Just now, sonic90 said:

As with all cup competitions you want the easiest route to the final

It's an odd thing with the english media. They have a inferior mentality when it comes to the "bigger" clubs. We have had to overcome plenty of big hurdles in the champions league before now, so it's nothing new to us. 

9 minutes ago, enigma said:

Never understood the mentality of avoiding the big clubs. What's the point of being in this competition if you want to avoid certain clubs. May as well test out your level 

I think it's down to knowing when you're not the strongest team in the competition and knowing that you can beat one of the strongest teams and maybe a second, but also knowing that your odds of beating all three or four of the highest ranked teams would be a minor miracle. Hope to save your toughest games until the latest opportunity.

1 minute ago, enigma said:

It's an odd thing with the english media. They have a inferior mentality when it comes to the "bigger" clubs. We have had to overcome plenty of big hurdles in the champions league before now, so it's nothing new to us. 

To be fair it is new to Conte, he hasn't had a good CL campaign yet as a manager and as a team I don't think we are ready yet to say we are one of the best and want to be tested. City are probably in that position and I don't think I've felt that way about Chelsea for a while.

14 minutes ago, barak81 said:

We played really well but for the end product, lets not take away from the fact we bossed that match. You do feel we are a bit light weight in the goals department. We are one one world class attacking option away from the next level for me... compare it to City who from a best 11 point of view, I don't think are all that much better then us if at all, but if they need a goal they have so much to come of the benhc 

I think we are also missing atleast on world class wingback and I'm not sure we have the right midfielder next to Fabregas and Kante with Bakayoko and Drinkwater.

So we will play Barcelona, PSG, Olympiacos, Besiktas or possibly Sevilla in the next round. It's tough, but there is a high chance we would end up with a team just as tough if we had finished 1st. Basel, Bayern, Juventus, Shakhtar, Porto or Real Madrid. 

1st, 2nd, either way, the chances of playing a really tough side in the next round is just as high.

Just now, sonic90 said:

To be fair it is new to Conte, he hasn't had a good CL campaign yet as a manager and as a team I don't think we are ready yet to say we are one of the best and want to be tested. City are probably in that position and I don't think I've felt that way about Chelsea for a while.

Over two legs anything can happen. We've also almost always had impressive campaigns in this competition, so we can rise to the occasion when needs must. No team is infallable. 

Disappointing but Barca won't be looking forward to meeting us in particular.

4 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

So we will play Barcelona, PSG, Olympiacos, Besiktas or possibly Sevilla in the next round. It's tough, but there is a high chance we would end up with a team just as tough if we had finished 1st. Basel, Bayern, Juventus, Shakhtar, Porto or Real Madrid. 

1st, 2nd, either way, the chances of playing a really tough side in the next round is just as high.

Olympiacos didn't qualify

Also, PSG lost today albeit in a dead rubber.

Every league champion placed 2nd in their group whilst the French champion didn't even qualify to the KO stages

1 minute ago, Deino said:

Olympiacos didn't qualify

Yeah, i don't even know why i wrote that. Too tired, i need sleep, damn Cricket keeping me up all night 

We should do a fundraiser to build a clinic at cobham as we can't convert our chances and score more than 1 f**king goal!!! Honestly, we were the best team by a thousand f**king mile!! and still drew!!! Honestly, we're second, we don't have the same firepower that bayern have, we will probably/certainly face an early exit if faced with PSG or Barça ... HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO MISS WHAT MORATA AND WILLIAN MISSED??? WHY PLAY MOSES WHEN HE f**kS EVERYTHING UP?!!! Honestly I am fuming... we won't win the PL, we have a 66,67% chance to draw an absolute impossible team (PSG or Barça) and 33% Besiktas ...Monday will determine whether we can go far or not in the UCL. But seriously, SELL WILLIAN FFS!!!! I don't care for his goal against carrier bags or his lucky goal against dippers, HIS INCAPACITY NOT TO f**k UP THE COUNTER ATTACKS OR SCORING OBVIOUS SITTERS HAS PISSED ME TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT I WOULD GLADLY SELL HIM TO f**kING TOTTENHAM IN JANUARY!!! I am really pissed cuz we bottled it big time tonight ... it should have been a dead rubber and an easy win, and now we're wondering how we're going to try not looking too ridiculous at the Parc des princes or the Nou Camp...

 

But anyway... there maybe a 2012 flavour to that UCL campaign, who knows!

Quote of the season by Eden  "WE ARE CHELSEA" said it twice, That brought a lump to my throat.

6 minutes ago, charierre said:

Disappointing but Barca won't be looking forward to meeting us in particular.

Neither will PSG or Besiktas. We are the premiership champions for crying out loud

6 minutes ago, enigma said:

Over two legs anything can happen. We've also almost always had impressive campaigns in this competition, so we can rise to the occasion when needs must. No team is infallable. 

Sure but when given the choice you don't want a challenge off the bat. Anyway we are more than likely to get a PSG or Barca now so we have to relish it. 

honestly playing PSG or Barça won't be that bad in a certain way : we would have to stick to a 5-4-1 formation and sit deep in our half, waiting for counter attacks!! It looks like we're more clinical this way than when we actually have the ball possession like tonight... at least against big teams! But I have the weird impression Conte is going to do a conte in the UCL a la Juve : an early exit at R16. Sigh...

5 minutes ago, Kev56 said:

Quote of the season by Eden  "WE ARE CHELSEA" said it twice, That brought a lump to my throat.

do you have any video ? did he say that in post match interview? This is definitely a great sign! the magician is determined to make big things with us !!

Edited December 5, 20178 yr by Londonisblue

Conte just seems to struggle in cup competitions for some reason. He over thinks it and becomes too cautious. 

At least the players know which team they are.   "It's not a problem who we get, we are Chelsea. We know PSG and Barcelona are very good but we are a top team too. We can do anything."

A glimmer of hope though : Hazard upfront saved our asses so many times!!! With him being fit and in form, we could litterally move moutains!

Really I can't complain as in our two games Roma were better than us so I really don't begrudge them first place. It would be different if I felt we had outplayed them in our matches.  To win it you have to beat the best so why not in the next match?  

We've come up against some of the best side before and our players are experienced in it bar Moses, Kante and Alonso. 

Just give it our best shot.

Edited December 5, 20178 yr by Deino

Babayoko at fault for the goal yet again. Why didn't Conte play Drinkwater? We should have won that match and Morata and Willian's finishing was woeful. We will find out our opponents on Monday in the next round. I'm betting we get PSG or Barca. Good performance but poor finishing.

Edited December 5, 20178 yr by TheBluesBrother

6 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Conte just seems to struggle in cup competitions for some reason. He over thinks it and becomes too cautious. 

i don't understand how one could even come to this conclusion after todays game. we absolutely dominated atletico, one of the strongest teams in the world the past five years. if not for a top four-five goalkeeper in the world and poor finishing we would have won by four-five goals.

conte's job is to set us up to defend properly as a unit, and attack cohesively enough that we create chances. he cannot be blamed for individual mistakes defensively (zappa failing to cover torres and baka failing to cover niguez) or poor finishing. 

(now if you blame him for the roma matches, i could give that to you, but we were in dire straits at that time, not just in cup competitions)

As I have said before we are going to get psg. Roma are not that good as I am sure we will see in the knock outs but we messed up badly against them. For heavens sake qarabag lost by only 1 goal and they were hopeless against us. I disagree losing in Rome cost us. Drawing when 2 up at home to roma cost us top spot.

After our win in Madrid to come second is poor. 1 win in last 4, which was against qarabag. Are where we deserve to be though and now we can try and figure out how to stop psg. 

17 minutes ago, TheBluesBrother said:

Babayoko at fault for the goal yet again. Why didn't Conte play Drinkwater? We should have won that match and Morata and Willian's finishing was woeful. We will find out our opponents on Monday in the next round. I'm betting we get PSG or Barca. Good performance but poor finishing.

DrinkVODKA is just returning from Injury so has to be protected and Alonso needed a breather. I am sure they will both be back for Westham.  Moses will rest and bakayoko should be with the u23