Champions League final prediction

[CrapHacker18]

Certainly you would have thought that someone would made the evening even better for the manager by saying that the job was his.

Unless, of course, the job isn't...

I don't think Abramovich had any intention of giving him the job up until that final penalty.

Hopefully the emotion might get to him, and he'll reconsider. After all, he's done the one thing that no other manager has manged to do. Including 'The Great One'.

:thup:

 

[Liverbirdie]

Craphacker, I agree with a lot of that, but I thought Mata was pretty anonymous for 80 minutes. Cech and Cole were outstanding.

Chelsea were not the better team, they didn't even defend brilliantly, as Bayern missed the target on loads of their chances or Cech made some saves. Resolute yes, but the better team, no way.

 

[Aztecs27]

Well, I'm an Arsenal fan. I was as unbiased as it's possible to be, coz either result was bad for me.

As it happens I thought Chelsea were outstanding.

All this guff about attacking football is the only football worth watching just proves how lazy the modern football fan has become.

Football has two phases. When you have the ball, and when you don't.

At the beginning of the game, Chelsea had virtually zero possession, and therefore couldn't be expected to shown much attacking acumen.

As the game progressed, Chelsea looked more and more threatening on the counter attack. The team as a whole played great, but I think special note should go to

A) Cole. An absolute tosser, but he played brilliantly on the night.
B) Drogba. Led the line tirelessly. His goal was unstoppable. But for me, the best sign was in the 76th minute. Cole made an attacking run, but the move broke down. The ball was played over the top into the vacant space where Cole should have been. Dogba made the 60 yard run, tracking back to help out the defense, and preventing any danger (For those of you that don't understand, that is called 'good football')
C) Lampard. Has finally accepted his new role, and was outstanding. Making himself available, and rarely missing a pass. He made sure that once Chelsea managed to win back possession, they kept it for as long as possible.
D) Mata. Again, once Chelsea started winning even a little possession, Mata looked very dangerous on the break. Boy, should he have gone to Arsenal, or what.

But apart from them there were loads of good performances:
Cech was at his best for years.
Bosingwa is a player with many critics. He was rarely out of position, and definitely played his part.
Luiz didn't do anything stupid. Which means he played well (It's usually, Luiz played well, except....)
Cahill is now our first choice starter for the Euros
Bertrand did exactly what he was asked.

If you only enjoy watching easy victories, go and watch Celtic next season.

This wasn't that game. This was a competitive, combative game.

And Chelsea deserved to win.

:clap:

Can't argue with any of that, with the exception of the Mata comment. He's deadly....until he has the ball. Then he loses possession almost as quickly as he gained it.

Did anyone see Cashley's post match interview. The guy has absolutely ZERO class and despite actually not being a bad left back, is EVERYTHING that is wrong with football.

Drogba, for all his diving, moaning and general acting, stepped up when it mattered most and played the most complete game of football I've seen him play. That 60 yard track back to cover Cashley's space was awesome.

 

[CrapHacker18]

Craphacker, I agree with a lot of that, but I thought Mata was pretty anonymous for 80 minutes. Cech and Cole were outstanding.

Chelsea were not the better team, they didn't even defend brilliantly, as Bayern missed the target on loads of their chances or Cech made some saves. Resolute yes, but the better team, no way.

This is where we all have our different definitions

I thought Mata had a slow start, but I thought he was a great outlet throughout the second half.

IMO Bayern missed the target because of the pressure they were put under. If Chelsea had given them longer to line up their shots, Bayern would have scored. IE Chelsea's defending was better than Bayern's attacking.

And Chelsea's attacking was definitely better than Bayern's defending (scoring from the first corner they had in the 88th minute).

So on balance, on the night, IMO, Chelsea played the better football. That's football in it's fullest sense, not just in the attacking sense.

And the way that Drogba, often the laziest git on the park, was willing to track back in the 76th minute to cover Cole, says to me that the teamwork that Di Matteo has instilled, means they were the better team as well.

Like I say, if you define 'better' differently to me, you will get a different answer.



Robben was the most skillful player on show. I was a little disappointed with Ribery at times, although he had a couple of 'nearly great' moments. Gomez just looked wrong all night. Muller was a bit lucky with his header - he knocked it down, all right, but probably a bit more 'down' than he intended.

And when we the last time an English club beat a German club on penalties?


That'll do me, nicely

:thup:

 

[CrapHacker18]

Can't argue with any of that, with the exception of the Mata comment. He's deadly....until he has the ball. Then he loses possession almost as quickly as he gained it.

He's a darn sight better than any attacking midfielder we (Arsenal) have got atm.

He might not be the very best, but I'd still have him.

Unless, of course, we manage to grab Kagawa, or maybe Michu. Or that bloke that plays for the local pub team. Or some unheard of cheap German kiddy that suffers from broken ankles every two years - oh, hang on. We've already got him.