I'll be there. In the clouds. Just hope the team does us proud!

If we somehow manage to get passed Barcelona into the next round, just how sweet will it be, knowing we got this far being in awful form this season, while Spurs got knocked out while "according to the media" being the best thing since sliced bread!

The Fighting Cock would be some acquired reading for sure!

The players need to watch the 2012 game against Barca away and try to replicate the fight which that team showed if we want to stand any chance of making the quarter finals.

On 06/03/2018 at 15:45, coco said:

I’ll be there with my binoculars.... any idea of any meeting areas for the Chelsea fans in Barca in the day on Wednesday ? 

Given we have to score, Barca taking a 1-0 lead won't actually change that much. So while it's 0-0 we should be more attacking and try and cancel out Messi's away goal.

From what i can remember we have drew 1-1 at home in the first leg twice before and both times won 2-1 away at Arsenal and Valencia with the goals coming at remarkably similar times (the home side scoring just before half time, us equalising just after half time then scoring a late winner).

Looks like Iniesta faces a race against time to be fit for this one. He got injured over the weekend against Atletico and is a huge doubt for this.

3 hours ago, STATS said:

Looks like Iniesta faces a race against time to be fit for this one. He got injured over the weekend against Atletico and is a huge doubt for this.

Kind of a double edged sword this one. As good  great as Iniesta is, he looked very poor defensively. So many times our mids/defenders just went past him. Willian had a complete day out against him. Put rakitic next to Busquets and barca do get some legs in their mid. 

Also, i found it weird but I felt barca played 4-4-2 with Messi and Suarez uptop and Iniesta and Busquets in the mid and paulinho and rakitic on the wings rather than their traditional 4-3-3.

This is a game which can save our season, beating Barcelona would be an achievement and it's POSSIBLE! 

We should be realistic, our football isn't that good at the last few months, our attack doesn't really score the goals, we conceding goals and we're out of top 4, I know. But for this game, we need our big blue heart, if we will come hungry, motivated and coming to play and bomb them, then I'm sure we will win this game. You know what? Even if we will lose, but we could see the effort from the players, we could see that they wanted and tried, then I believe we all will respect them for this, but not perform like we did against Manchester City, it's not a game and not a way to play. 

We have experienced players, we have quality players, we have our star player, we have a lot of fans which will support the team - doesn't matter where, when and how! All we need is motivation and heart, we're coming as an underdog but we can get out of Camp Nou as big winners because we are ones! 

 

Just to remind you about this match!

COME ON CHELS!!!!

false 9 and conte waiting until the 80th minute to take of hazard and put a striker on? please conte do not let chelsea get knocked out like this

3 hours ago, IliyaKrostin said:

This is a game which can save our season, beating Barcelona would be an achievement and it's POSSIBLE! 

We should be realistic, our football isn't that good at the last few months, our attack doesn't really score the goals, we conceding goals and we're out of top 4, I know. But for this game, we need our big blue heart, if we will come hungry, motivated and coming to play and bomb them, then I'm sure we will win this game. You know what? Even if we will lose, but we could see the effort from the players, we could see that they wanted and tried, then I believe we all will respect them for this, but not perform like we did against Manchester City, it's not a game and not a way to play. 

We have experienced players, we have quality players, we have our star player, we have a lot of fans which will support the team - doesn't matter where, when and how! All we need is motivation and heart, we're coming as an underdog but we can get out of Camp Nou as big winners because we are ones! 

 

Just to remind you about this match!

COME ON CHELS!!!!

I love the enthusiasm. The thing is, this current team isn't anything like that one. For a start you had 3, maybe 4 leaders in that 2011-2012 team. Fight, passion, determination, experience and quality. 

sad but so true 

Neville's orgasm at the end always gives me the chills, in a good way.

don't expect anything from this one, so a result will chuff the f out of me !!

4 hours ago, Famous CFC said:

I love the enthusiasm. The thing is, this current team isn't anything like that one. For a start you had 3, maybe 4 leaders in that 2011-2012 team. Fight, passion, determination, experience and quality. 

We can dress it up like that but the reality was we were crap in 2012 and got all the lucky breaks when we needed them. Our 2009 side would suit that description more but ofcourse, history only remembers the winners.

This team may not have the leaders from the 2012 team but this team has more talent and pace to hurt Barca. In the first leg we created many opportunities and on another day could have won 3-0 or 3-1 but such is our luck this season . If we show the right attitude we can definitely score more than 1 at the Camp Nou. The players seem more motivated in the CL & understandably so. I think 2 goals would do it for us, i don't think we'll concede more than 2. Going for a 2 all draw. Goodluck blues.

On ?09?/?03?/?2018 at 05:01, didierforever said:

Kind of a double edged sword this one. As good  great as Iniesta is, he looked very poor defensively. So many times our mids/defenders just went past him. Willian had a complete day out against him. Put rakitic next to Busquets and barca do get some legs in their mid. 

Also, i found it weird but I felt barca played 4-4-2 with Messi and Suarez uptop and Iniesta and Busquets in the mid and paulinho and rakitic on the wings rather than their traditional 4-3-3.

They have been playing 4-4-2 for virtually the whole season. While they still play fluid football, Valverde has focused on making the team a lot better defensively and more compact. They have the best defensive record in Europe I am sure. Domestic and Champions League and they are still unbeaten. But, still a bonus, that is 2 creative players they will not have available in Coutinho and Iniesta.

Messi has withdrawn from this weekends squad for personal reason apparently. I bet they don’t continue on to Wednesday and he’ll be nice and rested. 

1 hour ago, Munkworth said:

Messi has withdrawn from this weekends squad for personal reason apparently. I bet they don’t continue on to Wednesday and he’ll be nice and rested. 

It was due to the birth of his son.

4 hours ago, rtwelch said:

It was due to the birth of his son.

Let’s hope it’s a long drawn out labour 

Here we come Barcelona! Be ready! COME ON CHELS!!!

7 hours ago, Munkworth said:

Messi has withdrawn from this weekends squad for personal reason apparently. I bet they don’t continue on to Wednesday and he’ll be nice and rested. 

And they are currently up 2-0 against malaga and playing against ten men after 29 mins.  While we just scarapped with Palace. Pedro was rested today so i guess its false 9. SMH

Messi gets a 10 day rest and the games after his previous sons were born he scored a barce and a Hatrick.  I am truly scared for this match

Edited March 10, 20188 yr by The Don Antonio

The only justification I can see for a false 9 instead of starting Giroud is that we maybe have a fraction more defensively with Pedro, Willian and Hazard than we would with Giroud. 

Hard to muster any optimism for this one. We need a miracle, shades of 2012

first leg I thought, after the two back to back defeats to dross watford and bournemouth, we'd get destroyed ... it ended up 1-1 with two posts and an overall fcuking great performance !!

This game : we suffered back to back losses to manchesters, one being embarassing (city) ... trying not to expect anything in order to avoid being disapointed. BUT, after seeing our first leg game, I know that our guys can pull off a great upset ! Que sera sera ... I have the feeling this will be a very tight game, whoever wins! UTC!!

Edited March 10, 20188 yr by Londonisblue

19 hours ago, Preno11 said:

This team may not have the leaders from the 2012 team but this team has more talent and pace to hurt Barca. In the first leg we created many opportunities and on another day could have won 3-0 or 3-1 but such is our luck this season . If we show the right attitude we can definitely score more than 1 at the Camp Nou. The players seem more motivated in the CL & understandably so. I think 2 goals would do it for us, i don't think we'll concede more than 2. Going for a 2 all draw. Goodluck blues.

Sorry fella, but I'm not having that it's luck that's the reason we're not scoring. We've created plenty of half chances and better, we just can't hit a cows arse with a banjo. Tonight was another example of missing chance after chance. And if you're bringing luck into it, well tonight we got two goals from around 30 efforts and they were a deflection and a comedy own goal.