I'm not confident but I'm hopeful.

I've been ripping it out of the Spurs and United fans I know, so that will probably be biting my arse hard at 10pm tonight. 

Ah f**k it.

Come on Chelsea!!!!!

Hopefully we won't use the False 9 tonight, I'd rather have Giroud up top for our attacking players to work off.

The midfield will be interesting, will Antonio bring Bakayoko in alongside Kante? He was great against Atletico Madrid earlier in the season. I know most have written him off but the potential is there somewhere.

Use Zappa and Emerson as the wingbacks aswell, I want us to be a danger to Barca rather than sitting back.

Edited March 14, 20188 yr by Malcolm9

I had a dream we won 3-1 last night, I feel like we could sneak through tonight! 

35 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

I had a dream we won 3-1 last night, I feel like we could sneak through tonight! 

Don't spoil my 'through on away goals' scenario 

1 hour ago, EdinburghBlue said:

I had a dream we won 3-1 last night, I feel like we could sneak through tonight! 

I have a feeling akin to the Munich game. We had JT, Iva, meireles, Ramires suspended, 2 defenders starting who had not played in a month or longer, bosingwa, betrand (debut?) on the pitch, and yet had a good feeling. Have a similar feeling today. We can nick something out of this game, we definitely have the players for it (Willian, hazard). Just need to keep our heads.

I have my prediction, I can see Barca scoring first through an own goal lets say Rudiger, it's the 91st minute and from nowhere Kante boots the ball up their end, Giroud heads in the equaliser, it goes to extra time, Messi hits the bar, a goal by Pedro is disallowed.........it goes to god damn penalties. We win 4-3 Messi and Suarez fu*k up and we knock out Barca....AGAIN!

COME ON CHELSEAAAAAAAAAAA!   

Not sure what to expect 

I am hopeful, but not getting my hopes up......if thay makes sense 

It's not going to make for easy viewing tonight.

Backs to wall, sat deep, essentially playing a back five and on the rare occasions we'll turn over possession the ball is going to be moved forward quickly and directly to the front three to try and muster something together. 

The Guardian's Dominic Fifield is reporting that we look set to start with a front three of Hazard, Willian and Giroud with the acceptance that Giroud will be best suited to trying to hold up play and bring others in. 

Central midfield could be interesting, Fabregas has been playing a lot of football of late but could we be set to see a recall of Bakayoko tonight?

I'm intrigued to see who the back three will be, Rudiger sat out the Palace game so will he come in for Cahill or will the captain retain his place? Or will he maybe be shifted to the centre of the three with the (recently) error prone Christensen dropping out the side? 

I'd like to see Zappacosta retain his place, I thought he performed well against Palace but fully expect Moses to start... Who to be fair was defensively very solid in the first leg. 

Considering putting some money on Morata getting booked tonight, it's about as close to a sure thing as you can get. 

KTBFFH. 

33 minutes ago, Zola said:

Not sure what to expect 

I am hopeful, but not getting my hopes up......if thay makes sense 

Give me some time to figure it out 

Will require a massive effort.

But the clubs entire focus (if it wasn't at the start of the season) has to be on success in the Champions League.

We must be Chelsea and deliver on the big occasion: AGAIN.

I'm going 2-1 Chelsea, Willian to score first.

Nightmare scenario, we score first through Willian’s epic counter attack in first half, Morata gets a petulant yellow card after complaining about not getting a free kick.

Around 65 mins, Morata gets tackled and it’s a stonewall penalty. Referee denies, Morata loses his sh*t and chases the referee, second yellow card.

Messi scores after a mistake by one of our defenders, and in injury time Suarez dives in the box and gets a penalty.

Messi to put Barcelona through... Courtois saves! We are through!

Courtois

Azpi  Christensen  Rudiger

Moses  Kante  Cesc  Baka  Alonso

Eden  Willian

Match  day and feeling nervous.Tough as it gets but you never know.My face is still hurting from laughing at Spuds and Manc fans crying lol.Grandson having a great time out in Barca,hope we win for him.Whatever the outcome.....COME ON YOU BLUES !

I'm always excited about playing the big teams, especially this lot. However this year it's feels different, even with a years absence, it doesn't feel as exciting as it should. 

 

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Courtois

Azpi  Christensen  Rudiger

Moses  Kante  Cesc  Baka  Alonso

Eden  Willian

I could go along with this team if Baka could be trusted

1 hour ago, coco said:

I'm always excited about playing the big teams, especially this lot. However this year it's feels different, even with a years absence, it doesn't feel as exciting as it should. 

 

Oh yes it does lol

On 3/13/2018 at 00:23, The Don Antonio said:

Without context??? We were better first half and they were better second half. They also had a goal wrongly disallowed. You are right we battered them but it only counts on the goals column not shots on target.  Same way we battered Barca in the first leg by striking both posts but ended up tying the game..  

     All in all i just hope we take our chances against barca 

Bro, we battered Palace. I would argue it was one of our best games lately. Take a look at the xG and see - we created 3.8 worth of goals (essentially 4), discounting the own goal. So base upon that, a more apt result should have been 5-1. Despite the own goals, we have no luck this season. Same against Arsenal - we sould have won twice and drew once, instead drew twice and lost one. Against Barca we created far less chances. Also, Courtois certainly contributed his part in them scoring...

Regardless of that, a very tough game tonight. Can we win? Yes. But it will be very difficult... Interesting to see which individuals Conte would opt and in what formation.

Image by  Caley Graphics

GAME DAY!!!! Everyone expects us to go out tonight. Everyone not connected with our wonderful (but sometimes f**king frustrating) club want us to go out tonight. Just imagine how sweet it would be for us to go through, while knocking out the UEFA darlings Barcelona! Spurs and United forums would go into melt down! Come on you f**king blue beauties, LETS SMASH THOSE TIPPY TAPPY PANSIES! KTBFFH!!!!

11 minutes ago, Hemel Blue said:

I could go along with this team if Baka could be trusted

I think in a similar role to what he played against Spurs and Utd he could do well and offer a physical presence

Loving these new Chelsea gifs
You can use them for any scenario
"When @yorkleyblue and @RIP Mourinho argue"

6 minutes ago, TomCFC85 said:

Loving these new Chelsea gifs
You can use them for any scenario
"When @yorkleyblue and @RIP Mourinho argue"

Aww bless you little Tommy, but I refuse to argue with anyone who believes that Hollywood films are a justification for any opinion whatsoever, no matter how silly.  I expect he believes that people can really fly based on Superman or something. :)

11 minutes ago, TomCFC85 said:

Loving these new Chelsea gifs
You can use them for any scenario
"When @yorkleyblue and @RIP Mourinho argue"

Luiz looks okay there. Any chance of a shock recall tonight? Would love to see him in the midfield alongside Kante.

 

2 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Aww bless you little Tommy, but I refuse to argue with anyone who believes that Hollywood films are a justification for any opinion whatsoever, no matter how silly.  I expect he believes that people can really fly based on Superman or something. :)

Still hiding behind that and not seeing the bigger picture when other people brought up the same point. Mental to think that films can be based on real life. Suppose motion picture is new to you, being born when you only has oil paintings available.  

 

( @TomCFC85 look what you've started now )

Kante needs to be all over Messi like a rash.

Abit like the first leg.

 

2 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

I think in a similar role to what he played against Spurs and Utd he could do well and offer a physical presence

Not played since the Watford debacle,would be surprised to see him tbh