Valencia are through, us and Arsenal have one foot through the door, Benfica and Frankfurt balanced finely as 2 away goals and the Germans firepower make it interesting.

Alonso was frustrating me quite a bit at the beginning of the match... had to stop watching to do some work and I turn the match back on and BOOM Marcos freaking Alonso! And Kepa with SAVE AFTER SAVE AFTER SAVE! Huge away win! 

Good result. 

Perfomance was pretty awful. 

Shocking performance, good result.

Sarri once again tactically outcoached by a manager with far less resources. If Slavia had just a bit more individual quality upfront, it would have been a loss, and deservingly so.

A number of players have been absolutely terrible. Alonso, despite the goal, Kovacic, the lord of all that's useless, and Pedro, who should have stayed in London for all the good he's done tonight.

 

I was really hoping Napoli put arsenal out. 

Imagine us finishing 4th, then losing to arsenal in the Europa league final, and then an English side winning the champions league. It would mean us not qualifying for CL. 

The stuff of nightmares! 

Utter gash as usual but hey ho, we’re through to the semi final. Sarriballl becomes clearer. It’s a system of doing sort of alright through terrible mediocrity. Such lofty aspirations at the club now.

The right team was picked tonight but really it is the team from hell. No cohesion in midfield, little attacking threat and really poor all across the pitch. We have though got the win which was all important. Bar the second leg we should now be sending out the strongest team for the remainder of the season if we are to end up with any prizes at the end. Hopefully the transfer ban will be postponed for now and about six of tonights team need to be shown the door.

Some header for a left back, first time Willian has put in a good cross this season and look at the result, I always wonder why lower level teams are such good crossers and we aren’t, anyway job done.

Board need a serious look at that dross we have in the squad, the new look 11 is so much better than this lot. 

I predicted a 3-1 shows how much I know forgot how piss poor we can be With the wrong selections 

Edited April 11, 20197 yr by WalterWhiteCFC

Classic smash n grab away win, total pants through most of the game. Seems CFC like the 1-0 away wins in Czech Republic. 

Only Kepa from the starters deserves a mention, well I suppose Alonso as well  for the header and precious away goal. 

Need a HUGE improvement come Sunday or it wont be pretty.

3 minutes ago, big blue said:

I was really hoping Napoli put arsenal out. 

Imagine us finishing 4th, then losing to arsenal in the Europa league final, and then an English side winning the champions league. It would mean us not qualifying for CL. 

The stuff of nightmares! 

We would still qualify for the Champions League, as long as both teams that win the European competitions didn't finish outside of the top 4.

Job done and we managed to keep a lot of key players fresh for Sunday.

It's almost a given now that if Hazard, RLC and CHO aren't on the pitch, we are unlikely to score a goal. Pedro and Kovacic were shocking tonight but it doesn't matter, bar a major slip up in the second leg, we are through to the semi's.

Should we rename this The Negativity Forum. I'm past fed up with it. Good to see two scapegoats combining to give us an edge come next week.

Pleased for Alonso, well taken header and a forward run with intent when we needed it. Very poor first half from him but hopefully that's a confidence boost for future appearances. Would much prefer Emerson for the Liverpool game though.

Thought Willian for his creativity and Jorginho for his marshalling stood out over the 90, but it was a very forgettable team performance against a really fired up Czech side. 

Such a quality difference in Loftus Cheek and Hazard in particular over Barkley and Pedro too. Probably Pedro's worst game in a Chelsea shirt, their left back gave him nothing.

Anyway, another important win, the away goal's always significant and hopefully we can push on with this lead in the home leg and get to the semi final. 

Big weekend ahead, no rest really but confidence should be good and we're starting to pick up big results, absolutely capable of taking points from Anfield regardless of their form.

And for that small group of racist "fans" filmed, hope they're promptly banned by the club. No place at any football club for people like that, the sooner that message sinks in the better.

So are you blaming the tactics or our terrible players?

Edited April 11, 20197 yr by rtwelch

Job done. We used to specialize in playing sh*t, boring football and still winning under Mourinho so all the Sarri-out brigade must have loved that.

 

1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

We would still qualify for the Champions League, as long as both teams that win the European competitions didn't finish outside of the top 4.

Ah your right. So it would have to be United or spurs winning the champions league. I can sell a little easier! 

Glenn Hoddle is the only pundit I have seen wishing for Hazard to stay at Chelsea. Every other one has been wishing him away to Real Madrid. The Premier League needs players like Hazard.

Job done. B team got the result.

Only issue I have is now it seems likely Higuain plays against liverpool. Would much rather Giroud start that one.

2 minutes ago, rtwelch said:

So are you blaming the tactics or our terrible players?

Both. Certain players aren't good enough for a club like Chelsea, but Sarri's incompetence is making us look much worse than we really are. Slavia's gameplan was near perfect tactically, they just couldn't execute it in terms of goals due to the lack of individual quality, but their team performance was outstanding.

1 minute ago, EmeraldBlue said:

Should we rename this The Negativity Forum. I'm past fed up with it. Good to see two scapegoats combining to give us an edge come next week.

They were poor, what do you want us to do, ignore their performances and just say nothing, or would you prefer us to lie and say they played well? Wouldn't be much of a forum if we didn't say how we feel. 

The forum was pretty positive against West Ham and Brighton unless you missed it.

A truly awful game to watch, but ultimately job done - we secured the away win (and a clean sheet) with minimal effort expended.

I'm really starting to think that there's a case to be made for Alonso being the best natural finisher in the squad...

30 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Shocking performance, good result.

Sarri once again tactically outcoached by a manager with far less resources. If Slavia had just a bit more individual quality upfront, it would have been a loss, and deservingly so.

A number of players have been absolutely terrible. Alonso, despite the goal, Kovacic, the lord of all that's useless, and Pedro, who should have stayed in London for all the good he's done tonight.

 

I don't think players misplacing passes all over the pitch had anything to do with Sarri. This performance was on the players in my mind.

Amazing how much some will read into a performance that has no relevance whatsoever. Job done is all that matters, and you gotta love the economy of it. We almost shouldn’t have wanted a good performance tonight. 

Chelsea fans in the news again caught on video chanting against Mo Salah with derogatory   racist chants, why can’t they get over this right wing sh*te and just watch football. 

I never understood  it travelling thousands of miles to watch and support black players then try and make a show of how racist you are? Confused arseholes, think Bill Bright is a role model, I wonder if they know the Chelsea top boy from the right wing days used to shag young lads? Maybe even black ones 

Nice to have some consistency at last, 4 wins on the trot, lovely.