Whoever they face i hope they get obliterated. Im a neutral and i watched the first game which barca dominated and chelsea played their negative football. Now im a lover of the BEAUTIFUL game and its due to this reason why i sided with barca. Again chelsea employed their negative tactics and basically all 11 players stayed in their own half, until terry's stupidity which brought them to 10 men.
Still with 10 men they just stayed back for the whole game. Must admit, Remeries goal was beast and i was happy when torres scored. Who ever chelsea play, i hope chelsea get annihilated. Itd due to this that i want Real to go through because if Bayern go through chelsea should beat them
I said it after the 1st Leg and I'll say it again:
No victory is sweeter than the one you clinched with your heart, sweat and determination.
Comprehend it in any way you want and bring any thesis of positive/negative or beautiful/ugly football, fact is that football is a game where you need to strive for victory. I don't believe in artistic play or football done to please people. You fight for your club's pride and its victory.
I like football where tactics is the key word and determination is the key play. This is what I liked in football. Football is to overcome odds and leave victorious. It doesn't prove superiority otherwise. Chelsea is the team was superior tonight.
Criticize Chelsea's style if you want but it's something hard to accomplish what they did. You require enormous mental strength to pull the match they did.
If I were to analyze the match, I'd say that Barcelona were dominating in the first 20 minutes. Chelsea gained solidity as match progressed and still did despite Cahill's injury and 1st goal. The Red card was really bad refereeing in my view and disrupt the match; and hence the 2nd goal.
Ramires's goal was a game-changer though. yet another goal in Additional first-half period and Chelsea had the motivation they needed. They did a brilliant 2nd half. Very few fouls (unlike Inter in 2010), conceded a penalty but had luck with them and then defended extremely well. As I said, you may easily snap at any second since it's hard to play football when you don't have the ball but they had the spirit. That's Mou's spirit in my point.
As for Barcelona, well, despite the great defending of Chelsea, they lost because of their style for once. It's ironic but true.
They wanted possession so much that they barely shoot from 20-30 yards; in fear of returning the ball to Chelsea. They made so much passes that after some time, they became pressured to score. You made so many few crosses despite being on the wings that you lacked percussion.
Barcelona couldn't adapt to Chelsea's 2nd half defensive approach and that's the main reason of the downfall of today in my eyes.
They could have had like 40 shots given the amount of time they were near Chelsea's block. They could have given 30+ crosses if they had a pure striker. They could have played on another player if they had a pure striker. They could have not depend their play on Messi. Messi was subdued by the 3-man marking on him but they couldn't find alternatives in this match.
Beautiful football or whatever you want to name it, today this tactic was their downfall. Sometimes, you mustn't persist with your beautiful tactic but adapt and vary to situations. They didn't. They controlled. They lost.
EDIT: A
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on the tactics of this match.
I'm too lazy to go and compare weekly fixtures.
Escorp, care to comment? Lolxd