Chelsea vs. Liverpool (2nd leg)

mada999

KERPAL wrote: »

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Wayne Rooney= the ultimate footballer

Where's your sarcasm button??

Guy:Incognito

KERPAL wrote: »

Wayne Rooney= the ultimate footballer

Think you might be going a touch overboard there. Havent seen him at the top of any greatest player ever polls. FFS he's not even the best UTD player atm by all accounts.

Dave!

Great match... was sooo expecting Liverpool to win when the commentator kept saying "it will require a miracle", etc etc And sure enough, Babel scores, to give my heart some trouble!

Fair play to Lamps, it took serious balls to take that peno, and take it he did.

Babel's goal was quite the beaut...

See ye in Moscow anyways!

~Rebel~

Not going to get into the 'Everyone > Rafa debate' again (funny how its usually raised by non pool fans...) as its been done to death and is not relevent to this thread - this is a MATCH thread.


Absolutely gutted with tonight.

I want Riise out. Absolutely had enough of him. I blame him pretty much entirely for drogba's first, he stayed with an already marked man, and ignored drogba behind him, even before the first shot was played. Drogba clearly saw Riise paying no attention to him and drifted away and to the right of him giving him a great chance of a rebound, which he got, and buried. Pepe should maybe have done better at his near post, but i think Riise's position unsighted him. A bit later you can see him on the big screen smiling and joking with the groundstaff before he takes a throw - which i know is no big deal but just really bugged me after the OG and the first goal. THEN, for Drogba's second, and as it turned out the clincher, he tracked him, raised his arm and let him go, and then tried to go after...PLAY THE WHISTLE!! He's been a great servent to the club but his time has come, his committment just doesn't look to be there, and i just want him out.

Chelsea took advantage, and fair play deserve to go through. Very disappointed at Sami's rash lunge though, entirely unnecessary under the circumstances.

I predict a somewhat scrappy and tense (for the fans) but very dull final.

KERPAL

Stekelly wrote: »

Think you might be going a touch overboard there. Havent seen him at the top of any greatest player ever polls. FFS he's not even the best UTD player atm by all accounts.

By ultimate footballer i mean his overall attributes, his work ethic, pace, tenacity are second to none. then theres his skill levels, his instinctiveness, creativity, and his odd screamer.
I think most people would take him instead of torres or drogba.
United have lost 5 out of 7 games rooney hasnt played this season.
Hes also a leader and definite future united captain.

I love the guy, the way he seems to have an aura over refs these days(how the **** does he get away with all the abuse), id wudnt buy anybody else if i had the choice.



AND I APOLOGISE FOR THE FACT THAT THIS POST HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MATCH

Guy:Incognito

KERPAL wrote: »

By ultimate footballer i mean his overall attributes, his work ethic, pace, tenacity are second to none. then theres his skill levels, his instinctiveness, creativity, and his odd screamer.
I think most people would take him instead of torres or drogba.
United have lost 5 out of 7 games rooney hasnt played this season.
Hes also a leader and definite future united captain.

I love the guy, the way he seems to have an aura over refs these days(how the **** does he get away with all the abuse), id wudnt buy anybody else if i had the choice.

You might need to rethink your definition of ultimate. In most peoples eyes ultimate = best you can get. How many points would UTd have dropped if Ronaldo missed more games?

KERPAL

Perhaps:rolleyes:

mada999

Stekelly wrote: »

You might need to rethink your definition of ultimate. In most peoples eyes ultimate = best you can get. How many points would UTd have dropped if Ronaldo missed more games?

+1....

Rooney to me in my honest opinion is the rich mans Kuyt
and tbh i put Rooney ahead of Torres or Drogba, thats crazy..

eZe^

Liverpool

You know what must be the best thing about being a Liverpool fan (and probably the most annoying thing for other team's supporters)? Its that, on European nights, form, history and who has the better players goes completely tits up and out the window. They haven't scored at Stamford Bridge in almost 4 seasons is it? And tonight they score 2, they went to Barcelona, and remain the only British team to get a win at the Camp Nou. They have continually 'giant killed'. Fair f*cks to them, they may have lost, and on the balance of play deservedly so, but they definitely gave Chelsea one hell of a game...

Absolutely ironic that the Barca-Man Utd game ended up 0-1 on aggregate, and Chel-Liv ends 4-3.... Fairplay Liverpool, Im sure your fans will agree that you did them proud. Well done to Chelsea to, Im not gonna lie, I got fairly emotional when Lampard started celebrating his goal. And hearing Grants reasons for kneeling at the end of the game has also got more of my respect. He gets treated like dirt, fairplay to him though.

I wonder what Jackdaw is going to say about this... I wonder now if he regrets jumping ship to the Espanyol circus!!

_blank_

Liverpool

Liverpool's midfield was shocking in the first 60 or so minutes, couldn't pass at all.

Drogba's two were nice proper striker finishes, and fair play to Lampard for taking the pen.

Fair play to Ryan Babel for setting up the most heart-in-mouth end to a game in a long time. Nice strike, perhaps Cech couls have done better, but credit to Babel.

Moscow is going to be like a home game for Chelsea.

shane86

And another thing.

The RTE commentary tonight. Jaysus. George mixed up Liverpool and Chelsea (in terms of "its a penalty to Liverpool....I mean Chelsea" or "free kick to Chelsea...no, Liverpool I mean" ) about four times by my count Aside from that awful general waffling.


For all the talk of subs I think the Skrtel situation threw it out the window. There would have been no backs subbed. Crouch, Babel and Pennant would have come in for Kuyt, Torres and Mascherano IMO (Mascherano had some atrocious passes). Unfortunate injury took them out

DesF wrote: »

Moscow is going to be like a home game for Chelsea.

Indeed. Nearly certain they sell off a huge chunk of the tickets to people from the country it is staged in. Would imagine Roman has bought up tonnes and will be handing them out with blue jerseys in the days leading up to the final (tbh he can afford to, the jerseys probably cost a euro or less to make, whats 40,000 quid to him)

And of course UEFA would have no issue with him buying up all the tickets to give to the poor people of Moscow to let the commoners enjoy the magic of the beautiful game etc etc etc

Sqaull20

Anyone find it very funny that Benitez called Drogba a diver, a cheat and showed his players videos of him?

Taste of his own medicine perphaps

_blank_

Liverpool

eZe^ wrote: »

And hearing Grants reasons for kneeling at the end of the game has also got more of my respect.

What did he say?

Sqaull20

Yeah what did he say?

OPENROAD

shane86 wrote: »

And another thing.

The RTE commentary tonight. Jaysus. George mixed up Liverpool and Chelsea (in terms of "its a penalty to Liverpool....I mean Chelsea" or "free kick to Chelsea...no, Liverpool I mean" ) about four times by my count Aside from that awful general waffling.

I turned rte off after 5 mins, awful awful imo

mada999

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Anyone find it very funny that Benitez called Drogba a diver, a cheat and showed his players videos of him?

Taste of his own medicine perphaps

eh not really....Drogger is a diver and cheat *sometimes*, but he stood on his feet tonight and showed what a good player he is....it's a shame he doesn't play with that attitude all the time. I reckon he'd get into any team in the world also, awesome player when he's not flopping on the ground like a fish.

adox

Liverpool

DesF wrote: »

What did he say?

"I saw it on television and it was quite embarrassing but it is holocaust day in Israel and I am under the name of my grandfather so it was very emotional - on one side I am manager of a team that created history but on the other side it is not so easy especially for my father so I did what I did," he explained."


Talking about dropping to his knees at full time.

eZe^

Liverpool

DesF wrote: »

What did he say?

It's some holocaust remembrance day in Israel today, and most of the people on his fathers side of the family were murdered in the holocaust, his Dad managed to survive. He was just dedicating it to them and remembering them and paying respect and whatnot. Nice touch tbh, he also was pretty funny, he was like 'oh yes, I saw that on tv a couple of minutes ago, now Im very embarrassed, hahahahah'.

EDIT-Damnit, Addox was quicker and more accurate... I challenge you to a duel.

spockety

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Yeah what did he say?

Today is a holocaust memorial day and he was very emotional and thinking of his Grandfather who died in the holocaust, and also how much he loves his 80 year old aul fella.

Very personal stuff , wouldn't criticise him for it, but I'm sure there are a few less mature among us who will pick at it or laugh at it for whatever reason only they will know.

jank

1 quality attacking left back
1 quality attacking right back
1 great passing (attacking)CM
2 quality wingers (not fúckin mancini )
1 quality forward (Huntalaar, villa (is he a bit weak for prem?)

thats like half a team. Id doubt they will be able to buy more then 2 players unless they off load big players.

Chelsea were the better team. When liverpool got the goal i thought it was liverpool yet again somehow doing it even though they were piss poor for most of the match.

Drogba was leathal, mind games from rafa didnt work!!

United Vs Liverpool would have been interesting but it will be chelsea and to be honest it will be hard to see past them.

mada999

spockety wrote: »

Today is a holocaust memorial day and he was very emotional and thinking of his Grandfather who died in the holocaust, and also how much he loves his 80 year old aul fella.

Very personal stuff , wouldn't criticise him for it, but I'm sure there are a few less mature among us who will pick at it or laugh at it for whatever reason only they will know.

Think Mr. Grant wears his heart on his sleeve, fair play to him...he may not be as flamboyant as Mr. Mourinho but he's done the business..hope he wins a CL.

mada999

jank wrote: »

thats like half a team. Id doubt they will be able to buy more then 2 players unless they off load big players.

Yes, it is like half a team...but i think thats how far we are behind in the league

adox

Liverpool

spockety wrote: »

Very personal stuff , wouldn't criticise him for it, but I'm sure there are a few less mature among us who will pick at it or laugh at it for whatever reason only they will know.

Unfortunately its already happened on another thread.

Another mention for Lampard from me as well. I always thought that he was over rated but I though he put in a great performance tonight and only the coldest person couldnt be touched by his reaction after scoring the peno.

Dave!

Any vids of Avram after the whistle? Missed it

Lamps has endeared himself to me tonight... And if they weren't playing United, I'd be supporting Chelsea in the final Even if they do have Cole, Terry, and Drogs on the team....

mada999

adox wrote: »

Unfortunately its already happened on another thread.

Another mention for Lampard from me as well. I always thought that he was over rated but I though he put in a great performance tonight and only the coldest person couldnt be touched by his reaction after scoring the peno.

Yep Lamps had a good game, most of Chelsea's players had a good game..

breadmonkey

Liverpool

Dear God George Hamilton was absolutely infuriating to listen to. Constantly calling the game wrong and seemingly every black Chelsea player was Drogba!

shane86

breadmonkey wrote: »

Dear God George Hamilton was absolutely infuriating to listen to. Constantly calling the game wrong and seemingly every black Chelsea player was Drogba!

Meh, its not as if he thinks they all look alike. After all he got confused on one occasion between Ashley and Joe Mother of jaysus.....

Between him, President Bush, and that guy you quote in your sig, there is just something about people called George and their lack of public speaking skills.

Dave!

I just hope that UEFA investigate this assault on Avram Grant at the hands of Steven Gerard

http://101greatgoals.magnify.net/item/TQCCNYPK4H5RQ9NH

shiibata

Being a total pool fanatic, am happy we got beat tonight.. if we scraped thru tonight and played like that against man u, we would get slaugherted.. and that would be a lot of years bragging...
Met George Hamilton once on a train to Basle, we were playing the swiss(got beat 2-0, irish team), decent fellow, mad arsenal fanatic

redspider

Chelsea 3-2 Liverpool (agg 4-3)

Well, Liverpool are out of the CL but once again they gave their fans a roller coaster night of football. There were a few key moments and decisions which resulted in this tie being resolved by the narrowest of margins.

Liverpool's formation was 4-2-3-1:

---

Reina

---

Arbeloa - Carra - Skrtel (Hyppia) - Riise
---- Masch ---- Alonso

---

Kuyt

---

Gerrard ---- Benayoun

---

Torres

---

I was semi-surprised to see Benayoun on from the start but not totally given thaht Babel could be introdcued into his position later on and hopefully with good effect. I thought Liverpool started okay, they created a few half chances, but Chelsea created a few more. Torres got in on goal from close range but took a touch and pushed it more onto his left and Cech saved well.
Drogba was a handful and eventually their goal came. But before that Skrtel tackled him and injured himself in the process. It was to be a telling injury.

Liverpool werent quite linking up and Chelsea were looking more and more dangerous. If Kalou was offside for the goal it was barely, and whilst Reina made a good save (and had saved well in the half) he didnt get down well enough on Drogba's return shot. He seems to bounce too much and the shot was close to straight at him. I thought 1-0 to Chelsea at HT was a fair reflection.

Liverpool got back into the game a lot more in the 2nd half. Things were balancing up and the goal came and was well taken. A good run from Benayoun who short threaded it to Torres who scored well. 1-1, and it was game on. If anything, Liverpool were in the ascendancy. Rafa brought on Pennant for Benayoun, which for me was a mistake, as Pennant and Benni play in a very similar style. Although he had fresh legs, this was not going to change the match. The match went to extra time and it was anyone's.

In extra time, Liverpool were giving as good as they got at the start. We all know that Hyypia is slow, and it was his slow reaction time which allowed Ballack to nick in in front of him and 'win' the foul and penalty. Chelsea didnt deserve it, but it was well put away by Lampard especially given the week that was in it for him.

At 2-1, this helped Chelsea grow in confidence. But just after the goal was scored, Rafa made a decision which is puzzing many, me included. He brought off Torres and brought on Babel. This completely changed the shape of Liverpool in terms of personel, as Kuyt (our defending wide midfielder) was put up front as the target man, a job he hast done in a long time nor well when he did it before. This was a big gamble in my opinion.

The gamble didnt work. With some poor defending by Riise allowing Anelka to get in on goal, a hard shot from Drogba went straight in, again straight at Reina who I thought should have done better on that one. It was 3-1 to Chelsea with just 15 mins to go.

Never say never, and Liverpool managed to muster up the strength and energy and try their best. I'm not sure when it occurred but Liverpool had two penalty shouts. The first a tackle from Essien on Babel in my opinion wasnt a penalty as I thought Essien didnt take down Babel (ie: no significant contact) and Essien got some (slightly) of the ball, simultaneous with Babel. The 2nd claim though was a penalty, the Hyypia one. Hyypia managed to jink past a few players in the box, Lampard, A.Cole and then Drogba, who missed the ball with his tackle and fouled Hyypia who went down. It was a clear penalty imo. The ref put the whistle in his mouth, thought about it but decided against it and played on. There may be a case for thinking that Hyypia 'over-played' it and went down easily, but Drogba got a fair piece of him. So, bad luck for Liverpool.

The team kept going though in the face of a steep challenge as the clock ticked down. Then a surprise as Babels long range effort went in. Could the impossible happen? Well, it was possible, and Liverpool had a few more efforts, but they couldnt get past a stalwart Chelsea defence and just ran out of time.

So overall, a close result with a decision here or there deciding it in the end. Of course, if Riise hadnt made that error in the 1st leg, this would have been a different match. How it would have ended, we will never know. The og was costly though as Liverpool never regained the lead in the tie.

I think Liverpool players, well, most of them, can be satisfied with their efforts. Benitez, I'm not sure. I think with Torres on the pitch we could have done more at the end, or else brought on Crouch for somebody to change things around. Did we really need Hyypia on at that stage, and why was the 3-5-2 option not used?

Overall, it was a fine line between success and failure, and things (penalty decision, Riise's og) went against us, Liverpool just ended up on the wrong side of that line.

Perhaps missing the final will somehow be a small blessing in disguise, as players are moved on, and its less in the coffers for the current owners so maybe they will sell sooner, etc. A meagre consolation.

Redspider

StickyMcGinty

DaveMcG wrote: »

I just hope that UEFA investigate this assault on Avram Grant at the hands of Steven Gerard

http://101greatgoals.magnify.net/item/TQCCNYPK4H5RQ9NH

lol, is that what passes for assault these days?

Grant has no place going near the ball

shiibata

Redspider, too much too edit in yer post, but fair play to ye, ye done good job..
Benayoun was crap, ok set up goal, but babel wud have been more useful in 1st half..
Kuyt, wat can i say, but him and rafa must have thing going, he should have been off..he has done lot of donkey work in previous rounds , but christ, he was bought as an out and out striker..and has never been taken off i think..
Then we go 2-1 down, take off torres, put on babbel, no crouch..ere lies the problem most teams go behind, time for big man.. not rafa, babbel yer man

growler

Liverpool (Liverpool fans)

CAREFREE

:):):):):D:D:):):p:p:):)

shiibata

growler wrote: »

CAREFREE

:):):):):D:D:):):p:p:):)

Nice to see an ex west ham supporter showing their appreciation:p:p

jank

Overall, it was a fine line between success and failure, and things (penalty decision, Riise's og) went against us, Liverpool just ended up on the wrong side of that line.

Hmmm wasnt this what Arsenal fans were saying a few weeks ago?;)
To be honest chelsea clearly deserved it. If liverpool had won then it would have been gone down as one of those liverpool european results.

roryc

jank wrote: »

Hmmm wasnt this what Arsenal fans were saying a few weeks ago?;)
To be honest chelsea clearly deserved it. If liverpool had won then it would have been gone down as one of those liverpool european results.

Absolutely no way in hell were 'Pool the better team... They played well but the better team won. Ah well, another tropheyless year for the 'Cup Team'

Whats the odds on Benitez going? It should be obvious by now that any (Cup) success they have enjoyed over the last few years has been down to grafters like Gerrard and Carragher and not down to his rotation policy... in spite of it moreso

United for teh win

astrofool

It's nice to see two teams who are also actively involved in the domestic league race reach the final, when was the last time that happened? Juve vs. AC?

CHD

Liverpool

spockety wrote: »

Heh, keep talking

NAH NAH NAH NAH HEY HEY HEY GOODBYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHD

Liverpool

Blue is the colour
Football is the game
We are all together
And winning is our aim

SING CHELSEA EVERYONE!!!!!!!

redzerdrog

chdpoker wrote: »

Blue is the colour
Football is the game
We are all together
And winning is our aim

SING CHELSEA EVERYONE!!!!!!!

yippee i am so happy for yas, you actually have a song to sing now all you have to do is teach it to 40 odd thousand zombies in the bridge

CHD

Liverpool

redzerdrog wrote: »

yippee i am so happy for yas, you actually have a song to sing now all you have to do is teach it to 40 odd thousand zombies in the bridge

tryin to be funny?!?!?!?!

shiibata

breaks my heart but chelski wer the better team...no complaints, except rafa is a wanker..

Sir Gallagher

Why's Rafa a wanker?

CHD

Liverpool

Chelsea Chelsea

Sir Gallagher

chdpoker wrote: »

Chelsea Chelsea

Get a grip pal. You's have some top players, Essien is top drawer as is Cech even though he is slowly but surely turning into the gimp out of Pulp Fiction.

shiibata

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

Why's Rafa a wanker?

Would love to win CL, but as far as i am concerned, i want the premiership and with rafa in charge, thats a fantasy...and if u dont agree, yer an eejit

Sir Gallagher

shiibata wrote: »

Would love to win CL, but as far as i am concerned, i want the premiership and with rafa in charge, thats a fantasy...and if u dont agree, yer an eejit

I know people like you, glory hunter plain and simple.

Rockee

shiibata wrote: »

Would love to win CL, but as far as i am concerned, i want the premiership and with rafa in charge, thats a fantasy...and if u dont agree, yer an eejit

Agreed, any fellow Liverpool fans I spoke to tonight said that they didnt feel too bad as it gives Chelsea a chance to beat Man U. The premiership HAS to be priority but remember the optimism we had after we beat Derby in early September?

shiibata

Lads, am too pissed at this stage to say wat i think. but have always hated rafa, has been very lucky in europe, fookin clueless in premiership..
Played some team called Reading, fookin beat us..took off torres and stevie early on(could b wrong there!) then had to beat the french team in europe... hammering them, no word of taking key players off b4 final whistle tho, yet Utd wer up next his priorities r crap

Sir Gallagher

You've got some decent points man, but sometimes i feel there's a method to his madness another year and a few more bob and lets see how it goes.