Look how things have changed! When the draw was announced that Chelsea would play Juventus, the Italian giants were looking like the real deal in Serie A. On the Chelsea side, Juventus was not the type of team we should have drawn given our form and confidence then. Today though, Ranieri has conceded the Serie A title to dear Jose while Guus Hiddink has given a new belief for the Chelsea team and fans. Morale is high on the Chelsea camp after the Aston Villa win. The win agains Villa was the most important win of this season. Nicolas Anelka, my favourite bunny, scored his most important Chelsea goal. That was a great finish, the goal that won the match, it was a key match and resulted in a win that could turn the season for us.
Chelsea are on a high. Juventus are on a slide. But this is the champions league. We have seen teams ending up more than 20 points below the league champions and still winning the champions league. That shows that the league form and the european form need not have an impact on each other. But we cannot ignore that fact that Chelsea, having beaten Aston Villa for the third place, has notched up a very very important win that could really turn it around for them. This is a confidence game. They had to beat Aston Villa, somehow. That’s what good managers do. They get the wins in important matches which keeps the morale and confidence high. If the morale and confidence are high, the quality of players would see them through in most of the matches.
Drogba played very well without scoring a goal. But his presence and his work rate and support for the team was fantastic. Looks like he’s finally interested to play for Chelsea after his short absence under Scolari. I was mightily pleased that Guus started with both Drogba and Anelka. These are two entirely different type of players who, if we use appropriately, can cause tremendous trouble to the opposition. I’ve talked enough about this. That’s exactly what Lampard feels too.
Nico’s finish was sublime. He’s a huge weapon, and we saw Didier looking like the player we know he can be. But, with Nico [Anelka] coming in off the left side and floating in, he was dangerous. He can pick the ball up and hurt people, so all of a sudden we’ve (got) options. Credit to Nico, he’s proven himself to be a world-class goalscorer – and he is certainly showing that this season. We’ve certainly needed far too many chances to score goals, and against Villa it was a little bit the same. But if you work hard, play with the commitment and spirit we did, then you make your own luck and things will come for us. Against Villa, we got the goal and held on but, at other times, with the pace and dangers we have in our team, we’ll score more goals.
The win over Villa has set us up for this game and given us the lift we need. With the way we played against Villa, it can only give us a boost, and for the fans. We need that against Juventus, especially in the home tie. It’s imperative we get the right result to take over there. So we need to start and play in the same vein as we did at Villa Park. We need to hold the ball, keep it off them and move it quickly because Italian teams can get men behind the ball and defensively they can be very frustrating. So if you take your time on the ball then we won’t be able to break them down but, if we move it quickly, then we can be a danger, as you saw against Villa.
Yes, ‘suddenly’ we’ve got options. My stance has always been that we have a good squad and it is upto the manager to make sure that he gets the best out of his players. I hope Guus can do that in the short period he is at the job. I have absolutely no clue or idea of which team to play and which formation to play. I think it would be a 4-3-3 and all the key first teamers in. That should pretty much resemble the starting eleven against Aston Villa. Most probably, he’s gonna start with both Drogba and Anelka. Guus said this after the Villa match:
If we have such powerful players I like to use them. They have to be aware in their quality they must do a little bit more. It’s also about a good fight and tactical defence in their position. When they are willing to do that there is no doubt in my mind they can play.
Very strong remark I must say. He says he does have a problem with playing them. It is up to them to give that little bit extra and be tactically aware and alert so that they bring in lot more value. Both Drogba and Anelka are guilty of this. Drogba I know used to be a skillful, clinical and powerful striker and when he doesn’t have the ball he used to be a relentless workhorse that tries to help the team in every possible way. Drogba has payed well in the last two matches and hope that he continues that way. Anelka, while he has proved here that he is a fantastic finisher, he does not seem to do anything more than those unbelievable finishes. He should work harder. When Anelka ends a match without a goal, it is almost like we played with 10 men. I know I’m being harsh I don’t know how else to put it. The only value that we get from Anelka is when he scores goals. It need not be that way.
Juve have an almost complete squad minus Zanetti. At the beginning of the Serie A season, I thought Juventus would be the favourites to win it. They have such a strong squad with enormous quality in every part of the pitch. They still have that formidable squad. Amauri and Trezeguet as strikers and Del piero in the hole, can give you nightmares. Set pieces are always a danger against the Italian teams. With Juventus that has some one like Del Piero, short free kicks are like penalties. Our new found defensive resolve will be put to test when we face Juventus tomorrow. In terms of the strength of the team that we have faced so far, I’d say that this would be the toughest opponent for us this season yet, even above Man Utd.
I saw that David Blaine has visited Stamford Bridge. I hope he’s left those magical boots for Drogba, Anelka and Lampard. 1-0 for Chelsea. I don’t know what good would that be but I think it’s a 1-0.
I end this with yet another inspirational, motivatonal speech from Super Frank Lampard:
The attitude we showed in this game [Aston Villa], we need to show game-in and game-out. So this is only a start. There’s no way we can get carried away and say ‘we’re back’. We can’t relax and the manager won’t let us anyway. We will need more of a killing instinct if we are to win the Champions League or catch United. We have had a bad time here over the years, since I have been at the club anyway, but there was a feeling we would get the result we got. There was a little bit of the old Chelsea out there, that spirit, and the way we played. We looked a bit more like ourselves. You could see the commitment in the lads, that never say die attitude when Villa were throwing balls into the box. We also scored early and closed out the game, something we used to do regularly and it used to get on people’s nerves because we could get those 1-0 wins away from home. That’s something we’ve lost touch a little with this season. We’ve drawn too many games in a frustrating manner. We know we’ve not been performing to a standard we should have been of late and it’s up to us to put it right. We have to take the responsibility as players to improve and the change in manager has given everyone a boost.
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c’mon chelsea….beating juventus will give us the strength and confidence to beat the other teams ahead…i am sure we are able to break the defence of juventus…..however we need to be defensively strong too to stop the likes of trezequet amauri and del piero…
I felt the previous 2 winnings has boosted the team tremendously and the players are working for each other rather than off each other. And when Didier started defending the ball from the mid-line, we know something has change for the better and kudos to Guus (and also Ray). Tonights match is all about possessions and breaking the Italian back-four with smart bursting runs. My only hope is that Didier gets a goal which might turn his season around completely. “In hopes we have, with faith we will be…” KTBFFH!!!
——————–Cech———————
—–Bosingwa–Terry–Alex–A.Cole——
—-Lampard—Mikel—-Ballack—Kalou—-
—————Drogba—Anelka————–
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CHELSEA !!!!!!!!!!!!
Chelsea 2-0 Juventus.. !:$
finally a new post BC. For a time being, I thought you fell apart with Chelsea. Just joking
.
we need to be going for goals, id be happy with a draw, as long as we score for the aggregate advantage
i think diamond with belletti and malouda either side as we can’t use quaresma. We have passing abililty from all sides of the pitch so drogba should be winning every header and with anelka and lampard running around I don’t see juventus doing too much attacking
i worry about fouls, i dont want to see bosingwa bombing back to make a challenge from behind, lunges from terry nor carvahlo, bad arm movement from ashley, desperation from mikel
our team needs to be ruthless, i want to see long ranges being set around the box, drogba bringing the ball down for himself and others, anelka outpacing the defence and malouda needs to be beating his marker
chelsea are on a high! after just 1 game you are saying such stuff. boy it does not take much to get your hopes up. I hope we pull through but I see a tough and close game. I am hoping the “high” chelsea team shows up
Players must be aware of Alex Del Piero freekicks spots, specially MIKEL.Their team is little old ,we can handle them if play wisely.
The enemy of juventus is speedy games.Just look at ARSENAL-JUVENTUS game 3 years ago.This game is very important for chelsea season.
I like to see just INTER MILAN from ITALLIAN in the next round.
Who in there right mind would sit through a magic show.
You may wonder what the Bible says about magic. The Bible defines magic as witchcraft. Therefore, they state that these words have the same meaning. The Bible also says that magic is wrong, evil, and downright sinful.
Replying to CFCIR:
that might be so … but we dont have speed anymore remember, Robben left… j.cole out…. essien, still out, Quaresma cup tied…
we are only left with malouda, kalou, and stoch….. did i leave out anyone?
michael mariens, im not taking the mickey or anything, but could you keep your comments that extra bit related to the subject
denver, speed is not an asset we have throughout the field and if we pick up the pace, we become notorious for not seeking the 2 goal cushion that undoes us so often
we could give bosingwa an attacking role with belletti or ferreira playing right back but im not keen simply because of who we’d have replacing him
i doubt stoch would get a run out, im expecting a game where we try to outpass and muscle instead of run
could go either way easily
as for our other counterparts, i only expect arsenal to progress, the cocky man united and liverpool teams will get slaughtered against teams gifted both tactically and physically, none of this pass to gerrard and torres or shoot when you get the ball
Replying to TruePlatinum:
what about ivanovic.. he is a RB … why does it seem as though he is being forgotten?
i dont know pool seems to have some black magic up their sleeves. I want manu to get killed!! they are very beatable, its just because no one has stepped up this season including us….. something must seriously go wrong with jose’s team.
Amauri has been in outstanding form for Juve this season. He is a type of striker who can score goals by his both legs or head. He is strong and quick. But if we can win the mid-field battle then Del Piero or Amauri won’t have too many chances to score. A lot will depend on Ballack-Mikel-Lampard mid-field. If they shut out Juve’s mid-field and boss their area , we would have a decent chance to create chances. Up front there will be Anelka and Drogba. They will be nightmare for Juve defenders.
4-0 to Chelsea
The Bible is the Word of God . The Bible is written for a special group of people that were foreordained unto eternal life.There are three groups of people in this world: believers, make believers and unbelievers. Society actively condemns any form of magic as Satanic.
Lets go blues! I remember seeing Blaine at the Borat movie premier in Time Square like 2 years ago. I was surprised he didn’t show up in a block of ice…
- BlueBandit, New Jersey, America, 24/2/2009 05:34
Replying to Michael Mariens:
What are you on about. Please seek some psychological help and stop wasting space on this blog.
Come on CFC tomorrow, we can do it.
Michael Mariens —— you are a religious wing nut lmfao, truth be told about that haha
I think I been jinxing Chels dis season…..Took me a while to realise that every match I’ve had the opportunity to watch live this season, we’ve lost
All those humiliating performances for the season….I watched all of em live:-(
It gets even more scary when I consider that tomoro is a public holiday in JA; so chances are, I will be tempted to watch the match live:-)
On a more serious note though….Its jus been one game and Guus has already inspired confidence: Id say restore the confidence that many of us lost in the last four months or so..
Here’s to a Blues, victory tomoro…wont get into prediction mode, cuz i realise I dnt dig that all that well
Hope we can take a decisive lead in the tie tomoro…
Deco is out for tomorrow match , which means Maluoda, Belleti, Ivanoic, Mancienne, Di Santo and Stoch on the bench. If we fail to score in the 60 – 70 mins, I think either stoch or di santo will make cl debut.. We need Essien back ..
Terry is on a yellow card and the second one will make him miss the second leg. Would prefer Terry , Carvarho in central defense at turin.
But everything depends on tomorrow match .. A clean sheet is what we need . That will give Hiddinck more time, may be Deco and Carvarho back . possibly Essien also ..
Papers are very quiet of chelsea while, Amauri and all others confident they can win at Stamford Bridge..
This might be off topic… (albeit it not as off topic as the bible thumping quack Michael Mariens) but after today’s Inter/ManU game I am fully convinced that Julio Cesar is the best keeper in the game at present. How he stopped Ronoldo’s header was absoultey beautiful to watch. If we make it past the round of 16 I don’t want to draw against Jose’s boys. Mainly cuz I just can’t see us currently getting past a keeper of that caliber (although his back 4 stunk it up in the 1st half).
@ BC how come this article dsnt get a picture?……just a thought
denver, noted, lol, i dont know why, but everyone forgets about him, id like to see us unleash bosingwa and ashley, juventus attack isn’t pacey but i’d be so worried about it I’d feel nervous about something like a 3-5-2, but it could work very well
i going for a 1-0 win tonight with a very physical midfield game
liverpool are the bogey team of the top four, but a line up of reina, dossena, skrtel, carragher, degen, mascherano, xabi alonso, kuyt, torres, riera and propably babel
against casillias, heinze, pepe, cannavaro?, sergio ramos, sneijder, lassana diarra, van der vaart, gago, raul, higuain
compare those two teams, player for player, they are out matched, managerwise, i believe they are outmatched, the scouse have been on a run of barren games whereas madrid are scoring 4+goals a game. Without Gerrard, I’m saying a 3-1 win for madrid tonight
just play the same 11 which played against villa. Simple
Ballack isnt doin much for me. Would have preffered quresma but he aint eligible. Just incase it doesnt go rite, replace ballack with balletti or stoch
plz dont let us down guys. We r counting on U. Plus r TV listings dont seem to show the match
Ten Sports: Madrid vs liverpool
supersports3: same
we dont have zee sports on r cable which is showing the match live!
can any1 help me with this. live streaming or any other channel telecasting this live.
I really want Chelsea to win anyhow today, because of simple reason that Chelsea is one of the only few which can really challenge ManU in CL. Man U is really turning to a dangerous team because they have everyone in form. And the only teams that are strong enough to challenge them physically and technically are Barcelona and Chelsea. Although there is very big chance that JM can outwit SAF with his limited sources, the chances are 50-50. If Chelsea don´t win today, and inter lose at OT, i feel its going to be a very boring season for us and the rest of the 18 teams in PL this season.
im from new delhi…hope that our game is shown on ten sports over pool’s…i think they alternate matches between us and them though…or at least hope that the match is shown even if its a delayed telecast.
———cech———
bos-alex-terry-a.cole
——–mikel———
balack———kalou
——–lamps——-
-anelka—–drogba-
its a 4-4-2/diamond formation.
deco, essien, carv and j.cole not playing
subs:hilario, malouda, di santo, belletti, ferreira, stoch, mancienne
Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!CHELSEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Chec
Bosingwa Alex Terry A.Cole
Mikel
Ballack Quaresma
Lampard
Drogba Anelka
this is wat we have been waiting for.. come on CHELSEAAAAAAAAA
/K
@24
Quaresma cant play, since he is cup tied.
But I’m hoping for a great performance from the Blues tonight…. sleep can wait.
This is surely going to be either a walk in the park or one hell of a tough game, it all depends on which Chelsea / Juve turn up on the pitch. Quaresma can’t play (those who keep on pickin him in the formation) he is cup tied with Inter + lack of match fitness means that even if he could Hiddinks would not have played him. Hopefully we won’t play Malouda unless it is absolutely neccessary, Belletti can be played instead of him with a 4-4-2 with Anelka playing just off Drogba, another scenario we can try is to play Kalou and Bosingwa on the wings with Belletti as a right back with Mikel as a holding mid, and Lampard + Ballack dominating the midfeild feeding Anelka and Drogba. This is the kind of game where we need Essien and J.Cole but we have to soldier on without them tonight. Hiddinks is sending out all the right signals to the sqaud by telling them that there is no excuse for losing, so hopefully the boys will play for the team and pride. A 2-0 win will be perfect, but more goals are always a good news.
Im back balletti to come on and change the game a bit… he is our unsung hero!
by the way guys take a listen …. really funny !!
http://www.laughfc.co.uk/wp/chelsea-wind-up-peter-kenyon-gets-hoax-call/
Is the anyone know what channel is going to be that match?
Easily 3-0 Drogba hat trick within the first 15 minutes! Let’s keep it up second half boys!
poorer display second half but nonetheless the ground work is laid boys…
Suddenly every one in our team is a star. that is called management. Chelsea is a special team.
how many would have guessed we´d win today few weeks ago?
Bravo Chelsea, but especially bravo Kalou. World class assist.
Forza Chelski!!!
Excellent defense, great win. It was very important that we didn’t allow them to score. Essien returned to training which is a really good sign! He and Carvalho should be ready for the 2nd leg.. LETS GO CHELSEA
if this match had been under the watch of LFS, this would have either being a drawn game or a loss. although we were subdued in the second half and would have loved us to take juve on, the boys battled like the old chelsea team (under JM) and saw the game out. i am really impressed with the new spirit and drogba seem to be coming up in fitness.
we have have less crosses and headers goal and wish that can return as soon as possible. perhaps in the next match on saturday.
common chelsea…good to be blue.
i dont think essien will be risked till at least the semi’s
we are in a very good position. Chelsea needs a draw to go through and juve needs a win. This means they will attack hard which should open them up a bit more.
DIDIER DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGBA !!!!!!!!! Go Go GO GO GO GO GO !!!!!!!!!!
tonight should be a huge confident boost and will get drogba firing again which is what we need
well done to kalou for making a deceptive pass, and the right pass for that matter
our chances compared to those of juventus were sitters, we should have put at least 3 in the net
our next two games should be big wins at wigan and portsmouth, both sides weakened
COME ON CHELSEA!
A very important win with a clean sheet. Need to score an away goal which makes it impossible for Juve. Deco and Carvalho should be back , so we should have a experienced bench than today. Not sure why Belleti was not on the bench today .
This game is still too close to call because of our away form.. Liverpool won and it will be miracle if they don’t qualify . Bayern is already qualified..
Barca and Man U have the edge..
http://www.tribalfootball.com/mcclaren-chelseas-rajkovic-similar-man-utd-defender-vidic-229433
isit just me or did Mancienne put in a decent Champions League debut performance i terms of knowing his role and limitations as well as being tactically aware. Great subbing by Guus for that matter although Malouda remains ineffective whether under Jose Mourinho, Avran Grant or Luis Felipe Scolari.
Replying to cfc:
please dont talk about deco .. dont want to see him
I have always known that a chelsea managed by a good manager is unstoppable!! thats why i wanted Scolari to leave before we played Juve, everone is afraid now because the real chelsea is on the way back!!