1 minute ago, didierforever said:

You think Pep/Conte coach that? Specially with Conte shouting at Tibo (when he booted the ball long) to play the ball to Rudi when getting pressed. I honestly have my doubts

Understand your points, however, not playing the suicide pass, or kicking out/up field would not have resulted in a Barca goal from that situation.

Just got in. Great atmosphere, everyone who went should be happy with that. Didn’t hear Barca fans until they scored and I was block 5 in the shed. 

Lots of criticism of the team/tactics going around but Conte got this spot on, bar Christensens mistake it was a near perfect performance. Everyone worked hard and put themselves about, a bit of the Chelsea spirit of old about. 

I actually thought Barca had done well to curb the blatant cheating/diving, then we went 1-0 up and it returned like magic. 

Suarez is still a detestable little c**t, one of the few people in world I’d love to just punch in the face. The only thing i’ll say is if the game is stopped when a player dives to try to win an advantage and a free kick is given to the opposition we’d have won. As it stands play went on and they still had an advantage despite blatant cheating. f**king annoying that one. 

3 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

That's a fine childish thing to do, editing someone's post. tosser!

Hahahhaha. Some piece of work. You do know that when you edit your post, it says "edited" just like the one on your post. 

I mean seriously, just f**k off

 

6 minutes ago, Osgood is Good said:

Understand your points, however, not playing the suicide pass, or kicking out/up field would not have resulted in a Barca goal from that situation.

Totally agree. Infact, every time we do the dance of death near our own box, I have my heart in my mouth. I would rather have someone like giroud to play upto. If not him, then an ivanovic.

Edited February 20, 20188 yr by didierforever

Night night ladies, sweet dreams in the land of the diving Basque, long live Antonio.

Just got back from the pub.
Interesting to hear people's thoughts?
What do people think here?
Personally, we did quite well in my opinion, obviously we have a disadvantage going into the second leg but it's not the end of the world. 

No , not the end of the world .  We have a punchers chance at the camp nou.

Edited February 20, 20188 yr by Phillip

Honestly, I can see us getting a result at Nou Camp.
Barca will probably be up for it, but no doubt this performance will have given the us a boost.
Bring on United, I say.

4 mistakes for their goal though. All 4 players can take a slice of the blame. Cannot make mistakes against a side like barca 

Christensen, Azpi, Fabregas and Courtois?

 

if so, i think that is harsh on Tibo.

Edited February 20, 20188 yr by Phillip

41 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

Just got in. Great atmosphere, everyone who went should be happy with that. Didn’t hear Barca fans until they scored and I was block 5 in the shed. 

Lots of criticism of the team/tactics going around but Conte got this spot on, bar Christensens mistake it was a near perfect performance. Everyone worked hard and put themselves about, a bit of the Chelsea spirit of old about. 

I actually thought Barca had done well to curb the blatant cheating/diving, then we went 1-0 up and it returned like magic. 

Suarez is still a detestable little c**t, one of the few people in world I’d love to just punch in the face. The only thing i’ll say is if the game is stopped when a player dives to try to win an advantage and a free kick is given to the opposition we’d have won. As it stands play went on and they still had an advantage despite blatant cheating. f**king annoying that one. 

Back home from the match myself too. I agree that the atmosphere was good, the shed and MH especially, but I was at the west upper surrounded by “supporters” that didn’t know our players... And I know of a barsa supporter that got a ticket to the shed. How on earth do these people get tickets while Chelsea fans struggle in the virtual waiting room? Something to look into for the new SB.

Anyway, I agree with you that Conte did a good job tonight with the tactics, except playing the false 9. Many times we found ourselves kicking a long ball to Hazard, who couldn’t bring the ball down and hold it for William and Pedro. I think that for that reason we didn’t see much of Hazard until Morata came on. In my opinion, we should have had a CF, Giroud or Morata, to play those long balls. But other than that, good tactical game by Conte and great performance by the players, tonight they’ve worked hard. A shame about the stupid mistake that led to their goal, but that came after that cheating barsteward of Suarez tried to con the ref.

By the way, why is it so easy to show a yellow card to Morata when that cheating c**t Suarez had protested the ref much louder minutes earlier and did not get any card? 

Maybe but he gambled and messi took advantage.

i think maybe christensen let the occasion get to him tonight. he looked a bit more nervy then usual. still a very solid performance overall. 

Back from the game watching from Matt Harding Upper. Good atmosphere, looked like we went with a team of runners with the plan of Cesc threading the ball through and using speed. Meant we had no focal point up front. If we had gone with a central striker Would we have banged it up to him and had Eden and Willi getting the knock downs and getting caught on the counter? 

If we had gone 1 or 2 down some people would have said Conte was naive. But for the mistake Courtois didn’t have to  make a save, we had the best chances and could have won the game with Antonio’s tactics and team selection. Don’t buy uefa scandals, however I’m glad these refs aren’t in the Prem. Some of the decisions tonight were a joke.

anybody think hazard was a bit meek today? it seemed like willian and pedro did most of the hard work up top, whereas hazard sat back a bit and let others do any pressing. maybe it was just because he was playing as the main man. i just wanted to see a little more from him and taking it to barca some more. 

We had absolutely no right to be as good as we were tonight; if you had told me before the game that my main reaction to the game would be 'we were unlucky not to beat them by 2 or more' I would never have believed it.

Oh, and Willian? Out of this world. 

35 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Maybe but he gambled and messi took advantage.

This is my main problem with Courtois, he doesn't make enough reflex saves. Even Caballero has made more reflex saves than Courtois has done this season. Either he doesn't have top reflexes or he doesn't trust them. That shot from Messi could have been saved if Courtois didn't guess.

 

1 hour ago, TomCFC85 said:

Just got back from the pub.
Interesting to hear people's thoughts?
What do people think here?
Personally, we did quite well in my opinion, obviously we have a disadvantage going into the second leg but it's not the end of the world. 

I thought we defended as excellently as we always do against Barcelona. If it wasn't for the mistake, we would have won the game, they weren't getting through. In the first half, i thought we made the most of the chances we had when we went forward, we were very unlucky not to score. In the second half, we needed a striker on earlier, our attacks fizzled out completely and we had no outlet. The false 9 was putting too much pressure on the defense, the attackers couldn't keep the ball long enough. This is why i hate the false 9 formation. Too often we go through periods where we don't see any of the ball or can't create any chances. It puts too much pressure on our defensive game. I understand not having much of the ball against Barcelona, but i'm seeing the same problem against weaker opposition too.

I'm sure Barcelona would have dominated the ball either way, but i think we may have done a bit better had there been a striker on the pitch. Seeing Courtois smash it up field back into Barcelona's possession again and again was frustrating to watch. A few flick on headers and a bit of hold up play from a striker would have been perfect for Hazard and Willian today.

Thought we played really well. Very disciplined and the team worked very hard. Great goal from Willian. A shame that his two shots in the first half hit the post. A great atmosphere in the ground, the best in a while. 

The back three of Dave, Christensen and Rudiger is, in my view, our best. A good balance of strength, speed and awareness. Christensen will be our captain in a few years time. I fancy us to get a result in Barcelona. Last time we went there we needed two goals. I think we'll play Giroud up front and give Pique a few problems. As for Suarez and Busquets - a couple of dirty cheating bastards.

1 hour ago, RMH said:

Back home from the match myself too. I agree that the atmosphere was good, the shed and MH especially, but I was at the west upper surrounded by “supporters” that didn’t know our players... And I know of a barsa supporter that got a ticket to the shed. How on earth do these people get tickets while Chelsea fans struggle in the virtual waiting room? Something to look into for the new SB.

Anyway, I agree with you that Conte did a good job tonight with the tactics, except playing the false 9. Many times we found ourselves kicking a long ball to Hazard, who couldn’t bring the ball down and hold it for William and Pedro. I think that for that reason we didn’t see much of Hazard until Morata came on. In my opinion, we should have had a CF, Giroud or Morata, to play those long balls. But other than that, good tactical game by Conte and great performance by the players, tonight they’ve worked hard. A shame about the stupid mistake that led to their goal, but that came after that cheating barsteward of Suarez tried to con the ref.

By the way, why is it so easy to show a yellow card to Morata when that cheating c**t Suarez had protested the ref much louder minutes earlier and did not get any card? 

One Barca fan in the shed? There were loads, always are. Tonight’s game is heaven for touts. I had the pleasure of West Upper for the United game so I feel your pain but even the East Stand were going for tonight!

I agree, Hazard came to life when Morata came on but I feel like that took the shackles off him a bit as he didn’t have to be the main man out there anymore. Unfortunately Pedro and Willian’s work rate are a million miles higher than Morata and there pace was invaluable to the counter attacking we were set up for.

Just got back..,where has that chelsea been for past few months...that Conte? Look, we still have a tough task ahead but Barcelona don't look as good as Barca teams we've knocked out before...it is still possible...Christensen cocked up but he will just use it to become even more of the dogs bollox than he already is...great to hear the Bridge  rocking again too - that passion has been missing most of the season in the stands too

There was a lot to like in that performance. The goal was unfortunate to concede, but it happens.

2 hours ago, enigma said:

i think maybe christensen let the occasion get to him tonight. he looked a bit more nervy then usual. still a very solid performance overall. 

Not really, he's always had trouble with his passing. People are just bewildered with how good he is at the age of 21 that they won't look at the negatives. 

Completely understandable also, he's superb, one of the few bright things about this season. 

However, if you watch his matches this season you'll notice he gives the ball away whenever he tries to play it forward, he can only play it safe, he's just not sound enough technically to play the ball from out the back. And tonight was his toughest test, defensively and offensively, he had to carry the ball properly and efficiently, he really struggled in that department, and he also had to defend against the best players in the world, he did that superbly like he has been doing all season. 

It comes to no surprise to me at all that he gave the ball away in a dangerous area, he was struggling with the ball all game, I'm surprised nobody in this thread mentioned it. Rudiger & Azpilcueta, on the other hand, were very comfortable, especially Rudiger. 

Lovely breakdown of the match from Ruud Gullit & Henrik Larsson

I just found this graphic & I had to add it here - just craziness if you think about it

Edited February 21, 20188 yr by robdog

Can't fault that display - was Proud of the team last night. Gutted we're not taking a 1-0 to the Nou Camp, but 1-1 is not the end of the world.

Conte obviously deliberated over that line-up and lost a lot of sleep! Hard to argue with it although I do think we'd have got a lot more out of Hazard if he had played Morata or Giroud instead of Pedro. But no complaints and it would be great to end that record of games unbeaten at the Nou Camp in 3 weeks time.

Can you imagine if Cahill or Bakayoko had made that error. The abuse...