ahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahah...alhilal!

Such a nice hotel Citeh were staying in too 😁

Congrats to Silva. Still amazing defender

6 hours ago, acaeus said:

I'm going to disagree with you there. I thought Fluminense was the better side today, even if Inter, like you said, could have scored. They just turned up way too late esp in the second half -- did nothing for the first 30 min.

The problem here is that Fluminense isn't the top team in south america. It's not even the top 5 in Brazil! It's really a mid table team with ageing players in several positions. They are nothing like Flamengo or Palmeiras.

My take is that Inter is really not a very good team. They managed to be competitive during the CL run, got lucky being on the right side of the bracket and playing a talented but naive young side (Barca), but were found out when played PSG. I honestly don't see a whole lot of quality in that team: their best player is Lautaro who goes missing often. They just play way too slow for me.

I don't disagree with any of this. My point really was to illustrate that the punditry needs to check itself a bit. There needs to be some acknowledgement that Inter clearly looked totally knackered. I am not sure if Man City found themselves in a similar situation. We have certainly looked mentally tired throughout this tournament with the amount of misplaced passes and unforced errors that we have made.

28 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

I don't disagree with any of this. My point really was to illustrate that the punditry needs to check itself a bit. There needs to be some acknowledgement that Inter clearly looked totally knackered. I am not sure if Man City found themselves in a similar situation. We have certainly looked mentally tired throughout this tournament with the amount of misplaced passes and unforced errors that we have made.

Ah very true.; the announcers are basically promoting the thing non-stop. They also ignore the adverse conditions, even when it's clearly affecting the quality of the football being played. Officiating is all over the place too. Some are suggesting moving WC games to 9am next year...

Inter looks in disarray: Lauraro is openly criticizing teammates, which is never a good sign despite how right he may be.

Agreed. City does not have such excuse; they weren't that tired, have plenty of new faces, and needed to prove themselves after a poor season. Pep hasn't been able to get them rolling yet.

I wonder if having such a young squad isn't advantageous in situations like these.
The limited roster did not help earlier when we were pushing for top4, but perhaps now It’s time for the young players to show those extra legs.

6 minutes ago, acaeus said:

Ah very true.; the announcers are basically promoting the thing non-stop. They also ignore the adverse conditions, even when it's clearly affecting the quality of the football being played. Officiating is all over the place too. Some are suggesting moving WC games to 9am next year...

Inter looks in disarray: Lauraro is openly criticizing teammates, which is never a good sign despite how right he may be.

Agreed. City does not have such excuse; they weren't that tired, have plenty of new faces, and needed to prove themselves after a poor season. Pep hasn't been able to get them rolling yet.

I wonder if having such a young squad isn't advantageous in situations like these.
The limited roster did not help earlier when we were pushing for top4, but perhaps now It’s time for the young players to show those extra legs.

This is by far the most important excuse.

1 minute ago, Bob stark said:

This is by far the most important excuse.

heh I wonder if the owners will feel the same way once they see the winner/runner up collecting FFP-free cash at the end of it.

12 minutes ago, acaeus said:

heh I wonder if the owners will feel the same way once they see the winner/runner up collecting FFP-free cash at the end of it.

Not sure city owner care too much about extra 30m

City out ? Wow, didn't see that coming !

After these latest results, I guess we can ask the question if we baled out too early on Thiago Silva and Kalidou Koulibaly LOL

13 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

City out ? Wow, didn't see that coming !

After these latest results, I guess we can ask the question if we baled out too early on Thiago Silva and Kalidou Koulibaly LOL

I am honestly not suprise after I saw pep playing some kick up with his player on a beach.

29 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Not sure city owner care too much about extra 30m

It's actually £54m for the winner, but yeah maybe not.

From our side of the bracket 3 non-european sides out of 4. On the other side of course that levels it out a bit but not sure people expected that. Anyway those two results a bit surprising but I think European football media, experts and fans need to look at the mirror a bit me included. Football is actually played outside Europe as well. I love the way all the clubs that went through have celebrated the results. Great to see and kicks in the teeth a bit to the doubters of this tournament in terms of football. Everything else with the tournament is up for a debate.

I have my reservations on anything FIFA doles out but in terms of football itself this tournament has surprised me positively. Our game against Benfica in the end was a classic European night for us with all the drama no matter the opposition or anything else. Love to see us back in the UCL. We belong in that tournament. Prem games are different. Couple of good ones there as well but when you are not truly going for the title it takes away from normal Prem games as well.

In these European ties I love when it is okay the football to be a bit stale. Funny how only in England it is somehow a must to play that up-and-down headless chicken football. It is exciting if the blows are thrown equally and the game is stretched all the time but for Chelsea it has not been like that - almost ever. Handful of games in last 5 years to be fair. Most games in the Prem is where the opponent sits deep and tries to blow us on transition.

---

Fatique probably has a bit to do in these two surprising results but I don't think that is the only reason. Inter and City both have a bit of a transitional period going on. Inters starting eleven average squad age 30+ years with new coach in Chivu who's been with the team under a month and City has 3-4 new players in the side in crucial positions to their football.

Anyway I am glad we are in the tournament. It might take away from the season ahead but we can't do anything about it. For the young squad winning top sides like Benfica is good for the development. I'd rather win Benfica than lose to Al Hilal although that might well be our fate as well 😀.

Citeh gone too.😎 Our route to the final is looking promising 🤞

Edited July 1, 20251 yr by OneTommyLangley

19 minutes ago, OneTommyLangley said:

Citeh gone too.😎 Our route to the final is looking promising 🤞

I was shocked to see that this morning. But I think we'd be foolish and extremely arrogant to underestimate Fluminense or Al Hilal.

I do feel that we should be able to beat Palmeiras. We can screw anything up of course, but I have not been overly impressed by them so far, so we 'should' have enough to beat them. The other two sides look a much sterner test.

46 minutes ago, OneTommyLangley said:

Citeh gone too.😎 Our route to the final is looking promising 🤞

Got to applaud the genius of Maresca and Jackson for throwing the match against Flamengo, knowing they’d get the easy side of the draw. The kind of thinking that’s on whole new plain of existence.

Sorry no disrespect but we should get to the final looking at our fixtures

City out

22 hours ago, DarkMata said:

Got to applaud the genius of Maresca and Jackson for throwing the match against Flamengo, knowing they’d get the easy side of the draw. The kind of thinking that’s on whole new plain of existence.

Losing this game really did wonders lol

21 hours ago, DiegoHavertz said:

Sorry no disrespect but we should get to the final looking at our fixtures

City out

I bet City thought the same thing

The other side of the draw looks like a proper group of death !!

Least our side looks like a proper club WC bracket

10 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Least our side looks like a proper club WC bracket

Right hand side is just more of the Champions league, like CL+

Maresca has a chance to show his worth and talent here. Two winnable games to get to the final.

Looks like Rodri may have reinjured his knee.

The fact he actually played in City’s final games is pretty crazy, and the fact Pep has been using him a lot this tournament. Not surprised he may have reaggrevated it.

20 hours ago, chelseablueboy said:

The other side of the draw looks like a proper group of death !!

We have a cracking chance to get to the final here....but I do worry, like when we had a cracking chance to win it under the FSW, and we lost to the Brazilian team (was that in the final?)

14 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

We have a cracking chance to get to the final here....but I do worry, like when we had a cracking chance to win it under the FSW, and we lost to the Brazilian team (was that in the final?)

Not really the same tournament. But yes, it was in the final.

Btw 7 teams was in it and as Champions League winners Chelsea entered in the Semi-final. So two matches did we have to play.

26 minutes ago, BikerJens said:

Btw 7 teams was in it and as Champions League winners Chelsea entered in the Semi-final. So two matches did we have to play.

Cheers Yoda.....