In my opinion there's nothing like that feeling before big European games. Nervous / excited as I would be in any other season. We've shown recently that we still have that grit to grind out results. (Arsenal, Norwich and Southampton for example). This lot tonight are a different kettle of fish though so it will be tricky.

 

But this club has been underdogs in Europe so many times in the past and have overcome odds to get past what's in front of us.

 

I am hoping for a 2-0 win to see us through, but I cant help but feel they will score.

 

Come on Chels, into 'em from the first minute and get a nice early goal.

 

I am both surprised and reassured to read this.

 

From France, we have the feeling that English teams and their fans do not really give a f**k about the CL and Europa league cause the Premier league is so intense, so wealthy also and the competition so fierce that it's actually the only thing that matters. This is what we thought explained the recent poor performance of English teams in european competitions lately. The premier league is self sufficient kind of, no need to perform in Europe for both the money and the prestige as the premier league is already considered as the one true championship.

 

Clearly, premier league teams, due to the TV rights, could overlook Europe. They dont need it to market their brand and surely they dont need the 50 millions in case you win it.

 

But maybe Chelsea is different from its peers due to their connection with the CL over the past ten years.

I am both surprised and reassured to read this.

From France, we have the feeling that English teams and their fans do not really give a f**k about the CL and Europa league cause the Premier league is so intense, so wealthy also and the competition so fierce that it's actually the only thing that matters. This is what we thought explained the recent poor performance of English teams in european competitions lately. The premier league is self sufficient kind of, no need to perform in Europe for both the money and the prestige as the premier league is already considered as the one true championship.

Clearly, premier league teams, due to the TV rights, could overlook Europe. They dont need it to market their brand and surely they dont need the 50 millions in case you win it.

But maybe Chelsea is different from its peers due to their connection with the CL over the past ten years.

I don't think any English club takes the CL lightly, it's still the most important trophy on offer for all the big clubs.

It would be a huge blow to any of our teams to miss out on qualification for it...just look at what it done to Liverpool.

No idea why people abroad think we don't take it seriously?

Edited March 9, 201610 yr by Chelsbear

Considering a 1-0 will do it for us, I have to wonder whether Guus will line up cautiously and attempt to nick the game with a single goal. They found it far too easy to penetrate us down the middle during the last game, and I think a lot of that is down to the fact that we only had a two-man midfield. Due to Guus' general caution during the bigger games, I would anticipate us matching their 4-3-3, with a midfield of Mikel, Matic, and Fabregas. The implication of this is that Pedro (assuming he is fit) possibly becomes a better option in our front three than Hazard, as he possesses a greater goalscoring threat, and is obviously in far better form. I consider Willian and Costa, at this point in time, to be undroppable. This also leaves us with the options of Hazard and the on-form Traoré on the bench; in addition to Oscar (and possibly Pato) that gives us a fair amount of backup attacking strength to call upon.

 

If Terry is still unavailable (and he seems to have indicated that he is) then the back five picks itself (unfortunate as for this I would far prefer the Ivanovic-Azpilicueta full-back combo than the Azpilicueta-Rahman one). It is all well and good to play Kenedy at left-back against Southampton for 45 minutes when we are 1-0 down (and he is trying to prove a point to Rahman) or against a Norwich side playing a back three, but a key match against PSG is another matter entirely. Win this and it may well lift us for the entire rest of the season; not only will we be in the Champions League quarter-finals, but there is also the chance of us drawing Wolfsburg, PSV (although they still have much to do) or Benfica, three sides I certainly see as beatable, and if we make it to the semi-finals then anything can happen.

 

That leaves us with:

 

---------------------------------Courtois

 

Azpilicueta------------Cahill---------Ivanovic-----------Rahman

 

--------------------------Matic-----------Mikel

--------------------------------Fabregas

 

---------------Willian-------------------------------Pedro

 

----------------------------------Costa

 

Subs:

Begovic, Kenedy, Loftus-Cheek, Oscar, Hazard, Traoré, Miazga/Rémy/Pato

 

 

This is a huge, huge game. For the love of God, please make us proud, or we may not see Champions League football again until September 2017 (assuming we even manage to qualify next season) - a scary thought. I have confidence that we still have a massive performance in us this season, I hope beyond hope that is it this one - good form is its own stimulus.

 

 

This with either Pedro or Hazard on the wing for me. This is our best shot (and hope Matic picked this game to re-dicover his beast mode) 

In the first leg, we looked better when we got at them rather than sitting back. I think if we sit back then we will lose. We went out last year because of going defensive when we should have continued attacking them.

It's defintely going to be tight and it wi be fine margins.

Fully agree JM7. Being cautious and defensive is not going to get us anywhere tonight.

 

Come right at them from minute one, that will get the Bridge fired up aswell and go for goals. Can't sit back if we get one eighter, got to go for at least the second.

Cmon Chelsea !!!!

In the first leg, we looked better when we got at them rather than sitting back. I think if we sit back then we will lose. We went out last year because of going defensive when we should have continued attacking them.

It's defintely going to be tight and it wi be fine margins.

 

I agree-We look so much better going forward than we do defensively especially at the Bridge

 

I don't believe we can soak up pressure well at all because we lack composure at the back, Players like Cech & Terry had the ability to calm and organise but now I can see errors at the back. Even if we defend well (Like we did in the 1st leg) we make individual errors which come about due to indecision, lack of organisation & accountability. 

Lets just go out on our shield. No reason to go into the game looking for one goal and trying to shut up shop. I would rather us try get a few goals than only one, then try to defend it.

In the first leg, we looked better when we got at them rather than sitting back. I think if we sit back then we will lose. We went out last year because of going defensive when we should have continued attacking them.

It's defintely going to be tight and it wi be fine margins.

 

 

We went out last year because we couldn't defend corners or put people on the posts. 

Hello ! 

i read all comments here but imo the person you should be afraid in our team is pastore.

matic is injured ? 

I don't think any English club takes the CL lightly, it's still the most important trophy on offer for all the big clubs.

It would be a huge blow to any of our teams to miss out on qualification for it...just look at what it done to Liverpool.

No idea why people abroad think we don't take it seriously?

Well I absolutely trust you with this. It's just a feeling I had and a common belief outside the UK.

Glad to hear it's a wrong one.

When we consider how brilliant English clubs have been in the past in CL, it would be a shame for them not to consider it seriously and a serious offense to history.

 

But I still dont understand why English clubs (I'm referring to the spurs or West Ham, premier league underdogs kind of), with the quality players they have do not perform any better in Europa league.

 

Anyway, Cant wait for this game to start. So glad Pastore will start this one. That we can perform at high level without Verratti remains to be seen, never occurred before. It will be a tough one, 50/50 for me. Chelsea showed during the first leg that they clearly match us. Nothing unexpected for a team with players such as Willian, Costa, Ivanovic, Fabregas, etc in its mist.

Considering a 1-0 will do it for us, I have to wonder whether Guus will line up cautiously and attempt to nick the game with a single goal. They found it far too easy to penetrate us down the middle during the last game, and I think a lot of that is down to the fact that we only had a two-man midfield. Due to Guus' general caution during the bigger games, I would anticipate us matching their 4-3-3, with a midfield of Mikel, Matic, and Fabregas. The implication of this is that Pedro (assuming he is fit) possibly becomes a better option in our front three than Hazard, as he possesses a greater goalscoring threat, and is obviously in far better form. I consider Willian and Costa, at this point in time, to be undroppable. This also leaves us with the options of Hazard and the on-form Traoré on the bench; in addition to Oscar (and possibly Pato) that gives us a fair amount of backup attacking strength to call upon.

If Terry is still unavailable (and he seems to have indicated that he is) then the back five picks itself (unfortunate as for this I would far prefer the Ivanovic-Azpilicueta full-back combo than the Azpilicueta-Rahman one). It is all well and good to play Kenedy at left-back against Southampton for 45 minutes when we are 1-0 down (and he is trying to prove a point to Rahman) or against a Norwich side playing a back three, but a key match against PSG is another matter entirely. Win this and it may well lift us for the entire rest of the season; not only will we be in the Champions League quarter-finals, but there is also the chance of us drawing Wolfsburg, PSV (although they still have much to do) or Benfica, three sides I certainly see as beatable, and if we make it to the semi-finals then anything can happen.

That leaves us with:

---------------------------------Courtois

Azpilicueta------------Cahill---------Ivanovic-----------Rahman

--------------------------Matic-----------Mikel

--------------------------------Fabregas

---------------Willian-------------------------------Pedro

----------------------------------Costa

Subs:

Begovic, Kenedy, Loftus-Cheek, Oscar, Hazard, Traoré, Miazga/Rémy/Pato

This is a huge, huge game. For the love of God, please make us proud, or we may not see Champions League football again until September 2017 (assuming we even manage to qualify next season) - a scary thought. I have confidence that we still have a massive performance in us this season, I hope beyond hope that is it this one - good form is its own stimulus.

Really don't want to see that mikel matic combo. In fact I'm hoping matic doesn't play, as I think we play better without him. I also think hazard has to start, he may not be as good as he was last year, but he still creates chances, and psg will try to double up on him, which will hopefully give the other attacks more room.

Mikel and fabregas in the 2, hazard, willian, and traore in a 3 behind costa.

Can't see pedro being fit enough to start if he only returned to training yesterday.

I pray Tibo doesn't punch the ball back for a rebound as usual and if we get a penalty I won't like us to risk Oscar or Hazard playing and Baba needs to stay in the defence just for this game and allow the midfielders and striker to attack. With this, we will be fine.

But anytime I take a glance at the time I get so nervous.

^ I agree that it certainly isn't ideal, but I fail to see how we are going to cope with a midfield two, one of whom really has to be Fabregas. Regardless of with whom we partner him up, we will be outnumbered and thus will struggle off the ball. If we believe (as I do) that we require a midfield three to participate in this fixture, then, without Ramires, our only two options are Matic and Loftus-Cheek, the former in horrible form, and the latter completely without experience of occasions such as this, and whose off-the-ball game doesn't exactly fill me with confidence against a side such as this. As much as I appreciate the boldness of attacking them from the start, I have far less confidence in our ability to keep a clean sheet if we approach the game with a gung-ho mindset than if we do with a cautious approach. I am fairly confident in our ability to score either way.

 

I am happy to admit that I am being overly optimistic regarding Pedro; however if there was ever a time to risk a player's future fitness for the sake of one occasion, this is really it.

My problem with your logic here is that we've seen too many times that playing Matic - Mikel doesn't give us a more solid defence. So, although I quite like the theory of your approach, I can't see it working because it hasn't worked against worse teams than PSG. We need to score more than once if we want to go through, and the only way of doing that is playing with one DM plus Fabregas. I like your proposition of Pedro, I'd play him, at least in the first half, too. And I'd probably play Hazard and William alongside, but depending on Hazard's performance I'd play Traoré in the second half.

Traore adds an element to attack that Oscar can't.  He's a more natural winger with better pace.  If Pedro were healthy I'd give him a run in the starting XI, but since not I'm going with Traore.  Hazard NEEDS to show up today.  

 

               Tibo

Dave Cahill Ivan Baba

     Mikel      Fabregas

Traore   Willian        Hazard

             Costa

Play defensive or offensive they will score either way. The latter at least offers us more chances at the other end.

Got a good feeling about this one. Would be nice to see Traore start but can't see it and can see us setting up with Matic, Mikel and Fabregas further forward. Want to see us attack them tonight we're at home lets do these c**ts,

Hello lads.

Long time lurker on here. Im not a member or season ticket holder but Ive found myself down in London at short notice, anyone rekcon I could try turn up at the ground in the hope someone is selling spare tickets? Cheers.

This match will be decided before KO, if its matic-mikel then thats it, if not we have a chance

I'd love for us to have the option to match them in 433 but the player best suited for that (Loftus-Cheek) simply hasn't been given enough minutes. The other player who would be great in there would be Ramires but obviously he's not there so we're stuck with the choice of Mikel, Matic and Fabregas for two positions and three attacking midfielder who are out-of-form.

 

The positive is that we're so poorly assembled that the onus is on PSG to control the game and that puts a lot of pressure on them.

 

We may as well attack though because we've got nothing to lose, we know we need to score and it would be nice to see us actually show some balls for once this year. Go on the offensive, don't be afraid and just f**king have em.

Hello lads.

Long time lurker on here. Im not a member or season ticket holder but Ive found myself down in London at short notice, anyone rekcon I could try turn up at the ground in the hope someone is selling spare tickets? Cheers.

I'm sure there will be touts around as always, but they won't be cheap for a game like this

I'm sure there will be touts around as always, but they won't be cheap for a game like this

Upwards of 200 quid... 

This match will be decided before KO, if its matic-mikel then thats it, if not we have a chance

 

That's the spirit...

Upwards of 200 quid...