Nervy, nervy match ahead. Not sure when was the last time Chelsea lost the first leg of the champions league and had to come back in the second. Was it against Barcelona where we lost the first leg at the Bridge and drew the second leg? This recollection is not to mean bad luck for us, it’s just that this thought wouldn’t escape me. I think this match is so evenly poised that the odds have to be equal. Inter needs a draw and if they score a goal, all the better for them. Chelsea needs to win with a cleansheet. Can Inter get a draw? Certainly they can. Can Chelsea get a 1-0 win? Certainly they can. The crucial factor is ‘where’ this match is being played – Stamford Bridge. This is what tilts in favour of Chelsea for me.
This is a big match for various reasons – TSO’s return to Stamford Bridge, the Ancelotti vs Mourinho thingy, Inter’s progression at the expense of an English team, the crossroads of Chelsea’s season etc. I fear TSO. I truly fear him. I have this feeling that he would have this match played to his script. There would be only one thing on his mind – progression, it’s not goals or a win or the manner of win, it’s just the progression. While Chelsea is certainly superior to Inter in terms of ability and experience, no one understands the strengths and weaknesses of this Chelsea team than TSO himself.
Having joined Inter, he was asked if he would fancy facing Chelsea in the champions league for which he responded, “If I happened to meet them, I’d kill them”. He is a Chelsea legend so he will get all the respect and love, he absolutely deserves it. He has also said that he doesn’t lose at Stamford Bridge. You’re basically telling JM that all that he needs is a draw to proceed to the next round and give him a couple of weeks to prepare and expect him to lose? I’m worried.
Meanwhile, Ancelotti has something to prove. Since JM arrived in Italy, the managers of Milan, Juventus and Roma have been replaced. Now Carlo has a better chance to give one back to JM. With a team like Chelsea at his disposal, a win at home against Inter is a highly possible result. It could be a personally morale boosting event if Carlo manages to knock JM out of champions league.
On the other hand, I won’t be so heartbroken if Chelsea were to be eliminated. While that’s not the best thing to happen, it’s not the worst. With just 9 games to go in the premier league, we need our utmost focus and concentration on the league. If that has to come at the cost of a champions league progression, I wouldn’t mind it. Don’t get me wrong. I want a trade-off, not an excuse. If elimination from champions league means more focus on the league and the ultimately the league title, I wouldn’t think twice let champions league go. Let’s put this perspective. We’re slowly getting ourselves into an injury situation. In these times, with just 9 games to go, the lesser we play, the better.
If we progress, I’ll be absolutely thrilled (at the prospect of knocking out Man Utd in the next round). If we don’t progress, we would have only one thing in mind – premier league title.
68 Responses - Add your comment!
If we get a goal in first 20 mins or so, we should be good to go to next stage. I think Chelsea will win.
Carlo should refer to last year’s Utd – Inter return leg. I know Inter are far better this year and Jose knows
us in & out, there is still something which tells me that Chelsea will be thru at the expense of special one. Even if we dont score early & able to contain Milito & Etoo we should be good.
As you said BC, if we loose CL, nothing would satisfy me except EPL.
Leaving Balotelli home sends strange signals from Jose’s side that he might try to park the bus. That might back fire big time if we score one goal. Then Inter have to come out to score and that can be advantageous for us.
Player by player we are at same level of Inter defensively.
Our midfield is much better compared to there except Sneijder.
In attack again Drogba and Milito are the key, Etoo’s experience of playing at the highest level will help them.
All in all, we are in good shape even without Cech, Essien, Cole. I hope we make that away goal count.
My post seem weird bu I am too much nervous than I initially thought, cant wait game to start.
Am a die hard chelsea fan but i dont know who to support. Chelsea or Mourhino? What ever the score is, i will take it with good faith. KTBFFH
I don´t care if we win or lose tomorrow. Whatever the result, i am surely going to enjoy the match tomorrow. May its going to be one of the most memorable match of my life. I wish luck to Chelsea, Ancelotti and Jose. May the best team win.
Whatever people might tell, but for sure tomorrow is going to be the Judgement Day between great RA ( and co.) and TSO. Hopefully justice shall prevail. It somehow reminds me of Vedic Epic Mahabharata, where the exiled brothers Pandavas fought a war to win back their Empire from their blind Uncle Dhritarastra (caretaker of Hastinapur, after death of his brother King Pandu), who had conspired against Pandavas with the help of his evil brother-in-law Sakuni to make his dear son Duryodhana (symbol of his high ambition) his successor. In the end Pandavas came out victorious in this bloody war which came with sacrifice of the then great warriors like Bhisma, Karna and Drona who never wanted this war, but were forced to participate from blind Dhritarastra´s side because they had had taken the oath earlier to protect Hastinapur from any attacks. They had to fight against their own dear Pandavas.
KTBFFH!
Chelsea wil come out 2mrow with God’s Victory.I wish al Chelsea member’s Best of Luck 2morow.Victory is from God not man.It’s well
Thanks for everything you did Jose but tomorrow i hope we tear your team apart..Its all about Chelsea. Managers come and go but Chelsea remains.
Que sera , sera,
your gonna believe us now,
we’re off to the Bernabeu
Que sera, sera
If I’m not mistaken ,last time Chelsea had to come back from a first leg loss was against Fenerbache 2007/2008 in the quarterfinals .
Away leg – 2-1 to Fener
Home leg – 2-0 to Chelsea
I’ll gladly take 2-0 this time too
Just to refresh your memory BC, in 2008 we lost at Fenerbahce 2-1 before coming home and winning 2-0 to advance to the semifinal
hmmmm I hope we win but it will be a tough game… I think JM A K A TSO will co,e to defend tomorrow…..
I was in tears the day he left.
Now today, I welcome him but hope to beat him to shit
Maybe one day he’ll be the manager again !
( I just hope he doesn’t go to ManUre )
The last time CHelsea lost the first leg and had to come back in the second was against Fenerbache in 07-08 CL.
we need to win today at all cost i will only settle for a victory thats it because for morale it is important we need a great march as for many games it has been always been the case. with cech and essien to be back soon we should relax about that issue
i’m sure we progress to the next round., with injuries like essien, cech , cole, bosinwga and we win the premier and fa cup at least, I’ll be 100% happy.. is no easy replace key players, so if we in semifinals CL we must by congratulations the manager and players
We will not qualify……….
Quoting Maysam
we will hopefully qualify never chelsea off
Nice post BC and i second your thoughts, A-Z.
Friends, don’t forget that in the first leg, we had to play Malouda at the back and now we all know what this French magician is capable of, off late up front. So, we can all watch how much the defensive IM can hold our Monsieur Malouda! A two great crosses from Malouda for Drogba should finish them off! And as Drogba had requested the fans to be behind the team, i am so sure that the home crowd would really help tonight and would play a pivotal role.
I am hopeful that Turnbull would prove himself worthy of the likely number 2 that he is on the verge of donning. God luck to him.
Like BC said, if we lose tonight, it would mean more focus on EPL. If we win all the better, but i would rather choose to lose tonight than to progress only to be eliminated in the semis or final by some tuppence blokes!
To conclude, I was a TSO fan but I AM A CHELSEA FAN!
This one is quite nice:
http://www.espnstar.com/football/champions-league/news/detail/item413392/%22Chelsea-will-beat-Inter-Milan%22/
And here is what TSO got to say:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/8569252.stm
I just hope Chelsea go through.I know its difficult but possible.Its been a tough tough season.
I just would like to end the season with a trophy.Doesnt matter whichever it is.
We have beaten almost any team we faced in the leauge ( except Everton and Man City ), got a double over
Arsenal( who shouldnt win the league coz they dont deserve it at all ) ,chance to get doubles over Man Utd and Liverpool.
We have played well despite the premier league getting more competitive than previous years.
I just want the Chelsea players to give their heart for the remainder of the season.
A trilogy against Man Utd is on my wishlist. God ,please grant my wish.
Good Luck to Chelsea
The most important thing is that we give a performance like we did against Liverpool, (both legs even) last year and everyone rises to the occasion so that tonights match which is being touted as the match of the season is remembered as a great classic. Zhirkov and Malouda overlap and deliver the best crosses ever. Mikel no crap passes or headers back. Ivanovic how are your headers?……….its about time
.
This is a difficult match which every body aware of but we the fans will not give up like wise the players, saying with God every is possible meaning, the match will end 3-1 in favour of chelsea.Blues 4 ever
NOTHING SPOIL…This is a difficult match which every body aware of but we the fans will not give up like wise the players, saying with God every is possible meaning, the match will end 3-1 in favour of chelsea.Blues 4 Real
Jamie Redknapp, our Frankie’s cousin speaks a lot of sense in here:
http://www.espnstar.com/football/champions-league/news/detail/item413386/%22Didier-Drogba-is-the-key%22/
2004-05
Chelsea vs Barca ..what a game that was…,at first leg it was 2-1 ,crap refreeing at the first leg..,our coach returned to his former home then ..,
lots of similarities…
wish the result ll be same here as well….
noway we will go to the next round in CL , it’s just IMPOSSIBLE
what i really want that we don’t lose in Stamford Bridge tonight .
please CHELSEA keep the record at least : (
BC ,why you think CL elimination will help Chelsea EPL success?
Drogba clearly declare it that he only wants CL this season more than anything.with Chelsea elimination ,morals will be down at Chelsea.Winning epl will be great but ,at present chelsea need a boost for spirits not a CL exit .
CL EXIT>>>>>>>Bealive me guys
I know how the away goal rule works but does the rule apply in extra time?
BC
Cast your mind back to a tie with Fenerbache that saw us go to Turkey and leave with our tails between our legs losing 2-1. We then came back to the bridge and that season saw us beat them 2-0 and eventually lose the trophy to a John Terry slip. Ok Fenerbache is a different quality to inter. But the team has and always did have an immense fighting character and they made it hard, they worked us. I can’t even say Inter are doing that to us. They are resisting, but in terms of analogy, Inter are not the kind of team to kick and scream when you take something away from them, in the champions league, they tend to just bend over and take it.
If we beat Inter, there is not another team in the competition we aren’t capable of beating (having done before) and even on that note, we have beaten inter 2-0 previously, even if it was just a pre season match, they were still a full strength squad.
Mourinho may be a master of protecting leads and keeping goals out BUT so is the team he left Ancelotti which has improved somewhat since then. Mourinho is more than aware all it takes is a glance on the ball in a corner from one of our giants and he can kiss progression goodbye. I doubt we will thrash them, but we have a big size advantage, attack-wise, we are far more potent and technically gifted. You would wonder that having turnbull in goal would be a liability BUT inter are far from renowned for long range shooting and even so, we tend not to give up goals outside the box so he doesn’t worry me.
Literally, we just need to sneak in a cheeky goal like a corner or free kick and we can nick it. Not ideal but Chelsea are the team that has actually achieved something Inter can’t seem to do these days, even with Mourinho. Just like Fergie turned up the heat at Old Trafford, we are going to do the same.
In the champions league, drogba is supposed to score every other game (2 games to 1 goal ratio) so I think its about time we showed mourinho exactly why we don’t miss him as much as he thinks we do. 3-1 to Chelsea tonight. I think Chelsea will nip in with an early corner and as inter open up to get back in the game, lampard can exploit the space and create a few things
I dont think chelsea have the ability to break down an impressive inter team….
Its so simple to stop chelsea from playing soccer (anyways they dunt play it very often…..lol)………stop lampard and drogba and the game is yours…..
defensively chelsea are poor……terry is not a great defender as he is made out to be…..and alex is error prone….
final score:
chelsea: 0
Inter: 2
Quoting KarmaCW
I have always liked Redknapp and I hope it comes true. We have a collection of world class, european night performers and today is the most important day of the season COME ON!!!!
just read that article, same prediction as mine, interesting
THE SPECIAL ONE RETURNS
I agree with Siddharth! We need to score early!
By the way, where in India are you from BC? You’ve got a nice site… I esp like the BC SHOUT area!
Quoting afro
that score is impossible chelsea will not lose home leg no way worst result will be a draw chelsea will win most probably
come on guys it only half time dont lose hope we have won most of games city one wont be repeated again have faith in team atleast end result we dont know . win lose or draw we should believe in our team before during the match and hope we win we need 1-0 win it is not mountain to climb 2-1 will take into extra time and with joey kalou on bench we can win in et
@ heyjose
If you go with logic… we will not qualify….
but I hope we qualify.. if we qualify, there will be a high chance we win CL this season…
Quoting Maysam
…says Inter fan
I hope the players realise they play Inter the football team, not Mourinho.
I am fed up with “oooh it’s TSO we can’t win then, etc etc.” Fuck Mourinho, he is history today, thanks to him for what he did for the Blues. We need to move on and beat the crap out of Inter tonight.
I hope Stamford Bridge will make it clear tonight that we are Chelsea and Mourinho is Inter and history. A respectful greeting when Jose enters the Bridge and then all support will be for our boys for the rest of this hopefully memorable night of football.
fuck offffffffff. anoyher frustation un UCL!!!! out THE PORTUGUESSES!!!!!! OUT THE FRENCHS OF MY TEAM
Chelsea season is officially OVER.
Chelsea is a fucking shame to England.
I won’t watch any Chelsea games until next season.
Jose fucked Chelsea and show how loser is Ancelotti.
Belieave guys we won win ant cups this season.
sad day for Chelsea, but TSO got his justice today.
feels empty inside,……best of luck Mou. And thanks for these tears…
inter were the better side by far, even with their strikers misfiring.
and sneijder showed the chelsea midfield what it really means to be world class.
@31. DanaBlue
No, says a logical person… I know Chelsea.. I know Jose … It was obvious to me Chelsea will not qualify.. it was obvious…
We could not do better than this … look at players we had on bench …. ket’s face it this Chelsea is not the Chelsea to win CL… even this Inter is not the Inter that wins CL.. Manchester and Barca will beat this Inter easily.
@DanaBlue : I wanna tell you my another prediction… we are not gonna win EPL either….
Go look at our fixture… look at Manchester… look at Chelsea…
Dont get me wrong.. I am a huge Chelsea fan.. but I am not stupid…
The day we lost to Blackburn…. I said Chelsea will not win CL and EPL this season….you are watching that ..
Chelsea is frustrating to support now….we just dont know when we can win and when we loose.congratulations to inter for their win..but to not score in ur own home and to go out to mourinho is just making me scream my head off..i thought ancelotti was world class….i really cant see a diff between him and ray wilkins now.i just cant.
@Blue_Blood :
I want to judge Carlo next season.. he has not brought any player yet… and I think he is getting the best from what he has.. look at Malouda… look at Anelka .. look at Ivanovic [Not just this game]… I want to judge him next season…the only mistake he made [not mistake.. he had to , he had no choice] changing Ballack with Joe…
well it had to happend
first time in my life i wanted that show off to win and he wan
now sack Ancelotti ? sure why not
bring on another big name that will take you nowere
out Hilario, Carvalho, Bosinwa, Deco, Ballack; Anelka,
Bye Bye Chelsea. The only one to blame is Mr Abromovich. The vast majority of Chelsea fans did not want Jose sacked, most of the players (exception to some back-stabbing, double standards charcaters) did not want him to leave since they adored him. Why he was sacked is beyond belief. His team awas so good that even Avam Grant came close, mostly based on what Mourinho had constructed for Chelsea.
Few managers have the real clout and calss to manage big teams and big egos. Ancelotti is one of these, as you have now found out Mr Abromovich.
guys who are asking for sacking of Ancelotti may fuck off. He´s been good until now. He´s coped well without our crucial players like Essien, Ashley, Carvalho and Cech. I can´t blame him.
@Maysam,
you really are stupid, because you haven´t seen the fixture of Manures and ARsenals. They have a really tough weeks coming. While we entertain likes of Blackburn and portsmouth they have to play against Ashton Villa and Liverpool. And after that they have to face us at old trafford. These 3 matches can turn the fortune at our side. So don´t be a sick, pessimistic bastard.
Well ,the way you write says who is stupid
)
Watch your mouth….
Right now .. Manchester has better chance than us according to fixture… but they are still in CL so.. that might get them into trouble… they have to play more games….
Quoting IwasMissingJose
Read to find out who is stupid… You or you ?
Well, If Arsneal was a stable team , I would say our second position is in danger too
Manchester
Man Utd vs Liverpool
Bolton vs Man Utd
Man Utd vs Chelsea
Blackburn vs Man Utd
Man City vs Man Utd ***
Man Utd vs Tottenham
Sunderland vs Man Utd
Man Utd vs Stoke
Chelsea
Blackburn vs Chelsea
Portsmouth vs Chelsea
Chelsea vs Aston Villa
Man Utd vs Chelsea ***
Chelsea vs Bolton
Tottenham vs Chelsea ***
Chelsea vs Stoke
Liverpool vs Chelsea ***
Chelsea vs Wigan
Arsenal:
Arsenal vs West Ham
Birmingham vs Arsenal
Arsenal vs Wolverhampton
Tottenham vs Arsenal
Wigan vs Arsenal
Arsenal vs Man City
Blackburn vs Arsenal
Arsenal vs Fulham
We weren’t at our best and we lost the mental strength and focus to carry us thru as champions. Gutted but still hopeful as a positive reaction from the team might wake up some of the players for our final run-out.
Performance ratings:
Turnbull 6: He is looking good as #2, and his positioning for most part of the game looks solid. Don’t think he could do anything with the goal as it was a world-class finish. Was also impressed with his left-leg clearance.
Ivanovic 5: Not his night, some of his tackles look too uncertain and desperate, was slightly better when going forward but no significant contribution.
Alex 6: Had a controlled first half but guilty of playing Eto on-side for the goal. Start losing it when we were chasing the game. No composure for his trademark free-kick.
Terry 6: Did enough for 60 minutes with his headers but lost command on the defense organization. Was more interested in talking to the ref than motivating his teammates.
Zhirkov 5: Poor first half and was in Maicon’s pocket at times. Started to grow into his defensive role but was substituted for an attacking option (Kalou). Very far from Ashley in terms of technique and class. A poor buy for now.
Mikel + Ballack = 5: Did have their moments but fail to control the middle battles. We needed both at their best just to emulate one average Essien. Hence, we could have an extra man if Essien were given the holding role. For some reason, Inter gain their possession back when Ballack was substituted for Joey, can’t put my finger on how this changes but strength and muscles come into mind, maybe we still need a thug in our game.
Frank Lampard = 4: Was totally shut down and out. Had a few chances but never had the magic in him to change the game. His teammates around him did not provide the space and protection for him. Not his season.
Malouda = 7: Best player we had and was key in controlling the team’s tempo. The battles with Maicon ended up in a draw but did much better when drifted to the middle.
Anelka 4: Did nothing for most part of the game and was guilty for being too casual when in possession. No trickery, creativity or defense-splitting move from the French man, getting worse and worse by the game since Feb. If it is the contract talks that is causing it then I’ll say we let him go. Hope Carlo bench him to get his brain reset, we still need the “old” Anelka if we were to claim 3-points against ManUtd and Liverpool.
Didier 5: Lost to Lucio most of the time but was unfairly treat by the defenders and the ref. Tried too hard looking for Anelka and miss out on some better options between Malouda and Lampard. The sent off was awful and should be the headlines again for the next few days… sad days for us and happy sunshine for the media.
Substitution : No comment as none made any impact to the outcome. Kalouless was looking bright for 2 seconds before fading out into the sunset.
Ancelotti : Could not have done better with the starting line-up and tactics as first half looks decent. Not sure what happen to his famous hair-dryer treatment but deffo needs it as some players required some slapping and kicking. Cannot blame him on the subs as most common subs selection were already on the field when we are without Ashley Cole and Essien (we miss him badly).
its you, coz´you cannot guarentee that Manures will get all the 3 points against liverpool, bolton, Chelsea, Man C, and tottenham. And if we are to win another game, we still lead them by a point. We on the other hand have tough fixtures against Blackburn, Ashton villa, Manures, totenham and liverfools. So chances are equal.
The only team that has comparatively easier fixtures are Arse-anals. But they are a team with built in self-destruct button. So no worries.
Title is a big possibility this season for Chelsea. So don´t spread your fucking pessimism here.
I agree with Maysam…. Is very frustating; I just read a MARCA comments, they said “maybe is the finish of the player`s era who are mental weak”
the post @48 was for the @46.
Quoting IwasMissingJose
You should know/understand the reality…so do not insult others , close your mouth and open your eyes ….. think and then write your comment.
Chelsea should improve … mentally and tactically otherwise we will lose EPL too in last weeks…
Everything is possible in soccer .. it is possible Man UTD win Liverpool and lose to Stoke .. it is possible we win Man UTD and lose to Bolton….I do not judge based on possibilities… I judge based on statistics and my knowledge from my team and other teams….
Carlo should be given all the money he needs, just do what Jose did with Inter. Rebuild a new younger squad. It cant elude us for long that god damn silver pot. Coming to the game, nothing much to talk about, on paper Inter’s line up had 3 strikers but two of them were just there to contain our full backs. We have thrived on our full backs so much this season, Jose cut that option out.
In midfield Cambiasso Motta in the holding role contained Ballack ( who ?? ) Lampard ( who ???? ) It left Mikel and Sneijder.
Sneijder truly showed Lampard and Ballack the meaning of World Class. I can only dream Deco doing a Sneijder. We need a completely new midfield, apart from Essien and Mikel the rest are way past their prime.
With Essien Cole and Cech the story might have been different, lets focus on the League and Blackburn now. Someone mentioned Essien might be back by our visit to old trafford, hope its true, because without him we will be eaten alive by Utd.
replying @51.Maysam
If you want easy fixtures, go join the Scottish League. Talks, statistics and most of all, your opinion does not decide the title results. We are Chelsea FC since 1905, we lost the European challenge tonight, fair enough, but to say we are crap when we are 2 point behind the leader with a game in hand undermines your knowledge on football. Why claim to be a supporter of a team when you have no faith in them. I think the game is far too complex for your understanding and do yourself a favor and stop making comments that further underlines your stupidity. We got the message LOUD & CLEAR.
Quoting GipsyBlue
No one .. no one can stop me … I am a free man .. I say what ever I want….
I do not know you do not read my comments or you are out of mind … I am comparing two fixtures… and I say this one is easier than that one and if you are so stupid that you cannot fiond why that is your problem… I do not know why you make a big deal of that… do not be dreamer…. wake up and see the reality…
This is the reality……. we lost CL…. and if we do not concentrate we will lose EPL too.. this is reality…forget TSO , referee those are bullshit
if I did not have faith in this team, I would not be supporting them for 12 years….
@maysam, you must by far be the most annoying “I know it all” twat ever in this blog
Quoting DanaBlue
No my friend.. I am not a dreamer… that is it…
what do you expect me to do ?
—————–
ok what a game.. we did a great job.. .. oooo did you see special one.. he is really special… did you see referee .. ???? referee ….oo change Carlo ….. did you watch Inter Mid players they were great…. . but do not worry guys 1000% we will EPL …. we will score 5 against Man utd …3 against Tottenham and 2 against Liverpool .
—————————————
did you like it ? Am I popular now ?
@maysam, I don’t really care if you’re popular or not. All I know is no one like a smart-arse
lol@56. DanaBlue
Quoting DanaBlue
I’m definitely positively confirm that you are a very nice person inside as the words like “annoying” and “twat: are far too kind and “nice”. I would have used harsh words but then again, I’m not a very nice person at the moment, sigh, must be the coffee. See you again at SHOUT in the next fixture.
I was more active 2 years ago here….
I asked them try to ask for Email address when someone post something …
) then these discussions made more sense… what a shame! they have not done that yet ……. 
)
I asked them one more thing.. it seems they have never done that… I told them to add a profile to each person… to see for how long each person is supporting Chelsea? how they knew Chelsea? for how long are they actually watching soccer?
lol 2 chelsea wankers!!! u loose!!!! best team won! maybe next year?? lool
oo c’mon guys.. make peace to each other.. no one is twat here..
@Maysam,
This is a fan blog-site. and by your comments i can tell, you are not a fan, but a pure glory hunter. There is a big reason why fans are called the 12th man; it because they never give up and stay behind the team, and give them hope from outside the pitch. They don´t abandon like you fucking bastard, who says “i´ll not be supporting this team for 12 years”. WE DON`´T NEED GUYS LIKE YOU, who no more suuports when team stops to win!!!
And we lost yesterday simply because we were unlucky in both of the legs, we were unlucky to have Jose as our opponent. There were couple of shots that would have gone-in in normal matches. They just happened to save it in extraordinary way.
We were doing so well in the first half but then seemed to crumble in the second half. I think Ancelotti got his choices wrong. Joey should have started if he was going to play but I felt Kalou was the injection we needed on the right instead of ballack. Joey is notorious for not tracking back, he is not the paciest of players and he rarely shoots so even though he can open up space, kalou (as shown in the first leg) has already shown he can stretch inter and he should of come in for ballack, the formation, should not of played 4-3-3, seems inter went 4-2-3-1.
Zhirkov may have messed up the attack a fair amount but his positioning was abit too much for Maicon and Thiago Motta to handle. I don’t know why Carlo persisted with playing Anelka out wide, it didn’t work enough under Hiddink, we’ve found better combinations of late, so why change a package that worked.
Personally, I think Mourinho got to Ancelotti.
We really opened up some chances, you could see it would take something special to beat inter, constantly caught scrambling toward the end of the first half. Guys, you can’t say we were terrible, there were some monstrous tackles. Malouda being blocked by Samuel as he pulled a sure trigger, Cesar caught napping and just tipping malouda’s shot out for the corner. Drogba was simply cut off from the team but he muscled his way through once or twice, one in particular, he skinned samuel, only for lucio to charge in and save inter. Heck, Anelka even had a shot cleared off the line.
I dont agree that we were shut up. I think that at half time, Mourinho saw what was going wrong and just upped the tempo between midfield and attack, the ball moved that extra bit faster, midfielders got foward quickly to create more passes, it frustrated us and by the time we won the ball back, we had to fight through hordes of inter players and even when we did get the ball upfield, we had anelka who couldn’t burn anyone for pace, drogba who couldn’t win enough of the ball to make anything count and malouda who could at best push inter back into their box but then unable to pick out our own open men. We didnt cross the ball as much as I’d of liked, the 4-3-3 we played looked like it was protecting mikel, not releasing lampard. Inter made it hard but Lampard was rushed and rarely got a chance to look at the goal net.
Defensively we were savvy until about 60+minutes when sneijder started playing with his back to the defence and milito began overlapping. We had two good penalty shouts and it seems silly Drogba could be yanked down in the box un noticed but can rake a player so subtly and get caught out. As the game wore on, we stopped pushing, the defenders tried pressuring the midfield more and Alex switched off, that extra metre closer to the goal meant eto’o could start his run in front of ivanovic, brani was never going to catch him, the shot was quick and powerful. I was satisfied with turnbull, not impressed, but satisfied.
The season is not over, two trophies is more than respectable. It may be ones that we have won, but I think peeps need to acknowledge, the teams that win the champions league, tend to do well domestically first (that does not include liverpool as they were assembled by scouse sorcery, nothing else explains their flukes) and I think…..just throwing this out there…….once we do start bossing the league, results in europe will follow. It was two premiership titles over the course of three years when we made the final. Barcelona stepped up their game over a few seasons. Ac Milan did it a while back. I feel that we are still lacking the extra edge. Easily solved, a few choice signings will sort us. In respect to Turnbull and the devleopment of his career and in light of his last 3 appearances, we don’t REALLY (begrudgingly said) need a keeper. A winger and defender would do us well enough. We have youth players coming through to fill future holes.
I think peeps need to back of maysom, he/she may have an opinion you guys dont like, but I disagree with alot of comments. Maysom is not Sunny and by my calculations means they aren’t a twat. Maysom may have a strange opinion but you can’t argue it. Chelsea could slip up as could man utd but for anyone to say Man utd have an easier run of fixtures is wrong, to say Chelsea are playing poorly is true, to say Arsenal can nick the title is the funniest thing I’ve heard. Fair play to Arsenal for catching up but Chelsea and Man Utd will be in a separate class to the rest of the league for a long time.
Back to the game. Ancelotti needs to sit down and gather himself together again. Carlo should have known mourinho would look to close down the openings we had in the first leg, he knew shots from the edge of the box could kill inter easily. Ballack should have done better, at least get the shot on target but the block on drogba was immense and you could see from cesar’s movement and where drogba struck the ball, it was destined for the net. To be fair to us, it wasn’t our strongest line up but even still, 4-3-3 was a stupid choice. When Mourinho was looking to end the tie in the last leg, he switched to 4-2-2-2. I had a feeling he would at least stick with the 4-2 part and tinker the rest to win. So I expected Carlo to at least go with the 4-3-2-1 or diamond to create that extra header for ballack, the through ball for anelka, the ball over the top for drogba and the lay off for lampard. I think for all our strengths, Ancelotti did not utilise them properly. I see what he did, I think I understand what he did, I wouldn’t of done it, then again, im just a 19 year old kid from the UK, what would I know.
Ah guys, lets forget all that happened. Mou knew the team inside out, he had reinforced his squad at the start of the season, we hadn´t. Many took Inter too lightly, even fans. I still remember when i said they are a great threat to us, many had laughed at it, and said Seria A has no quality. While i agree with the later, Inter is Jose´s team built for European Success and therefore we should have been more clinical. But past is past, what happened has happened. Lets stay quiet about the players, and their indivisual performances and let lets support them till the end of the season. We can still win EPL and FA cup. If we can get these two, it would still be hailed as a successful season. We can decide who should come and go after FA Cup finals.