Championsleague 2008/09 : The Knockout Stages

[nocho]

Chelsea would have won if it were not for the "lets defend our one goal advantage, Barca won't score anyway" mentality. Chelsea easily could have extended their lead with 1 or 2 goals if they had been willing to continue pushing.

It's true that the referee made a lot of ef ups, including the red card mind you, but Chelsea have themselves to blame as well.

Agree with that. In the end Chelsea was extremely unlucky to receive a goal in the 93rd minute, but that was the risk they were willing to take. If that wouldn't have happened everybody'd be talking about Hiddink's brilliant tactical concept.

Whether the ref was bad or not depends probably on the colour of the shirt you're wearing. Here in Spain of course we all agree that it indeed shouldn't have been penalties as it was both times (according to us ) involuntary hands, or whatever the term is in english. And Chelsea showed themselves rather sore losers, although it may be understandable if you lose like that in injury time from Barça's very first shot on goal.

So indeed Chelsea was a lot tougher than ManU, although it must be said that in the final until Eto'o's goal Barça looked really bad and unconcentrated and I thought we'd never get into the game. What a difference a goal makes!

 

[Krill]

I do agree in principle. I think the arguemnt goes that if the ref hadn't had the "ef ups" Chelsea would have had more goals and that therefore that point would have been circumvented.

 

[classical_hero]

You probably mean Chelsea, but even as a Chelsea fan I have to correct you and point out that Liverpool were this year's runners up

I used the plural, so that included Liverpool and Chelsea.

 

[warpus]

Chelsea would have won if it were not for the "lets defend our one goal advantage, Barca won't score anyway" mentality. Chelsea easily could have extended their lead with 1 or 2 goals if they had been willing to continue pushing.

It's true that the referee made a lot of ef ups, including the red card mind you, but Chelsea have themselves to blame as well.

What do you mean? We did attack and we did have a couple chances to extend our lead.

Our tactics against "the best team in the world" worked well and we would have made it through were it not for the incompetent ref. (and yes, I count the red card as one of his f-ups)

Agree with that. In the end Chelsea was extremely unlucky to receive a goal in the 93rd minute, but that was the risk they were willing to take. If that wouldn't have happened everybody'd be talking about Hiddink's brilliant tactical concept.

His tactics were the best thing we could have done against Barca. I wouldn't call them "brilliant", but it was exactly the right thing to do.