Chelsea v Barcelona

[renovater]

Anyone see the Chelsea match in the Champo League to night What do think of the sending off
Was the referee harsh in his decission

Did it in the end give the upper hand to barrca and will Chelsea find the two goals in the away leg

Most of all what do you think of Jossie did ya se him shake hands with Frank good jester on his part
What did Josie say to Frank during the second half when he went to his dug out ?

[declan hide]

sending off harsh? no! first off del horno tried to cut messi down (ray h missed this, thankfully giles and brady didnt), messi played on, then robben tried his lunge at messi, messi side stepped him with ease and del horno clattered messi - all within the same passage of play! it was probaby del hornos 5th foul on messi at that stage.

delighted it happened almost in the spot robben got reina sent off.

what about terry on messi inside the box? ran thru him. surefire peno.

thought larsson looked very lively for barca when he came on and ronaldhinho was outstanding last 15.

what about fat frankies form? hes gone to the dogs.

[onenilgameover]

What did Mourinho say about the match should be replayed? I missed Bill O'H comments.... the girlfriend interrupted my football viewing...Great football from Barca....so so glad to see Chelski lose...

[Bosco]

Anyone hear houghtons comment after del horno senidng off,something like "The refs from norway,i dont think refs from small footballing nations should be in charge of such a big game"....he then went on to complain about the stanard of the norwegian league...utterly stupid is all i can say.I wouldnt call ireland(never mind scotland) a huge footballing nation,thank god duff didnt come on,i dont think a player from such a small footballing nation could handle it........

[Risteard]

Watched the match.
Came to life very well in the end.
I believe it was much closer to a booking myself but Chelsea have had that coming for the following reasons.
1. If anything was to come of Mourinhos warning to the referee of diving this should have been it, the cheeky fecker.

2. At least Messi had a half-excuse to roll around on the floor unlike Del Horno who

3.should have been booked earlier anyway. Could see something happening soon as he was being humiliated by Messi.

4 1/2.Add in one possibly two penalties not given to Barca and the (unproven) suspicion that

5. they tried to sabotage the match with a terrible pitch (Imagine how much Rico and Fenlon would moan if the Carlisle Grounds or St.Colmans looked like that pitch).

And you see that the decision just about levelled things out at worst.

Reckon Terrys foul was a concrete penalty. + a 50/50 handball decision aswell earlier.

Thank God for RTE. We don't know how lucky we are that we can turn off from that Sky ****e. From the red-card they based the entire broadcast around claims that it wasn't even a foul and that the referee was giving everything to Barca.
Couldn't believe my ears when they never changed the tune.

Messi hitting the bar---"How harsh would it have been if that went in?"

Chelsea player handling the ball in the area--
"It was going over anyway"

Robben on a run to nothing---
"That run deserved a free-kick"

And then they pretty much came close to backing Chelsea to win it in the Nou Camp.

I wouldn't put my house on it.

[Emmet]

Watched the match.
Came to life very well in the end.
I believe it was much closer to a booking myself but Chelsea have had that coming for the following reasons.
1. If anything was to come of Mourinhos warning to the referee of diving this should have been it, the cheeky fecker.

2. At least Messi had a half-excuse to roll around on the floor unlike Del Horno who

3.should have been booked earlier anyway. Could see something happening soon as he was being humiliated by Messi.

4 1/2.Add in one possibly two penalties not given to Barca and the (unproven) suspicion that

5. they tried to sabotage the match with a terrible pitch (Imagine how much Rico and Fenlon would moan if the Carlisle Grounds or St.Colmans looked like that pitch).

And you see that the decision just about levelled things out at worst.

Reckon Terrys foul was a concrete penalty. + a 50/50 handball decision aswell earlier.

Thank God for RTE. We don't know how lucky we are that we can turn off from that Sky ****e. From the red-card they based the entire broadcast around claims that it wasn't even a foul and that the referee was giving everything to Barca.
Couldn't believe my ears when they never changed the tune.

Messi hitting the bar---"How harsh would it have been if that went in?"

Chelsea player handling the ball in the area--
"It was going over anyway"

Robben on a run to nothing---
"That run deserved a free-kick"

And then they pretty much came close to backing Chelsea to win it in the Nou Camp.

I wouldn't put my house on it.

Thank Christ it wasn't just me ... what were those guys on Sky watching ??? Some of Barca's football was breathtaking - Messi showed why he is regarded by some as being the new Maradona; Ronaldinho was quiet until the last 20 minutes when he started to find a lot more space and control play. Chelsea were lucky they only lost 2-1 because they really could have been hammered on another night.

[Risteard]

Messi hitting the bar---"How harsh would it have been if that went in?"

Was genuinely more shocking than amusing to hear, given Barca had well over 60% of possession and Chelsea barely left their half.
Not fecking harsh at all like.

That sort of thing would turn ya into a conspiracy theorist.
I felt it went beyond mere bias / unbalanced / nationalist coverage of the match.
Don't know what i'm suggesting really but it was very strange in my book.

[onenilgameover]

What did Mourinho say about the match should be replayed? I missed Bill O'H comments.... the girlfriend interrupted my football viewing...Great football from Barca....so so glad to see Chelski lose...

Bill was talking bout messi play attackin and how sky sports should replay that and not the game...sorry mis-heard

Story by sporting life...
http://www.sportinglife.com/football...ea_Quotes.html

[Dodge]

I switched over from the sky coverage. thought it was shockingly biased. no mention of 2 definite penalties for Barca or del Horno's rolling around, of his previous efforts on Messi. Best team won, great game. Looking forward to two weeks time

[HarpoJoyce]

Didier Drogba and Samuel Et'o were pretty close in the final voting for
African Player of the Year 2005
http://www.cafonline.com/news.php?id=415
African Player of the Year
Drogba Didier ( Cote d’Ivoire)- Chelsea (106 points)
Essien Michael (Ghana) -Chelsea (50 points)
Eto’O Samuel (Cameroon)- Barcelona (108 points)


But at the moment the African hacks look to have made the right choice
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL...843/index.html
"Eto'o winner
When the midfielder was next involved, in the 59th minute, it had drastic consequences for his team as he flicked in Lampard's free-kick after colliding with his goalkeeper. Substitute Henrik Larsson and Chelsea's Drogba both went close before Terry got a crucial touch to Ronaldinho's free-kick to send the ball high beyond Čech. The Chelsea custodian could do little about the deciding goal either, as Eto'o climbed above Ferreira to head in Rafael Márquez's cross at the far post and seal a huge win for the Spanish champions."
©uefa.com 1998-2006. All rights reserved.

[cheifo]

In fairness toBBC 5live they all agreed definate sending off and Barca played great football.

[finlma]

Murinho's double standards are priceless. All he's going on about after the game is Messi's play acting. I never heard him condemn Robben's play-acting a few weeks ago.

Barce are the best team in Europe by a mile - delighted to see them win. I hope they go on to win the competition. Its been a long time since the best team in Europe won the Champions League.

[stickyjoe]

Great second half to watch, missed most of the first half. Some of Barcas football was fantastic to watch, while there is little doubt that they have a shaky defence they are super going forward.

Not convinced at all by Valdes....Given would slot nicely in there

As for Mourinho, he sounded like he was suffering from "Premiership Manager" syndrome, complaining about messi diving Del Horno rolled around as much as he did, not to mention Robben a couple of weeks ago against Liverpool and this is before I even mention his Porto team which despite playing fantastic football was one of the most cynical teams I`ve ever seen in football in terms of diving in their CL winning campaign and the UEFA cup final against Celtic.....what goes around comes around Jose

[beautifulrock]

Barca are great going forward but their defending leaves a lot to be desired at times, almost certain they will win through to the next round so interesting to see the match up for the quarters. Personally dont feel Barca will win it.

Chelsea when,as already mentioned, Lampard is out of form struggle for innovation in the midfield.

[Stuttgart88]

Had to work late so caught from 25mins-45 mins on the radio. R5Live were in no doubt whatsoever about the justice of the sending off. I only actually saw it after the game and initially I thought it was harsh, just a block, but second view showed no attempt to play the ball, he just went straight over it with his foot higher than Messi's knee. It wouldn't have been a red card in P'ship probably but to say it was a blatantly wrong decision is a totally biased view (in my own biased view ).

Saw second half on SKY. Andy Gray made me squirm. What a totally prejudiced / biased pile of nonsense. Saying Messi's shot would have been an injustice. Why? Gray's commentary reminded me of a similar pile of nonsense durring Liverpool's 3-1 win over Olympiakos last year when he totally ignored 2straight red card offences by Gerrard (one a 2 footed Arsenal vs Bolton style lunge and the other a pre-meditated kick on the shins of an opponent right under the ref's nose. Only Gerrard's reputation & the home crowd kept him on the pitch. He then scored a beauty from 25 yards & Gray heralded the performance as that of a fantastic leader. If the ref had any balls I'd like to hear what Gray swould have had to say).

Barca & Ronaldinho in particular were superb for last 20 mins or so. Could have been 4 or 5. Yet again, Chelsea showed the value of their set-piece ability. You don't need 11 men to be dangerous from corners & frees, and if Crespo had had Drogba's chance it would have been 2-1 Chelsea.

[OwlsFan]

Thank God for RTE. We don't know how lucky we are that we can turn off from that Sky ****e. From the red-card they based the entire broadcast around claims that it wasn't even a foul and that the referee was giving everything to Barca. Couldn't believe my ears when they never changed the tune.

"Thank God for RTE " And you don't think the RTE panelists weren't biased either ? "I agree with Eamon" - "I agree with John" stuff all over again. All three panelists have had it in for Chelsea all season and never miss an opportunity to knock them. We even had Brady, whom I admire, belittling Chelsea's great 4-2 win over Barca last season. All 3 RTE panelists said it was a sending off. All 3 on SKY said it wasn't - the truth is somewhere in between. Borderline decision which could go either way. No matter how Chelsea play Messrs Giles, Dumpy and Brady have it in for them. Barca were the better team on the night but the fact was it was still 0-0 when there was the sending off. Then Dumpy, who tipped Chelsea to win by the way, said the result showed "the bogus of the Premiership". Correct Dumpy. Liverpool current CL winners (from the Premiership). Arsenal who lost in cup competitions to Bolton to Wigan and beat Real Madrid on their own patch. Chelsea beat Barca well last year. Thank God for RTE.

And of course there was a nice tribute to Brady reflecting his 50th birthday and Laughing Bill had to bring up Charlton's substitution of him in the game against Germany and how that was "a disgrace". He, Dumpy and Giles have had the knive out for Jack for 16 years now and still pedal the poison. Thank God for RTE.

Stuttgart, Andy Gray gets more annoying by the day - I cannot bear him and his constant attacks on refereeing decisions.

[NeilMcD]

Have to agree with all of the posts above. I thought Houghtons and Hamiltons commentary was shocking. Did not watch Sky as I feel Andy Gray is a different commentator in Europe and he becomes so biased its unreal. The RTE Panel were great in my view but they do have an agenda against Chelsea and Mourinhio but they were dead right last night.

Giles was full of praise for Barca and right too. Its interesting to see how Chelsea would have reacted to going 1-0 down against ten men, It would have been long balls to Drogba whereas Barca continued to play football and pick Chelsea off and make the ten men work. Messi was great as was Larsson when he came on.

I am delighted that Barca won last night as football was the winner and I think every neutral would like Barca to win the European Cup.

[NeilMcD]

"Thank God for RTE " And you don't think the RTE panelists weren't biased either ? "I agree with Eamon" - "I agree with John" stuff all over again. All three panelists have had it in for Chelsea all season and never miss an opportunity to knock them. We even had Brady, whom I admire, belittling Chelsea's great 4-2 win over Barca last season. All 3 RTE panelists said it was a sending off. All 3 on SKY said it wasn't - the truth is somewhere in between. Borderline decision which could go either way. No matter how Chelsea play Messrs Giles, Dumpy and Brady have it in for them. Barca were the better team on the night but the fact was it was still 0-0 when there was the sending off. Then Dumpy, who tipped Chelsea to win by the way, said the result showed "the bogus of the Premiership". Correct Dumpy. Liverpool current CL winners (from the Premiership). Arsenal who lost in cup competitions to Bolton to Wigan and beat Real Madrid on their own patch. Chelsea beat Barca well last year. Thank God for RTE.

And of course there was a nice tribute to Brady reflecting his 50th birthday and Laughing Bill had to bring up Charlton's substitution of him in the game against Germany and how that was "a disgrace". He, Dumpy and Giles have had the knive out for Jack for 16 years now and still pedal the poison. Thank God for RTE.

Stuttgart, Andy Gray gets more annoying by the day - I cannot bear him and his constant attacks on refereeing decisions.

Just to say you are biased against the RTE Panel though. Look the truth we are all biased in some way.

[Clifford]

To be a bit Devils advocate, has no one found it "strange" that in both first legs v Barca, Chels were reduced to ten before half time, despite having a really good disciplinary record?? Has there been a fix and uefa want the "Beautiful" team to go through, despite the fact that they could only barely beat a team with ten despite being "amazing" last night?.

Never a red card, not in a million years. But, got to agree that what goes around comes around. Couldn't happen a nicer Pr***.

[OwlsFan]

Biased against Dumpy. I like Brady. Giles can be good but find it hard to forgive him for the attacks on Charlton during his era. Laughing Bill is a clown who knows nothing about football.