Chelsea vs Slavia Prague (EL) Thurs 18th Apr 20:00 GMT

[evissy]

4 minutes ago, Jezq8 said:

We will be lucky to reach the final to be honest 

Who has told you we will make it. Some excellent teams here. Weird how people think we just walk into this final. 

[Jezq8]

1 minute ago, evissy said:

Who has told you we will make it. Some excellent teams here. Weird how people think we just walk into this final. 

Frankfurt are no mugs and will definitely cause us problems

[carrickblue]

Hadn't seen anythng of Frankfurt before tonight, they look like Watford so that'll be us out then 

[axman2526]

Dont fancy our chances against Frankfurt. Despite playing most of the away game with 10 men they went through against a decent Benfica. 

[Boston Blue]

Another wretched second half.  What goes on in the changing room at halftime?

[PloKoon13]

Was reminded of a far more depressing version of this:

 

Oddly almost exactly ten years to the day...

[dynamite]

Well we're through to another European SF. Pretty lousy 2nd half from us, that said I never once felt we were in danger of losing this tie. We need to improve on our consistency over the whole match though, we'll get punished in the SF if we switch off again like we did tonight. 

Anyway let's be positive, we're in another European SF and have a chance of another trophy. 

 

COME ON CHELSEA!!!! 

 

 

 

[M.M.B]

Oh well,

A wins a win.   Won the tie by 2 goals.

[Jezq8]

Just now, Boston Blue said:

Another wretched second half.  What goes on in the changing room at halftime?

Clearly something is not right as we seem to really screw up in the 2nd half of the majority of our games. Especially the first 15 mins.

[ForeverCarefree]

That game was a perfect microcosm of Chelsea under Sarri.

Hints of good football but so many negatives to take away from it.

I don’t understand why we’re so poor defending set pieces.

Uninspiring substitutions that do nothing to change what’s happening on the pitch.

I don’t understand why we insist on playing a high line, even when winning.

I don’t understand allowing opponents so much time and space on the ball in our half.

Kepa can go from looking awesome to awful in a blink of an eye.

Kovacic just isn’t particularly good at anything.

Barkley sums up why Everton finish mid table all the time.

Luiz just loves hoofing the ball 60 yards regardless of if it passes to a player or not.

Giroud fades after 60 minutes.

Pedro works hard but his best days are clearly behind him now.

Emerson is just as much a defensive liability as Alonso.

Glad we went through but f**k me, if we’re struggling against Prague what’s a decent team going to do when they get hold of us? Frankfurt will be fancying their chances against us.

[Spiller86]

Glad to make it through after that second half after essentially not turning up. The same old weak mentality and lack of leadership nearly killed us.

I was very glad when Sarri took Hazard off he was strolling and actually stood and watched the second long range strike instead of challenging. Callum strolled when he came on too. f**k we need a JT figure in the dressing room to insert his foot up the arses of some of these blokes.

Lots cheering Frankfurt instead of Benfica, let me say I've watched them a few times this season and they are pefectly set up to take advantage of our weaknesses. Lightning counter attack side. If Jovic, Haller and Rebic start breaking into our backfield they will expose our soft underbelly big time. We should be wary and it will be a very tough tie.

[carrickblue]

We're through - something to brighten up the week 

[charierre]

Horrendous second half. We lack balls when it's needed, no mental strength. No captain on the field of any leaders. The number of goals we concede from the left and corners needs rectifying. As for the second halves of games, what the duck does Sarri say to the team at half time,we are serially bad between the 46th and 60th minutes. This down to the coach to install the right attitude.

 

[Boston Blue]

Jose once said we were a little horse.  We've regressed to being a mule.

Edited April 18, 2019 by Boston Blue

[axman2526]

3 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Glad to make it through after that second half after essentially not turning up. The same old weak mentality and lack of leadership nearly killed us.

I was very glad when Sarri took Hazard off he was strolling and actually stood and watched the second long range strike instead of challenging. Callum strolled when he came on too. f**k we need a JT figure in the dressing room to insert his foot up the arses of some of these blokes.

Lots cheering Frankfurt instead of Benfica, let me say I've watched them a few times this season and they are pefectly set up to take advantage of our weaknesses. Lightning counter attack side. If Jovic, Haller and Rebic start breaking into our backfield they will expose our soft underbelly big time. We should be wary and it will be a very tough tie.

Much rather have played Benfica. Think our chances would be better.

 

5 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

That game was a perfect microcosm of Chelsea under Sarri.

Hints of good football but so many negatives to take away from it.

I don’t understand why we’re so poor defending set pieces.

Uninspiring substitutions that do nothing to change what’s happening on the pitch.

I don’t understand why we insist on playing a high line, even when winning.

I don’t understand allowing opponents so much time and space on the ball in our half.

Kepa can go from looking awesome to awful in a blink of an eye.

Kovacic just isn’t particularly good at anything.

Barkley sums up why Everton finish mid table all the time.

Luiz just loves hoofing the ball 60 yards regardless of if it passes to a player or not.

Giroud fades after 60 minutes.

Pedro works hard but his best days are clearly behind him now.

Emerson is just as much a defensive liability as Alonso.

Glad we went through but f**k me, if we’re struggling against Prague what’s a decent team going to do when they get hold of us? Frankfurt will be fancying their chances against us.

This team lost 4-0 at flippin Bournemouth. We can make anyone look great.

[abramovich]

14 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Good first half, terrible second. Play like that in the semi final and final (if we get there) and we'll seriously struggle to win this competition.

You're being kind. We won't just struggle, we'll get soundly beaten whenever we finally encounter a serious side, they'll punish us. 

I'm still convinced we won't win the EL. Nothing in tonight's game convinced me otherwise. 

 

Edited April 18, 2019 by abramovich

[adineen98]

That was very poor when you consider how comfortable we were in the first half. How and why we constantly make average sides look great is beyond me.

[big blue]

Really not confident of beating Frankfurt over 2 legs, and then beating arsenal in the final. 

Best chance we've got of champions league though now unfortunately. 

[Spiller86]

14 minutes ago, Jezq8 said:

 kepa seems to be suspect with saving long high shots 

Didn't help Kepa that we stood and watched both shots but I've said from the start that he is too short to be a proper PL keeper. He is very average in my view. Saves what he is expected to but doesn't dominate the box and doesn't have the reach/De Gea spring against the long rangers. 

It's an indictment on our recruitment team that we knew Courtois was leaving in April and that we made no play for Alisson who ended up joining Liverpool for less money.

2 minutes ago, charierre said:

Horrendous second half. We lack balls when it's needed, no mental strength. No captain on the field of any leaders. The number of goals we concede from the left and corners needs rectifying. As for the second halves of games, what the duck does Sarri say to the team at half time,we are serially bad between the 46th and 60th minutes. This down to the coach to install the right attitude.

I'm not sure it's all down to the coach, the sh*t attitude has been there for years. Nothing is being done to address it through recruitment either. Hazard essentially didn't bother after halftime. He's a great player but f**k others spend a lot of time covering for the bits he can't be arsed to do.

[carrickblue]

If I heard Sarri right he's said that he knew before the game started that the second half would be difficult for us because Slavia run a lot with lots of players. 

He never makes eye contact in those post match interviews.  I wonder is he like that with the players 

[robdog]

our next opponents are hyped up

 

[WhiteWall]

One of the most inept performances i have seen for a long time. I cannot think of a single creditable thing that our defenders have doen tomnight, either defensivley or when in possession. Thank God Giroud led the line like a proper striker and Pedro's running off the ball worked. I dread to think where we'd be if it weren't for those first 20 odd mins

[Jackson27]

I Didn't Watch The Game, But Was The Second Half Another Performance As Per Usual With Not Even Turning Up And Constantly Pissing Ourselves Whenever The Opposition Attack??

[the real shed end]

Pretty good first half.

Then came the team talk and it all went sour. 

Why when the opposition has a corner do we bring everyone back in the final third.

We have no outlet apart from dribbling it out and putting ourselves under constant pressure until we f**k up.

Just one issue among many which I put down to Sarri.

Came out they game feeling like we lost.

Anyway Burnley Monday for 90 mins of Sarri ball

[rtwelch]

I think we need to buy a captain. Not exactly easy but someone to get us through these slumps