Joel

Here's my little munchkin Addison (5 1/2 months) celebrating Ramires' goal in her first Cup final!

So, 2 wins from 2 in a very soft qualifying group. It must be about time for a newspaper headline quoting a player or Capello or some FA dignitary saying "We can win Euro 2012", right? You lot are always good for that sort of comedy.

The Guardian claims we have 5 that qualify as homegrown: "Chelsea, for example, only have five homegrown players (John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Ross Turnbull and Michael Mancienne). As things stand, the manager, Carlo Ancelotti, will have to name a senior squad of 22 and opportunities will increase for his under-21s."

90 minutes of listening to John Harkes and JP Dellacamera on ESPN is borderline torture, but it was worth it to see us toy with a side that have won 4 scudettos on the trot. Inter were a complete shower. I would like to see more of Balotelli, but he was completely on his own out there and barely got the ball anywhere but midfield out by the touchline. Nothing to worry about there. Their shooting was putrid with several balls entering near earth orbit. Chelsea were very easy on the eye. Was it just me or did our passing and movement look like a night and day difference from last season? I have memories of lots of flank-to-flank passing where things just bogged down for lack of ideas about 20 yards from goal last year. Whatever is taking place in training, I like the looks of it so far.

Hello forum, long time between posts from me. I've been running Windows 7 RC1 for about 2 months now. My old hard drive was clicking and on the verge of a major failure, so I quick ordered a new motherboard, Intel E8400 dual core CPU, 4 gigs of RAM, and a pair of 1 TB hard drives to run in a RAID mirror. Several of my friends were already running Windows 7 64-bit, so I hopped on the bandwagon. It's been great so far--I'll never go back to XP. I didn't have a lot of experience using Vista (it's on my father-in-law's laptop, that's it) but making the transition has been a breeze. I have had a couple of BSODs in the last couple weeks that have something to do with power or hibernation--it's only happened when I've left the PC on overnight (something I don't normally do). Installation was impossibly easy--I didn't need to add a single driver, although I did go get newer ones from Nvidia for my video card. I won't miss the days of having to slipstream a driver into a Win XP install disc and re-burn it to be able to install XP to a SATA hard drive. Windows 7 = recommended

I blame Red Rob Styles for that more than Ronaldo. Didn't seem like he was really appealing for one, and looked downright embarrassed after scoring it.

Torn ACL! Ugh, nasty injury. People recover from it much faster these days than they did a decade or two ago, but it's still a massive injury. This is the same injury that Tom Brady got on Sunday playing for the Patriots in the NFL...he won't be back until the 2009 season.

The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 when I was 3.5 years old. My dad took me to the theatre in Madison, Wisconsin...not so much to be a great father as much as he just wanted to see it himself!

OK, I'm bewildered on this front as well....I've heard from *many* people in the last few days that even they found it in themselves to feel for JT after what happened, even though "they can't stand him." Where does that come from? Is there an episode I'm not familiar with that makes neutrals feel that way? I just saw his interview on the BBC website and it was top class.

Good predictions.

Didn't have me doing cartwheels, but not deserving of the derision it's getting in some quarters. Some fun moments and a couple cringe-inducing scenes. Decent escapist fare...just don't go expecting it to match Raiders and you'll be fine. Hint: for maximum value, see it at matinee prices

Well there was always an air of inevitability around it. He seems a real gentleman, but results notwithstanding he did seem overmatched at times. I'm kind of on the fence about this--I wasn't clamoring for him to go, but would tell friends that I thought he would be out this summer no matter what happened. Neither was I jumping up and down at the prospect of him staying. He gets top marks for enduring the withering disdain directed at him, and for pushing us on all fronts as far as he did. God help us if it's Sven...that would be shoot-me-in-the-face awful.

Great list. Question for the rest of you...where will Scott Sinclair figure on this list? Are his days of being loaned out done with? Is he still in the frame for regular inclusion in the senior squad?

The extra one given to Grant was for Drogba, wasn't it?

Sir Bobby took a medal, he just refused to have it put around his neck.

Top quality post, Mike. If not for the Cech save it was 2-0 and could have gotten worse. Cashley's defending was superb tonight, I don't think I've seen anything even close to that from him before. The entire team marshaled itself in the 2nd half and contributed to Ronaldo putting on a tremendous disappearing act. Barely had a touch the rest of the way. I can't even begin to fathom how JT must feel. He's an absolute legend and it just seems so unfair for this to have happened to him.

We were baffled at that moment. The linesman starts waving his flag, then stops. Were we given advantage? Did the linesman change his mind? Still confused about that episode.

Yep, I was shattered at that moment....I knew the momentum had gone. I feel absolutely awful for JT, he is Chelsea to the core and was massive out there. Without him this season we wouldn't have gotten within sniffing distance of a Champions League final. Would have thought Essien was a sure bet to take one of the penalties ahead of him (and Anelka for that matter). We bossed the 2nd half and I'm still gutted that we didn't win it in normal time. I'm pretty sure big squad changes are ahead of us this summer, and I pray that enough of the core is kept intact to give us a shot at getting back to this final. Carefree

Amazing game, justice done with the result, and roll on to Moscow! Frank Lampard, what a moment with that penalty. Ballack seemed the obvious choice but I have to say I got a little weepy myself when it went in, you could see what it meant to him personally and to the team. The fans were immense, well done to all of you who were there--no doubt it my mind it helped the players lift themselves. Terrific effort by everyone in appalling conditions. Piss off Stevie Me, you just performed the biggest disappearing act in memory. It still hasn't sunk in to me that we are in the final of the most important club competition in the world. Pinch me!

Bolton deserve to be relegated TWO divisions for today's ineptitude. 2 up against 10 men and they capitulate in truly anemic fashion.

Wow. Absolutely stunned. SWP should face criminal proceedings for his part in this debacle today. Well done Barnsley, you have to say they deserve it.

I've got SWP leading the race to the bottom, as he's seen much more of the ball than Malouda and has made a mess of it every single time. The conditions aren't exactly ideal but it's no excuse, they are the same for both sides. Barnsley have by far had the better chances...hit the woodwork and Cudicini almost gifted one to the lumbering Odejayi.

Literally LEAPED off my couch for joy!!

Can't believe it took till page 3 for these wasters to be mentioned, good shout Scott.

Apparently this was a hand-made one off item, but I want one!