances they did create. I think it was as good a team performance as you could probably ask from Chelsea, but they still needed a fair bit of luck to come out with that result too.

I do think they'll have to play much better than that in the return leg to get through though.

[Guest]

That's all you can do against Barca. Camp out, be organised, counter and hope you get real lucky and Chelsea did that so fair play.

You could say this tactic is "Camp Nou".

[Rocafella]

At the end of the day they got the win and obviously that's all that matters, so fair play to Chelsea, but I don't see the sense of pretending they actually stopped Barca creating chances and "did what you have to do" against them. Barca were just poor at finishing the several chances they did create. I think it was as good a team performance as you could probably ask from Chelsea, but they still needed a fair bit of luck to come out with that result too.

I do think they'll have to play much better than that in the return leg to get through though.

Nobody stops them from creating chances. You'd be mad to think you could. You just have to limit them as best you can and get lucky, which is what Chelsea did. How can they play much better? They will do the same and just hope to nick the away goal. You can't try and outpass them, it's impossible.

[sith]

Chelsea had Drogba and he made all the difference. There has been no one better in the history of football at playing the lone-striker role. He's an absolute nightmare to defend against and he always looked dangerous when the ball came to him.

[BeeJay]

That wonderful moment when Puyol decided to let JT know that he'd injured his wrist.

magical moment that. Should go down in history with the Vinney grope on Gazza.

Puyol's reaction to what seemed like the most obvious thing for Terry to do was wonderful. The whole match was played in great spirits tonight I thought.

[SaintM]

Fabregas was abysmal today. I don't think I've ever really seen him play so badly.

Fabregas played a wonderfully delicate chip over the the Chelsea back line for Sanchez, which he should have scored.

[Naysonymous]

So much for an el Classico final, they both lost.

Could still happen of course.

Aye. I think Barcelona and Real Madrid will both still fancy their chances of making the final. Narrow home wins in the first leg always set up the second leg beautifully.

[Guest]

I hope you all realise this confirms 3 of the Chelsea back four as England starters and WERE GONNA WIN DA CUP!!1

Drogba? Just use Heskey. He has scored against Chelsea = better than Jo Cole.

[Chewylegs]

There is a slight whiff of Di Matteo backstabbing Villas-Boas with his old guard comments. It's not beyond possibility that he helped instigate the agenda against Lampard, Drogba etc, so that AVB will come a cropper and he could get chance to show what he could do as Chelsea manager.

Hmmm, stranger things have happened!

[Rocafella]

I guess that would only work under the pretense that he knew he would get a shot at the job past the end of this season. I wonder if Roman has already told Di Matteo he won't be given the job long term, or that if he performed well he would get the job. Either way, he's certainly giving Roman a decision to make.

[Timmo]

It's effective football but I think a big part of the reason Abramhovic got AVB in was to get his team playing more attractive stuff. That said, a Champions League win would surely get Di Matteo a few extra months in the hotseat, until he loses 3 in a row and is instantly sacked.

[bear]

How many players are likely to leave Bilbao this summer? In the past week alone Manchester United have been linked with De Marcos, Manchester City with Herrera and Juventus with Muniain. Add in Llorente and Martinez who have consistently been linked with moves away to clubs like Barca and Bayern and thats at least 5 potentially massive departures. Given the limitations Bilbao operate under when it comes to recruitment its doubtful all 5 will leave as they couldn't realistically be replaced but who is the most likely to be first out the door which will make it harder for clubs chasing one of the other big names?