Justin_3d

I hope they make mistakes against Barcelona and Madrid this time! :blue scalf: Kill all the loving media teams. As England is enjoying the coverage of Chelsea as the only English team in the CL!

It would be awesome if the ref helps Bayern. Screw what Mourinho said. He is just playing mind games so he will get good calls going his way. If there are two teams that I don't want to see in the final are these two Spaniards team. So much talk from all the media that they need to be brought down. A Bayern vs Chelsea final will be sweeeeeeeeeet!

I still think it's a waste having a line of Lampard, Mikel, Essien. Yes we need to defend but we need to attack as well. And with that line we might as well park the bus in our own home!!!

Because you want to play 3 DM's! Lampard and Essien can easily do the job. If you want to add Mikel in that slot, then go for David Luiz or Meireles which can give you better option for counter attack.

I don't agree, but as stated if you want to go down the road of 3 DM's then make sure one of them is creative like David Luiz, to change up the game. As Barcelona play the high line, so we need someone to make killer passes, and that ain't Mikel! Meireles and David Luiz can make more forward passing to set up a good counter attack, then all the sideways passing Mikel does!

Yeah agree cause with Mikel and Essien is too negative. That is too defensive mind like when Hiddink did in the first game against Barcelona at the Camp Nou. Although like I stated above I would not mind using David Luiz as one of the DM for that game a long with Essien. I don't think that will be too negative. If there is one time that David Luiz can be use as DM is in this game. As the Cahill - Terry partnership is very good as well.

I like the whole team but I am not sure about Mikel. He is too slow. If we are going to play 2 DM with Essien, then you can do no wrong in trying to use someone like Meireles in that role. But we will see. I would at least like to see RDM try the formation for one game before using that. Maybe against Fulham.... OR Play David Luiz that game as DM!

A lot of people talk about the Mourinho time, but I still say that season was something amazing. It was a shame that we had major injuries for our CL match against Inter, otherwise would have been different. And then of course people falling for Mourinho stupid mind tricks! But at the end of the season it was an unbelievable feeling. Because of the way we played, the amount of goals we scored, pummel teams into submission! I still miss Carlo. I wish he would have been smarter in the second season and bought more players. And can't forget our good Ray. Dam you Roman for screwing that up!

I remember when Spurs where being offered like 40 mill for Bale... This is why I say any player is sellable at insane high prices. If someone comes an offer that for someone like Sturridge we must take it. Those figures are once in a lifetime like Liverpool learn with the Torres saga.

I agree, good time to rest some players. Rest Ivan, Mata and I would love to say Ramires, but not sure if they will rest him. Go with: Cech Bosingwa or Paulo, Cahill, David Luiz, Ryan Ramires, Essien or Romeu Sturridge, Meireles, Malouda Drogba

All hail the reign of Spain At a time when Spain's economy is causing global investors to break out into a cold sweat and bark furiously into their phones while wiping caviar off their braces, it is at least comforting that in football terms its stock has never been so high. Thursday night brought formal confirmation, if any were really needed, that the dominant culture pervading football is that of Spain: for the first time in the history of European football, one country provides five of the eight clubs contesting the semi-finals of the continent's two cup competitions. With Barcelona and Real Madrid progressing safely into the final four of the Champions League, and surely destined to meet in the final, Valencia, Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid all did likewise in the Europa League. Atletico Madrid will now face Valencia in the final four, with Athletic Bilbao taking on Sporting Lisbon to ensure an all-Iberian affair. It is the second time in five years that Spain has had three of the four semi-finalists after Osasuna, Espanyol and Sevilla reached this stage in 2007. The goal of the night was even scored by a Spaniard, albeit for a German club as the wonderful Raul finished off a flowing Schalke move with a finish of timeless class to claim his 76th strike in European competition. As Marca put it on Friday morning in a phrase you don't need a degree in Spanish to decipher: 'Dominamos el continente'. Early Doors is not foolish enough to draw any hard and fast conclusions from such a small pool of data - after all, having a 100 per cent strike rate doesn't make David Nugent England's greatest ever striker - and only last year three Portuguese sides made the last four of the Europa League. No one then was confidently declaring the onset of a golden age of Portuguese football. However, spread across two competitions, this occurrence, though possibly coincidental, still provides anecdotal proof for what we all instinctively know: Spanish football is king. All major countries have these periods: most notably Germany and Netherlands in the 1970s, England in the late 1970s and early 1980s and Italy in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and now it is the time for Spain to enjoy the peak of this cyclical process. La Liga possesses indisputably the two best players on the planet and the two best clubs. Its supporting cast - frequently denigrated in the face of such dominance from Barcelona and Madrid - is also of high quality, as the thrilling Basques from Bilbao have demonstrated so memorably in Europe this season. ED knows England is fond of stubbornly declaring itself to have the best league in the world - Andy Gray and Richard Keys basically made a career of it - yet surely even the most blinkered of little Englanders would concede that is no longer the case. Not when England provides as many European quarter-finalists as Cyprus. Not when as team as average as this Manchester United side - torn apart in Europe by Bilbao, lest we forget - can sit atop the Premier League. That tells you all you need to know about those 'best league in the world' claims. They are as empty as ED's wallet after another trip to the newsagent to stock up on Euro 2012 Panini stickers. (Incidentally, does anyone want to take one of five Wesley Sneijders off ED's hands?) This is a more subjective claim, but it also true that Spanish teams play the best football; Barcelona triumph here of course, but Madrid have scored 100 goals in 30 games and Bilbao have also set high aesthetic standards. It is a good time to be a lover of La Liga. The international arena provides ever more evidence of Spain's vice-like grip on the game of football, with Vicente del Bosque's side having a very good chance of becoming the first European country to win three back-to-back major tournaments. Like Total Football and Catenaccio before it, Spain's hegemony has also firmly cemented a new concept in football's cultural lexicon: Tiki-Taka. The success of Xavi, in particular, in making possession into an art form in itself - allied with a growth in statistical and technological insight - has forever changed the way we view and interpret the game. As a young kid watching football, ED can't recall ever being assailed with stats about Bryan Robson's pass completion percentage, or the number of touches Paul Gascoigne had in the opposition penalty area. For better or worse, Barcelona and Spain's brand of football over the past five or so years has resulted in a fetishisation of passing statistics, perhaps to the point of no return.

Spain getting some nice fullbacks. Azpilicueta and Jordi Alba.

You aren't told a lot of stuff by the board, cause they lie to us a lot! We still yet to know what happen with Ray! All in all, our board is not to be trusted!

English interest in Alba http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/7651970/

Dude if we beat Barcelona I am going to have to watch that game again with this commentator. They are awesome!!!!

Miserable day for you I see? This ought to cheer you up!

Not kylehimself? Congratz Capri sun!

Good, now his stock will rise up and we can sell him for a profit this summer! :blue scalf:

Same here. I am very glad to got this far, something I did not thought was possible a couple of weeks ago. What ever happens against Barcelona happens, but this is a good end to the season giving the overall season we had. And at this point trying to secure 4th place is priority, cause we don't know if we can beat Barcelona. Anything is possible, but we must try to achieve first our most realistic target and that's to finish at least in 4th spot!

I think what Mourinho wants the most is to play us in the final cause it will be easier for him. Fool all the fans and players and beat us in the final like he beat us with Inter!

Now I can say something about the game. Mikel needs a lot of work if he is going to be first choice DM against Barcelona, cause he was constantly pick of by a Benfica player. Barcelona will be worse. Mata still on a bad run. Kalou hard worker but not sure if he should also be a starting player against Barcelona. Torres or Drogba for Barcelona??? I go with Drogba. We need his physical strength against them. And defense was great as well. I hope Terry recovers and is good for the game.

This is why I don't like to cry about others team being helped by the ref. Cause then you end looking like a total hypocrite when the ref helps your team.

All I have to say is fuck, Chelsea does make us suffer! Well done Chelsea, we are in semis and that's all that matters! :blue scalf:

Yeah plus look how Chicharito brought a lot of money from Latin America. Having players from different continents open up to potential revenue. We been in need of a good Asian player for some time!