CL knock out stage

[anto1208]

Love the over the top reactions here chelsea should be banned for a season etc !! Anyone that has ever played at any level even 5 a side leagues will tell you how flustrating it is to have a utterly useless ref out there.

If you had your whole season washed down the drain because of an idiot ref that waved away 3 if not 4 penalties ( 2 of which where blatanet hand balls ) you would be upset.

In saying that Ballack ducking out of the way of the shot was a joke if that was Phil Jageilka he would have thrown his face in front of the ball to stop it.

Still delighted chelsea are out but Barca didnt deserve it.

[Northern Light]

I was delighted to see that cheating diving piece of **** Drogba so upset. The man is a joke for a player of his size and build he goes down easier than a five euro hooker.

except when there is four or five burly guys trying to pull him down and he's intent on making it to the tv camera's


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUziCx1mHxQ

[jmurphyc]

Love the over the top reactions here chelsea should be banned for a season etc !! Anyone that has ever played at any level even 5 a side leagues will tell you how flustrating it is to have a utterly useless ref out there.

If you had your whole season washed down the drain because of an idiot ref that waved away 3 if not 4 penalties ( 2 of which where blatanet hand balls ) you would be upset.

In saying that Ballack ducking out of the way of the shot was a joke if that was Phil Jageilka he would have thrown his face in front of the ball to stop it.

Still delighted chelsea are out but Barca didnt deserve it.

So you think that a referee receiving death threats, which is the second time Chelsea fans have done so, is acceptable. Have you ever received a death threat? No matter how frustrating it is for the Chelsea players, there's a way to act after losing a match. Chelsea didn't lose with dignity.

Chelsea can moan about the referee, but IMO none of the incidents were clear cut - the "blatant" hand balls could be argued as being accidental or ball to hand - and on top of that, most of the appeals were after Barcelona had a man incorrectly sent off, opening up more space for Chelsea, and consequently causing those incidents.

[Stuttgart88]

I thought the Malouda / Alves incident was definitely inside the box but I'm not convinced it was even a foul. There was every bit as much of a case to be made for a free out, no?

Drogba foul? Definitely a brief tug but only reason he went down was the realisation that Valdes was getting to the ball first.

Pique handball? Stonewall penalty.

Eto block? They're never given for ball to shoulder at pace (unless you're playing Georgia )

So for me one out of four was a penalty, not the criminal scandal that Chelsea are making out.

I don't like Chelsea much but my admiration for Hiddink just grows & grows. Drogba is such a horrible creep.

[pól-dcfc]

I don't like Chelsea much but my admiration for Hiddink just grows & grows.

Why? He came out speaking of conspiracy after the match, and refuses to acknowledge that Drogba has been extremely stupid with his "f***ing disgrace" rant. He also said t was the worst refereeing performance he's ever seen, conveniently forgetting about the World Cup matches he had with Korea against Italy and Spain. He's a ballbag, and has never won anything outside of Holland.

[pól-dcfc]

Oh, and his tactics didn't pay off. Chelsea still sat back after Barca went down to 10 men, and brought on a defensive midfielder for a striker on 72mins. Hardly a great manager. If Stephen Kenny did that, I'd be fuming. If you play that sort of football you deserve to lose.

[Razors left peg]

I thought the Malouda / Alves incident was definitely inside the box but I'm not convinced it was even a foul. There was every bit as much of a case to be made for a free out, no?

Drogba foul? Definitely a brief tug but only reason he went down was the realisation that Valdes was getting to the ball first.

Pique handball? Stonewall penalty.

Eto block? They're never given for ball to shoulder at pace (unless you're playing Georgia )

So for me one out of four was a penalty, not the criminal scandal that Chelsea are making out.

I don't like Chelsea much but my admiration for Hiddink just grows & grows. Drogba is such a horrible creep.

I think the Eto one should have been a pen... for me if you have ur arm above the head and it blocks the ball it should be given every time

[Stuttgart88]

Pol, I thought in the first interview I saw with Hiddink he was very reserved. "It's not about the penalties, we had other chances we could have taken, Henry should have had a penalty in Barcelona...."

Did he say worse stuff later? I had turned off & I was probably busy doing cartwheels down my road!

Also, I think the way Chelsea played was textbook how to play against a better team. Hiddink can play brilliant football but is also pragmatic enough to look at what he has, look at what the opposition has and come up with a gameplan. It didn't work but that was ultimately down to a pathetic effort at a clearance in the 94th minute (who was it that sliced the hoof up pitch?). That all said, it's easy to implement a plan if you have giants like Essien on the pitch.

Is Essien the modern incarnation of Roy Keane - they guy who has the ability to grab a game by its balls?

I agree about defensive substitutions though, I hate them.

Razor, those ball to upper arm ones are very rarely given. I'd like to have seen what may have happened if it was in the other box though.

[NeilMcD]

Pol, I thought in the first interview I saw with Hiddink he was very reserved. "It's not about the penalties, we had other chances we could have taken, Henry should have had a penalty in Barcelona...."

Did he say worse stuff later? I had turned off & I was probably busy doing cartwheels down my road!

Also, I think the way Chelsea played was textbook how to play against a better team. Hiddink can play brilliant football but is also pragmatic enough to look at what he has, look at what the opposition has and come up with a gameplan. It didn't work but that was ultimately down to a pathetic effort at a clearance in the 94th minute (who was it that sliced the hoof up pitch?). That all said, it's easy to implement a plan if you have giants like Essien on the pitch.

Is Essien the modern incarnation of Roy Keane - they guy who has the ability to grab a game by its balls?

I agree about defensive substitutions though, I hate them.

Razor, those ball to upper arm ones are very rarely given. I'd like to have seen what may have happened if it was in the other box though.

It was Essien.

[osarusan]

I thought the Malouda / Alves incident was definitely inside the box but I'm not convinced it was even a foul. There was every bit as much of a case to be made for a free out, no?

Drogba foul? Definitely a brief tug but only reason he went down was the realisation that Valdes was getting to the ball first.

Pique handball? Stonewall penalty.

Eto block? They're never given for ball to shoulder at pace (unless you're playing Georgia )

So for me one out of four was a penalty, not the criminal scandal that Chelsea are making out.

Spot on with all that in my opinion. For the Malouda/Alves incident, when the ref blew the whistle first I thought he was giving a free out.

[anto1208]

So you think that a referee receiving death threats, which is the second time Chelsea fans have done so, is acceptable. Have you ever received a death threat? No matter how frustrating it is for the Chelsea players, there's a way to act after losing a match. Chelsea didn't lose with dignity.

Chelsea can moan about the referee, but IMO none of the incidents were clear cut - the "blatant" hand balls could be argued as being accidental or ball to hand - and on top of that, most of the appeals were after Barcelona had a man incorrectly sent off, opening up more space for Chelsea, and consequently causing those incidents.

Hang on a sec where did i mention death threats ? im talking about the game itself.

The hand ball where anelka was going past the defender he had his arm out and stopped the ball thats an peno and the one where the shot was blocked down near the end the defender blocked it with his arm which was above his head hardly ball to hand. Ball to hand only counts if the defenders arms are by his side.

Barca player getting sent off was another ref blunder.

Either way i think it will be a long time before that ref gets another game.

Death threats are a discrace but there is nothing much the team can do about that other than ban the fans if they are found and hand them over to the cops.

[jmurphyc]

Hang on a sec where did i mention death threats ? im talking about the game itself.

The hand ball where anelka was going past the defender he had his arm out and stopped the ball thats an peno and the one where the shot was blocked down near the end the defender blocked it with his arm which was above his head hardly ball to hand. Ball to hand only counts if the defenders arms are by his side.

Barca player getting sent off was another ref blunder.

Either way i think it will be a long time before that ref gets another game.

Death threats are a discrace but there is nothing much the team can do about that other than ban the fans if they are found and hand them over to the cops.

Chelsea as a football club disgraced themselves last night. English clubs and Liverpool were banned from Europe for the deaths of innocent people. That incident didn't involve the club itself, and whilst actual deaths are obviously far worse, death threats shouldn't be taken lightly. I would have no problem with my club being banned from Europe if they acted the way Chelsea did last night.

[Closed Account 2]

Pol, I thought in the first interview I saw with Hiddink he was very reserved. "It's not about the penalties, we had other chances we could have taken, Henry should have had a penalty in Barcelona...."

Did he say worse stuff later? I had turned off & I was probably busy doing cartwheels down my road!

Also, I think the way Chelsea played was textbook how to play against a better team. Hiddink can play brilliant football but is also pragmatic enough to look at what he has, look at what the opposition has and come up with a gameplan. It didn't work but that was ultimately down to a pathetic effort at a clearance in the 94th minute (who was it that sliced the hoof up pitch?). That all said, it's easy to implement a plan if you have giants like Essien on the pitch.

Is Essien the modern incarnation of Roy Keane - they guy who has the ability to grab a game by its balls?

I agree about defensive substitutions though, I hate them.

Razor, those ball to upper arm ones are very rarely given. I'd like to have seen what may have happened if it was in the other box though.

Great post, agree with all of the above.

I think Hiddink was pretty sincere after the match. I didn't see all of the post match stuff, but from what I saw he said that Chelsea should have taken more chances, there could have been other penalties in the tie and the ref last night was pretty poor. All of which are generally true and not that contraversial.

You have to credit Hiddink for being tactically astute. Barca's attack is very good and he deployed a system that restricted it for 180 mins. He has managed to get Chelsea clicking again. Under Scolari they were dismal, now he's brought fringe players back into the fold (e.g. Alex, Ivanovic) and they've been much better since he took over. He's been this good at pretty much all the clubs and nations he managed and that's why he's probably the best tactician in European football. I would say he's the best in the world but I think Ramon Diaz is probably a touch better.

Essien is a superb player, I remember a Lyon fan I used to work with raving about him a few seasons ago and I thought it was Gallic hype but in reality he's one of the best central midfielders in the league. His occasional absences over the last few seasons have coincided with blips in Chelsea's form, and more crucially nearly cost Ghana in their qualification for WC2010 - they only just came through their group stage with Gabon (Libya were eliminated on goal difference).

[MikeBassett]

There's a major malfunction in Sat Navs today. Chelsea is showing up as being 2 minutes from Rome

[Stuttgart88]

It was Essien.

Told you he was influential

[MikeBassett]

[Neish]

Love the over the top reactions here chelsea should be banned for a season etc !! Anyone that has ever played at any level even 5 a side leagues will tell you how flustrating it is to have a utterly useless ref out there.

If you had your whole season washed down the drain because of an idiot ref that waved away 3 if not 4 penalties ( 2 of which where blatanet hand balls ) you would be upset.

In saying that Ballack ducking out of the way of the shot was a joke if that was Phil Jageilka he would have thrown his face in front of the ball to stop it.

Still delighted chelsea are out but Barca didnt deserve it.

Yes I agree that a bad referee decisions can be very frustrating but there is a big difference between players arguing or making a point to a ref about decisions they believe was wrong (which happens regularly) and the actions of Ballack and Drogba. Not saying they deserve a season ban don't think anyone thinks that but they should be banned for a least 3 games and get a large fine 3 weeks wages or something similar

And Barca did deserve it,they were the more entertaining side and played the better football in both games

[dfx-]

If ever there was an example of why the away goals rule is invaluable.

Chelsea punished by their 'heroic' 0-0 draw.

[bennocelt]

Abidal is an attacking left back. They'll likely be playing a 35 year old Sylvinho in his place. Hardly ideal.

id take that TBH

talking about ballack - he managed to pee a lot of german fans off in the last world cup - pulling out of a good few tackles in the Italy game - and him a midfielder and all - what exactly is he good at?

[jmurphyc]

id take that TBH

talking about ballack - he managed to pee a lot of german fans off in the last world cup - pulling out of a good few tackles in the Italy game - and him a midfielder and all - what exactly is he good at?

He may as well be on the dole. Only difference is, I don't think you get £120,000 a week on the dole.