CL | 1/8 Finals: FC Barcelona - Chelsea 4-1 agg.

West Saxon

Member
Chelsea fans seem to be in a buoyant mood. Many are picking their side to beat us.

The general mood here in England is that they are in a bit of trouble at the moment after being humiliated by Bournemouth and Watford (I didn't see the Watford game, but Bournemouth - a decent attacking team but nothing special - tore them to pieces... at Stamford Bridge) and losing momentum in the fight for a Champions League place. They beat West Brom, 20th in the league, 3-0 at home, but West Brom wasted a few good chances and Chelsea weren't good in that game. Last night they beat Hull 4-0 in the FA Cup but Hull are a relegation-threatened team in the second tier, so that doesn't really say much about their chances against world-class opposition.

Seriously, Chelsea are nowhere near the force they were last season, they are probably 4th or 5th best team in England. If they play at their best, they are very hard to score against (and Hazard is world class and always dangerous), but over two legs, it would take a phenomenal performance from them to beat Barcelona. I don't think you have anything to worry about, I would be very shocked if Barcelona lose the tie.
 

Barcilliant

Senior Member
The general mood here in England is that they are in a bit of trouble at the moment after being humiliated by Bournemouth and Watford (I didn't see the Watford game, but Bournemouth - a decent attacking team but nothing special - tore them to pieces... at Stamford Bridge) and losing momentum in the fight for a Champions League place. They beat West Brom, 20th in the league, 3-0 at home, but West Brom wasted a few good chances and Chelsea weren't good in that game. Last night they beat Hull 4-0 in the FA Cup but Hull are a relegation-threatened team in the second tier, so that doesn't really say much about their chances against world-class opposition.

Seriously, Chelsea are nowhere near the force they were last season, they are probably 4th or 5th best team in England. If they play at their best, they are very hard to score against (and Hazard is world class and always dangerous), but over two legs, it would take a phenomenal performance from them to beat Barcelona. I don't think you have anything to worry about, I would be very shocked if Barcelona lose the tie.


Might be the case but on the Chelsea forums their fans seem pretty bullish about their chances.
 

raskolnikov

Well-known member
Why are you always only as good as your last match? We suddenly suck since we drew getafe. Real is suddenly winning cl after being terrible allseasond and Chelsea are going to beat us after winning against a championship side.
 

FinBarcelonafan

Well-known member
Why are you always only as good as your last match? We suddenly suck since we drew getafe. Real is suddenly winning cl after being terrible allseasond and Chelsea are going to beat us after winning against a championship side.

it's not just getafe game.

Our good games came about one month ago vs Celta, Sociedad(great comeback) and Real Betis. Since then every game has been one goal game or something like that. We can't even dominate in Spanish league.

The biggest win in our last 6 games: 2-0 vs Espanyol HOME and Valencia away 0-2. Think about that.
 
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West Saxon

Member
Might be the case but on the Chelsea forums their fans seem pretty bullish about their chances.
That's just the way English fans behave. We love being underdogs and bang the drums loud for our teams when they are the underdogs. Same happens with the national team every World Cup, we tell the world we are going to win but in our hearts we know we're not great, it's just hope mixed with partisan support.

On another note, Chelsea's midfield is bad. Fabregas doesn't produce like he used to. Bakayoko has been a terrible disappointment. Drinkwater is a disciplined player works hard and doesn't let anyone down, but he has no outstanding qualities.Hazard's brilliance, and a generally tight defence, paper over a lot of cracks. This team has badly declined.
 

putijean

New member
All the games I saw of Chelsea this season he played in the middle, we might see Pedro as left winger instead.

We will either lineup in a 3-4-3 or a 3-5-2. We don't really play with wingers. Our wingbacks take care of the width. Our attacking players play more in a narrower central role. Basically like a number 10 roaming around between the lines.
Hazard will mostly be roaming in the central areas. His direct opponents will probably be Busquets or Rakitic.
 

Barcilliant

Senior Member
My God our formula has been terrible. Yes our results have been good but it doesn't tell the full story. I don't know how we kept a clean sheet against Einar. There were so many gaps in midfield and defence.
 

Zincubus

Banned
We are over achieving - whilst the other top teams are underperforming .

I haven't seem the game yet but reading a few accounts online we were very poor again .... we also played a full stent team whilst Chelsea played YESTERDAY and fielded an extremely weakened team !!
We haven't rested our main players as they did , we have a day less to recover and prepare plus we are playing them at their place !!

This smacks of bad planning somewhere along the line .

We're screwed ... bladdy FakeRonaldo scored the other night with a fluke goal off his knee ...I can see them winning the CL again this year and he takes the Balon D'or. :(
 

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