I'm afraid we were let down with the 2 legs, mainly because those 2 legs belonged to Thibaut Courtois...

Just like on the international scene our Belgians can talk a better game than produce when it matters. 

I get that everyone thinks Lionel Messi is good but Gary Lineker is utterly nauseating.

Was obvious once we ruined our good performance in the firs leg with that dumb goal that this fixture was a gonner....sadly. 

We certainly have shown fight and determination. We wanted to see this from this team. We now fight for FA cup (Haha!) and for top four. 

Yeah these Belguim players are starting to look like the England players early 2000s, the so called Golden generation. 

My personal highlight was the referee doing the 'gobsh*te' hand gesture in Messi's face in the first half.

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Thought we played really well but again not clinical enough in front of goal and doesn't help when Tibo is giving them gift after gift. 

 

I didn't miss anything.
They did however, that is why they hit the woodwork.

It's a bit harsh to call hitting them 'misses' though, although that fits in with the usual attitude around here.

Individual errors over both legs killed us. We didn't have luck on our side either, and we got punished. 

Going forward we lack quality from the wing backs, especially moses, and although giroud is doing the basics better than morata at the moment, he still is no where near good enough at this stage of the champions league. 

Courtois was terrible. Really losing my patience with him now. Fabregas is a shadow of the footballer he was last season, it's not down to effort, he just hasn't got enough in the tank to do his defensive duties and contribute heavily going forward. 

Hazard turned up for 20 mins, as soon as it went 2 nil, his head went down. He may have his head turned by madrid, but I'm sure madrid will look at his he played tonight, and will question whether he would be worth a big fee. 

Overall I'm fairly proud of the perfomance we put in, id rather we go out having at least tried to take the game to them. 

On a side note, that was a top refereeing perfomance. Let a fair bit go, and didn't get influenced by the diving and moaning.

Just now, coco said:

Yeah these Belguim players are strating to look like the England players early 200's, the so called Golden generation. 

With Martinez as manager as well - what could go wrong??

What a crap season.

Can't complain too much about the outcome, scoreline flatters them a little, but at least we gave it a go. Major difference between the sides is when the chances fell to Barca there was no faffing about, they (well Messi mainly) was quick and decisive and just pulled the f**king trigger. Too many times we dicked about, took too many touches and just lacked the quality to take advantage of the situations we were in.

Tonight highlighted again the areas we need improvement the most. Middle of the park beside Kante (Fabregas is done and nothing else we have is good enough), right WB (if we are to persist with the current formation) and, mainly, a striker. Giroud tries, no doubting his attitude (which has surpirsed me to be honest) but lacks the quality at this level, and Morata is not worth wasting time complaining about anymore.

I really don't think Eden has the mentality to move to the next level he seems like his mentality is weak, he doesn't have that ego like Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo does that arrogance that "I know I will do you mate"

1 minute ago, bluedave said:

 

It's a bit harsh to call hitting them 'misses' though, although that fits in with the usual attitude around here.

 

It fits in with the usual narrative around here because we're clearly struggling to score lately, we're not punishing teams, we're not being clinical.
No matter how many times we have near misses and woodwork hits, say what you want, they still aren't goals and they don't win us matches. 

Thank god we have Kante, a beast of a player.

Moses is good at everything that he is asked to do as a wing back except one fairly 8mportant thing, the final ball, it stinks.

The magic went out of Fabs magic hat some time ago. No longer suited to the prem or big European nights. Hope he moves on in the summer.

Willian has been playing well of late and he is a lot of people’s darling. I was never a big fan and his attitude sometimes pisses me of at the end of matches when he trail. I lot of gesturing, and arm waving when he thinks he may have been fouled. Still probably one of our best players tonight.

Hazard, after a bright start just faded, doesn’t seem to be able to carry a team even with all his skill. Very fusstating tonight.

Coutrois has went backwards this pass too seasons. Don’t know what his problem is, maybe just looking out. With performances like this and others recently no big club will come in for him.

Overall is was the result I expected but i was generally  pleased with the performance as we did attack. Would rather see us setting up like this in a match than the way we did at home in the first leg or against city.

Hazard very disappointing to say the least. Went missing at times in that game. There is Messi a the top of the tree, Ronaldo behind him, and then the rest. 

A stat that is frustrating and mis leading is personal and team distance covered. If a player or team run more or the same as the opposition but it ends up being slower so not getting to a player or the ball it’s irrelevant.

Hazard let himself down in that game he's a nobody compared to Messi or Ronaldo and probably a few others. He and Courtois need to stop believing their own hype.  

Player Ratings

Courtois - 2/10 - Poor for all 3 goals. Passed the ball straight to Suarez to try and get help them out even more. Looked like conceding at every shot.
Rudiger - 6.5/10 - Fairly solid, though he gave away a lot of fouls going for headers and it was his position where Dembele ran in for the 2nd
Christensen - 5.5/10 - Looked a bit shaky on the ball and missed the key challenge for the 2nd goal
Azpilicueta - 6.5/10 - Showed leadership, but again he missed a key tackle with the 2nd goal and - though it was a shocking pass from Courtois - was caught on his heels by Suarez
Alonso - 7.5/10 - Caused them problems down the left and should have got the ball out there more toward the end instead of giving it to Moses and Zappacosta, but he was probably knackered
Kante - 8/10 - Not great first half, but he was basically playing midfield by himself against 2 midfielders and Messi dropping deep, and he still managed to win the ball back and bring it forward many times
Fabregas - 3/10 - Awful, awful passing. Slow, lethergic. Should be a bench player, but we've got f**k all options this season. Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Barkley are hardly world class.
Moses - 4/10 - Terrible crosses, as per every game. Completely done by the run for the 3rd goal.
Hazard - 5/10 - A few good runs, but went missing for large parts of the game. Aimless flicks for the cameras going nowhere. Needed to stand up and be counted and he didn't.
Giroud - 5.5/10 - Won a few headers, didn't really do much else
Willian - 8/10 - Everything good we did came through him

Subs:

Zappacosta - 6/10 - Should have started over Moses probably
Morata - 5/10 - Didn't really do anything
Pedro - N/A

Antonio Conte - 5/10 - Could he have started Zappacosta? Could he have put someone else in instead of Fabregas? He can't legislate for individual mistakes or horrendous goalkeeping, but I still feel he could have done better, if he's this so-called tactical genius that people seem to think he is.
 

I miss Costa 

Was very surprised how high up the pitch we played I know we needed a goal but we really went for it and at times were controlling the game. Think before hand everyone was expecting us to sit behind the ball and counter but we went toe to toe with them, who knows on another day we take those chances and tibo actually turns up and we win that game.

This might cheer us up a bit:

 

I don't care who wins the CL this season - anybody except Liverpool will do me 

Not getting into a character assassination of Cortouis, today two shots at him he should save with his feet at the very least or make himself bigger not with legs planted wide apart.