Chelsea v Barcelona

[Dodge]

Del Horno's challenge on Messi did not warrant a red card. Mourinho has every reason to be angry

No he doens't. Whatever about that decision, more crucial refereeing decisions went against Barcelona, so he should shut up and get on with his job rather than using this as an excuse

[chappie]

cant believe people are mouthing bout lampard on this thread...the lad ran the show and showed why is 1 of the best around til del horno decided to do a lower junior league tackle on THE BRILLIANT MESSI...after that he had to drop deep and wasnt able to push on as much...hit 2 superb free kicks 1 resulting in a goal the other hitting the post...played a bad corner 4 barca's 2nd goal but wright phillips should of fouled ronaldinho b4 he passed it...

2 reasons why england can win the world cup TERRY AND LAMPARD

[Dodge]

Lampard di not run the show. he was quietly effective and he's Englands best midfielder by a mile 9and easily one of the best in europe) but he wasn't outstanding last night. Terry was, certainly, but no midfielder stood out.

[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 ?

Glad to see this thread is stiring a few poeple up but its more neg than positve
question sent off Ifelt it was harsh think ref should have acted on the first tackle, from then on you allow players to go in harder than they would do" they feel they get away with it So ref take your responablitys on.

Did it give the upper hand to Barrca yes, Like the first leg last year when Drobba was sent off.
I think Chelsea will find those 2 goals jossie will have them so wound up they come out all gun hoe like last year.
josie will talk the talk between now and then he will have franky boy loss for words,he will also play up to euafa with mine games he the master.
who no what he said when he spoke to frank. one thing is for sure he didn't invite him round for a glass of wine after the game

[Risteard]

2 reasons why england can win the world cup TERRY AND LAMPARD

I'd add Rooney to that to make it 3 reasons but Italy, Argentina, maybe even France have 4 similar reasons, Brazil have many reasons.

Anyway back on topic.
There's bad blood between the two clubs from the half-time episode last year but all mind-game stuff is a loud of Sun and Sky cack.
Rijkaard rightfully didn't involve himself in that at all this time saying
I've huge respect for Chelsea FC. yadda yadda, Jose obviously very successful manager, no more questions on the pitch and so on please.

So either as you say he's baffled and lost for words or else maybe he's only interested in managing his feckin team.


To be fair to Mourinho, i wouldn't call it playing up to Uefa, just having a big whinge more than anything. Messers Ferguson and Wenger are more than prone to this constant 'we're the victims' thing aswell with their selective eye-sight. Mourinho didn't beat Man U 3 years ago through outsussing Fergie and his mind games. He did it by being a master-tactician and top coach. Tis a shame that, when we've two of the best and most talented teams in Europe up against eachother, that the media don't focus on the wealth of talent on show rather than trying to manufacture some petty squabble.

[NeilMcD]

Mourinho didn't beat Man U 3 years ago through outsussing Fergie and his mind games. He did it by being a master-tactician and top coach. Tis a shame that, when we've two of the best and most talented teams in Europe up against eachother, that the media don't focus on the wealth of talent on show rather than trying to manufacture some petty squabble.[/QUOTE]

Did you watch that game 3 years ago, Man Utd were all over Porto at Old Trafford and Schole goal should have been allowed as it was a mile onside.. I dont think that Porto tactically outplayed Man Utd that night.

[NeilMcD]

Glad to see this thread is stiring a few poeple up but its more neg than positve
question sent off Ifelt it was harsh think ref should have acted on the first tackle, from then on you allow players to go in harder than they would do" they feel they get away with it So ref take your responablitys on.

Did it give the upper hand to Barrca yes, Like the first leg last year when Drobba was sent off.
I think Chelsea will find those 2 goals jossie will have them so wound up they come out all gun hoe like last year.
josie will talk the talk between now and then he will have franky boy loss for words,he will also play up to euafa with mine games he the master.
who no what he said when he spoke to frank. one thing is for sure he didn't invite him round for a glass of wine after the game

Who the **** is Frankie boy when he is at home and how are euafa.

[NeilMcD]

If anyone had a single doubt about the nature and the meaning of Jose Mourinho's Chelsea surely it must have perished in the firestorm of Barcelona's brilliance at Stamford Bridge this week.

Let us give, as briefly as you like in the circumstances of his latest graceless performance in the face of defeat, to the "Special One" what is his.

He has a team of vast commitment in which the separate parts are almost entirely sublimated to the cause of efficiency. He has displayed exceptional motivational powers, which surfaced again in the wake of Asier Del Horno's dismissal and were buried only when the sheer weight of the long liberated talents of Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o were finally imposed in a way that permitted no answer.

But let us also be clear that the past few days of European football have placed Mourinho some way from the pinnacle of what is possible, and most praiseworthy, in what, we have just seen, can still be the beautiful game.

There are two big winners this week. No, make that three. There is Frank Rijkaard, the man who has brilliantly embraced the expansive tradition of his great club, Barça. There is Arsène Wenger, driven to a point of crisis but against Real Madrid, of all teams, the author of the kind of football that has brought such refinement over the years to his adopted land. And then there is football, not functional football, not the game of such a brilliant performer as Arjen Robben dropping off and tucking in the moment the other team have the ball, but of the marvellous Barça triumvirate - and Thierry Henry.

Thus far in England, Mourinho, for all his vast resources, has matched and then exceeded Wenger only as one of the ultimate bad losers, and maybe he will learn at some point that if the Frenchman has so repeatedly exasperated those who yearn for some basic honesty in the game, who expect from leading figures a view of what is right and wrong to be applied with at least a degree of objectivity, he has also provided some wonderful compensation.

Wenger has been a teacher of the game at its highest, most satisfying level - as much as it was thrilling to see some of the old Henry this week in the Bernabeu, it was no less moving to witness the emergence of such brilliant prospects as Cesc Fabregas and the unheralded young Emmanuel Eboué. Yes, Real Madrid were a joke of a team, but Arsenal's achievement was to make that so apparent where others might have in some way backed away from the reality of their own eyes.

Subsequently, neither the smokescreens of Mourinho nor David Beckham - "we are a notch above Barcelona" - have begun to separate us from an essential truth. It is that Barcelona and Arsenal have given us so much more than mere winning football this week. They have defined the game's most uplifting capacity, to make thrilling patterns of play, to release exceptional talent - and to play with the courage of proper self-belief.

Those of us who have most seriously doubted Mourinho's ability to grow and mature in his position of huge strength at Stamford Bridge were given this week, if he and his most fervent supporters will forgive the expression, a whole arsenal of ammunition.

His performance on Wednesday night was no less than stomach churning. He railed at the brilliant young Messi for a theatrical performance after Del Horno, plainly overwrought by the sheer pressure of trying to deal with such exceptional talent, had hit him hard, without any attempt to play the ball, and with a foot raised - and this was just seconds after an earlier foul which surely warranted a yellow card. Mourinho whined about the decision, asked that Sky show the film repeatedly, as they did after Michael Essien's sickening tackle on Dietmar Hamann, and then, scarcely believably, attacked Messi for play-acting. Yes, in the way of modern football the teenager perhaps did make the most of it, but how in the name of rational thought can the Chelsea coach criticise Messi so soon after ignoring the outrageous dive of his own Robben?

[NeilMcD]

Yesterday, in a search for a certain perspective, Tommy Smith, who, on behalf of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, was the author of perhaps some of the most blood-curdling tackles ever seen in the game, was consulted. Neither Del Horno nor Messi, in his opinion, qualified for a red badge of courage in their reactions to the incident, but he did say, "Listening to Mourinho going on like that after the game, and remembering the Robben and the Essien business, you were reminded that the ball is round - and of course what goes round comes round. It seems to me that life is catching up on Mourinho."

In all of this you wonder if there will be a point when Mourinho's patron, Roman Abramovich, begins a debate in his mind about whether he is getting total value for money. Chelsea, no doubt, have laid an iron hand on the Premiership, but where is the kind of football with which Barcelona so illuminated Stamford Bridge this week? Recently Abramovich was expressing concern about the levels of passion in the ground. There was even talk of forming a committee to engage the problem. Better, you would have thought, to suggest that rather than paying vast amounts for the likes of Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips, Chelsea should really be signing players to take the club on to another dimension - the dimension touched by Barcelona in London and Arsenal in Madrid, and the one that Wenger's men so regularly explored when the likes of Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp were such brilliant acolytes for the supreme Henry. The quality of Arsenal's football was a glory of the entire English game. Chelsea's, for all its vigour and strength, is still a long way from that.

This week Arsenal reminded us of who they used to be, and who they might be again. Barcelona were who they have been for some time: the most thrilling team in club football. If the Special One had an ounce of grace he would have admitted as much. Instead, he made a parody of taking defeat as a football man who could even glimpse a bigger picture. He didn't seem to understand that he and his team had been outclassed... on and off the field.

Mourinho learns from the Ferguson hairdryer treatment

It's fair to say that Jose Mourinho has learned a few tricks from Alex Ferguson. His attitude to the media owes much to the Manchester United manager, and on Wednesday the Sky TV reporter Geoff Reeves was given a blast of the hairdryer treatment as Mourinho accused the channel of getting Michael Essien suspended by repeatedly replaying his tackle on Liverpool's Dietmar Hamann in the group stages.

Fondly imagining that all officials at European football's governing body do all day is sit round watching Sky, he asked Reeves, "Are you going to show that [Asier Del Horno's sending-off for his challenge on Lionel Messi] 200 times each day and try to persuade Uefa to repeat the game? Because the game should be 11 against 11, try to persuade Uefa that [there should be] no suspension for Del Horno.

"Can you do this for us? In the same way that you did with Essien against Liverpool? I hope you can be fair. I hope you can be at the level of prestige that a big channel like Sky is and you can do this for us."

It is not the first time Mourinho has fallen out with TV. Viewers assumed that when he refused to be interviewed by Match of the Day after his side's recent 3-0 defeat against Middlesbrough, he was simply smarting. It later transpired that he was enraged at a newspaper column in which the MOTD pundit Mark Lawrenson described him as lacking the class of Sir Alex or Arsène Wenger. He may lack Sir Alex's class - but not his capacity for fury.

[pete]

The media are so predictable. Mourinho gone from hero to zero in the space of a few days.

[NeilMcD]

The media are not one catch all group that all share the same opinions. They are like the "General Public" or people on this forum, they have diverse views which change or stay the same and take various forms. James Lawton has been a critic of Mourinhios brand of football for a long time so he never had Mourinhio as a hero and then change had now have him as zero.

Using terms likes "The Media" or the "General Public" is a dangerous game.

[Stuttgart88]

In my opinion, it was between yellow and red, closer to a booking.

I described it to a friend as an "orange card". But dark orange though!

[Stuttgart88]

Great article by Lawton.

On the subject of theatrics & hypocrisy, perhaps Mourinho should be asked to talk the public through a video of the last 5 minutes of the 2003 UEFA Cup Final, and in particular Vitor Baia's theatrics? I'm convinced to this day that that's why Roy Keane gave him a boot in the head last year!

Mourinho has cleverly distracted attention away from the fact that Chelsea were beaten at home (a rarity) and by a far better team. But the ugly issue of referee criticism & the subsequent death threats will have done Chelsea no favours in the end, I expect.

[Hulsey]

No he doens't. Whatever about that decision, more crucial refereeing decisions went against Barcelona, so he should shut up and get on with his job rather than using this as an excuse

Exactly my thoughts. Whould he rather have had eleven men and the stonewaller given against Terry? No then he'd go and have a b!tch about that. Even if they'd have won he still would have complained about something. The man should really just swallow his pride (and considerable ego) and for once admit that the better team won on the night. How he can moan about diving after the Robben incident (and both european trophy successes with porto) is beyond me .

[trevy]

Mourinho is a hypocrite and a bad loser.I can't stand him.Chelsea were outclassed on their pitch that would embarass a non league club.Barcelona were denied 2 penalties then as most teams are against Chelsea.What goes around comes around.Football was the real winner the other night.Barcelona were class.

[Clifford]

Can anyone confirm to me that the score was actually only 2-1 to Barca against ten men for 50 mins?? Honestly, reading this thread it had to be a 4-0 drubbing we all saw. Wonder how I missed all the goals?

I do think Barca are an incredible outfit, suffice it to say if they were playing the once feared Man u on Weds night it would have been 4 or 5 nil vs 11.

Edit: Sir Alex and class in the same sentence? Ha ha, very good indeed.

[Clifford]

Not this again, I hope the people who do this are caught and jailed:

Chelsea have vowed to punish any fans who made death threats at referee Terje Hauge on the club's official messageboard and will investigate how the comments were allowed to be posted.

Norwegian official Hauge provoked the anger of Blues supporters after issuing defender Asier del Horno with a straight red card during the 2-1 Champions League defeat by Barcelona on Wednesday night. While clumsy, many felt Del Horno's challenge on Lionel Messi did not warrant a sending off and Barcelona's Argentina midfielder certainly made the most of the contact between them.

Threats to Hauge subsequently appeared on the club's official chat site and on a Norwegian fans' forum, provoking condemnation from Chelsea who have removed the offending comments.

A club statement read: "Chelsea totally condemns any threats made to referees, officials, players or supporters of any club or football organisation.

"A small number of abusive messages were posted on the official chat site on Thursday, following the Barcelona game.

"These were among 4,000 general messages posted and the offending messages were removed as soon as Chelsea were alerted to them.

"If Chelsea are able to trace the authors of these messages, and if they are Chelsea season-ticket holders or members, then action will be taken against the culprits.

"Chelsea does monitor the official chat site but it will now be conducting a review of these procedures and improving them.

"Chelsea would like to stress that, at this stage, it is impossible to say whether the messages were posted by Chelsea fans as the site is publicly accessible.

"Similarly the club is not in control of other fan websites, inside or outside of the United Kingdom that claim connections with Chelsea, and those websites are also publicly accessible."

[NeilMcD]

Typical Chelsea scum how anyone in Ireland could ever support a right wing conservative team such as Chelsea. Remember this is the team that booed its own player cause they played for Ireland, Phelans, Townsend and Cascarino.

Also Clifford, Did the once feared Man Utd not win the European Cup something Chelsea have not done.

[Clifford]

Typical Chelsea scum how anyone in Ireland could ever support a right wing conservative team such as Chelsea. Remember this is the team that booed its own player cause they played for Ireland, Phelans, Townsend and Cascarino.

Also Clifford the once feared Man Utd not win the European Cup something Chelsea have not done.

Totally agree with ya re Chelski, I couldn't support them because of the background and now the bad money. Especially now they are attracting all the bandwaggoners off Man utd.

I don't understand the last line, your missing a vital word, I assume it's "did" the once feared Man utd not etc etc....and in that sense your right. I'll come back to you when Chelski have had 14 or so attempts at it like yourselves.

Now as for 1 out of 1 Rafa....

Edit: And no I don't follow the bindippers either.

[NeilMcD]

As far as I know Ireland have never tried to win the Champions League, so I don't know the bit about yourselves.