Blog News, Champions League - Written by BlueChampion on Monday, March 5, 2007 12:22 | 1,533 Views | 33 Comments | Add Comment
Chelsea vs FC Porto - A cleansheet to put us through!
Any of these three results will take Chelsea through to the round of 8 in the Champions league - a win, a 0-0 draw or a 1-1 draw. Anyone with little football knowledge should see that Chelsea should get atleast the worst of the these three possibilities at Stamford Bridge and go through. Simply put, a cleansheet would put us through. With Cech in such kind of form, a cleansheet is a regular outcome.
FC Porto are no pushovers. They threatened us so much in the first leg that they could have easily scored another and pushed for a win (we bombarded them in the last quarter hour, that’s another story!). While we were busy making a mess of Harry Redknapp’s 60th birthday, FC Porto has just beaten Braga 1-0 at home.
No John Terry. He is expected to be back only for the FA Cup match with Spurs on March 11. While Abou Diaper is out for 2-3 weeks for landig his boot on Terry’s face, you should see that JT is making a super-swift return. No great decision making required in the team 
selection nowadays. The only discussion point could be whether to play Ballack or not. Rest all, pick themselves. He does not have the pace to be a side midfielder and in the centre he does play a commanding role, atleast in Chelsea. Time and again, if the central midfielder keeps losing the ball, not only it nullifies our attacks and runs, it also exposes our make-shift defence. Anyway, I dont see Jose dropping Ballack in a Champions League match.
Drogba is among goals and Shev scored in the last champions league match. 4-4-2 would stay with these hitmen upfront. In the last match against Portsmouth, Sheva looked visibly frustrated that he was not supplied crosses by Drogba and Robben, which could have been sitters for him to score. While this is partially true, it surely matters how well he does when he is supplied. Chance after chance, if they find Sheva struggling, you cant blame them to go for it the next time. After all, they are all excellent scorers in their own right. May be, that’s what is causing the frustration. When excellent professionals work hard for the common goal, such tiny intra-match stuff does happen.
Bosingwa and Lucho Gonzalez are doubtful for this match the man who did the trick was Quaresma. Once again, Diarra would be given the tough challenge of containing Quaresma. It would be interesting to see what tactic Jose opts for this match. May be, he will not start with Robben and use him as an impact player in the second half. In any case, I expect us finish the game in the first half. To try to sit back and play defensively would be too dangerous. Chelsea would not do this but still progression to round of 8 is of top priority.
Among other news, Lampard says that “Adebayor didn’t punch me” while I can understand this statement as “Adebayor punched someone else” or “Someone else punched me”. Anyway, Whinger says the the linesman lied in the report, whereas the report is said to contain words that amount to Adebayor attempting to land a punch and ended being off-target there too. But still that does not stop him from demanding a ‘new and improved’ contract. FA has taken it strongly on Arsene calling them liars, but Whinger is sure about Adeb not punching and claims that he ‘ziz noz zee ze inzidenz’.
Barca travel to Anfield for what must be their season-defining match of the season. Having been beaten by Sevilla fair and square last weekend, only a Champions League progress can lift the spirit for the European Champs. It looks most certain that Eto’o is counting his Barca days. He looks so desparate to get out of Camp Nou that he calls someone ‘a good coach’ whom he used to curse liberally until months back. Believe me, Eto’o really said this:
England is a sensational country for football and any time I leave that will be my destination because the Premiership is fantastic for strikers Arsenal and Chelsea have caught my attention in the last few months, although there has been no definite contact. Jose Mourinho is a good coach and I believe he is a fan of mine. But for the moment I can think only of Barcelona and have demanded of Rijkaard that he plays me against Liverpool.
He is a great striker and I like his skill and game but he can’t continue this kind of behaviour (demanding to play after a 4 month lay-off!?) if he happens to join Chelsea. If he does, he will learn the hardest way, who the boss is. Anyway, he will not fit into our squad and we dont need him when we have Drog and Shev.
Obviously, Liverpool vs Barca is a bigger game under the circumstances, but luckily for me, Chelsea vs Porto would be broadcast live here. About the change of theme in the blog, I’m still tinkering with the theme modifying this and that. Pardon me, I’m still an amateur! Hopefully in a few days, I would have done the most optimal customisation.
33 Comments
1. Si
2. joeblue
loved the thumbnail idea BC , great work!!!!!
JM shld really start resting Drog cuz if he gets injured we r as good as dead, he dosent need to play 90 min of every match even this weekend agnst Pompey he had to ask to be subbed quite a few times to get his request!!!!!
3. Anonymous
How can 1-1 draw take us through if we drew Porto 1-1 away????
4. zubinj9
BC how can 1-1 draw take us through if we drew Porto 1-1 away????
5. joeblue
Dont worry zubinj9 i m sure it wont come to that , anyhow BC how abt giving us an idea of the opposition probable team line ups just like CFC’s?????
6. joeblue
And BC time to change the line-up , Cannibal is back ……finally and lets hav some Essien surges in the mid field , GO BLUES!!!!!!
7. Anonymous
Zubinj you have stolen my question by copy pasting it
“How can 1-1 draw take us through if we drew Porto 1-1 away???? “
LOL
Midfield decider
8. Blue Champion
Well . . what I meant was, if the score is 1-1 after 90 mins, we have better chances when the nerves come into play. After all, we are playing at home. May be I should have clarified this point.
9. Blue Champion
Guys! Anderson is not playing tomorrow.
10. Chels
Drogba cannot be rested. We have hardly 15 matches to play. Like BC says, if we are 1-1 at full time, we’ll surely clinch though Porto will be spirited.
11. jose_mourinho
we will win, I am sure about that. I am only worried about EPL. especially after manchester’s win versus Liverpool.
12. Anonymous
First off, well done BC! Nice layout…
About Champions League, I wonder if Diarra will have the same kind of game he had last time; he’s impressed me and will certainly win me over with another such performance against Quaresma.
I’d love to see Robben troubling Porto for the whole 90 minutes, especially now that he has to win a spot in midfield with Essien perhaps moving back up with the return of the Cannibal. I wouldn’t mind seeing Ballack put another effort in like he did against Pompey, that was probably his best game for the Blues.
Even without Terry, Cech’s form should guarantee the win.
Go Chelsea!
13. ManishMansih
which channels are showing the match in India…..
14. blue champion
Manish - It’s live on TenSports at 1:15 at midnight.
15. Manish
is it Chelsea vs Porto or Barca/Liverpool….
16. zubinj9
sorry MIDFIELD DECIDER….
after all we are all members of one family….CFC
just consider it as your loving brother’s naughtiness….
17. Mike
no way the cannibal is playing today. coming back from injury after so many days he would be rusty. To have a rusty player taken on on-fire quarema would be very dangerous. BC is right. stick on to diarra.
18. Raj
Today Chelsea vs FC porto would be live on Tensports and Liverpool vs Barca would be a delayed telecast match.
19. blue champion
Guys! Do you see little things changing here and there in the theme? I’m still in the process of customising. In the weeks to come, I would also start changing the color composition a bit. All this I would do without bothering you all, as in, things would go on as usual, while I tinker in the backend.
20. joeblue
Unfortunately guys The CFC vs Porto game is not live its delayed , Liv vs Barca is the live game , i hav checked up on the site as well as the newspapers (in india)!!!!!
21. joeblue
i wld rather hav Cannibal in the defense than Essien anyday not just cuz Khalid is a defender , but cuz Essien runs havoc in the mid field!!!!
22. Manish
BC, kudos to you for your immense efforts towards continuous betterment of this site….
BTW is there any update on target players for CFC coming transfer market…
23. Manish
BC, kudos to you for your immense efforts towards continuous betterment of this site….
BTW is there any update on target players for CFC coming transfer market(there was so much about Kompany,M Richards,Quaresma etc this winter)…and also if any of current players leaving CFC…
24. joeblue
Manish the players leaving CFC r: Robben(constant fitness niggles to Munich or Madrid) , Ferreira(unable to impress JM) , Cudicini(loan or sold to Fulham) , Kalou(loan to any small EPL club) , Geremi(unable to hold first team place)!!!!
Joining CFC r: Quaresma(14 mn pounds) , Manuel Da Costa(undisc), Crespo(return from loan) and Andrade!!!!!!
25. Manish
Robben leaving…..it is bad news for CFC…..
26. joeblue
Not if the replacement is Quaresma and to tell the truth i was sick and tired of this guy getting injured every month we need a fitter winger , we cant possibly hav another season without any wingers , this season we hav lost Joe completely and Robben has been in and out all the time!!!!!
27. giridhar
This is what the tensports site says
Mar 7 2007
00:30 - 03:30 UEFA Champions League: Chelsea v Porto
03:30 - 05:30 UEFA Champions League: Liverpool v Barcelona
So we have live game to watch. I just dont know why tensports acts smart and does not show the score of the other match. It was always better watching CL on ESPN/STAR. The commentary on Tensports is also bad. what do you say…
28. zubinj9
You are absolutely right grindhar…
is there any way of complaining this bad quality telecast to champions league administrators….
BC could you help out this situation for the CHELSEA fans here in INDIA.
Or any one could help this….
29. Anonymous
which channel is showin the match in australia?
30. Anonymous
sorry… i mean melbourne.. :p Thx
31. varuwa
chelsea is winning porto 3 nill and will go with the trophy
32. zubinj9
BC where could we find the timings of each match as we had a clock earlier…
33. charls
I cant rejister to the site,i tried on 5different e-mail address but no reply.Can u solve this problem
I believe we can keep clean sheet.
We need to score couple of goals in first half itself to ensure smooth win. Atleast 2 goal difference should be there to avoid any kind of surprises.
Quaresma & pepe are the men to watch out for.
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