capriccioso

Time for Mr. Playstation to recover from injury, then. We could play Hilario at centre back and I'd still back us to win. It seems the stars have aligned to create the most unlikely victory since Greece in 2004. Also; 10 men, we've only got 10 men..

It's surreal. Not one player had a bad game with the exception of Terry, who made a fool out of himself. Totally unnecessary. Fuck it, Bosingwa at right back, Ivanovic in the centre, Malouda instead of Ramires and we'll still win.

You know, I think we've won this trophy. This squad has proven the worse the odds, the better they'll play. I thought it would finish 5 or 6-0 when Iniesta put them two up but we responded so brilliantly, not a single head dropped. So what if we're missing key players? Thats a minor setback to what we've faced so far in this CL campaign. Bayern, Real, World XI, whoever; bring it on. You'll need your A-Game and then some to beat this bunch of players.

Great, great game. From feeling utter despair at that Iniesta goal and then for Ramires to restore our hope with that for a goal. JT dismissal was a bit stupid and we may well miss out on the trophy for that. Messi's penalty was brilliant as well All the players, even Bosingwa were excellent. Ramires looks a competent right back. I also have a confession to make, I nearly cried when I saw Di Matteo and Newton celebrate like that.

A lot of his success, I think, has come from the players responding to him as 'one of the lads'. It remains to be seen, though, if this attitude is carried over once he starts getting on their toes.

How will we go about counter-attacking when Generic Northern Mid-table Football Club park the bus against us?

Poldi does have a monster of a left foot, tbh.

About time

Are you going to do philosophy at Uni?

Liverpool, I take it? We are the soul of football. Big clubs with 18 leagues and 5 European Cup's represent everything bad about football in general. So bad that the only hope the proletarian club has of ever competing is to be bought by a billionaire. Back to the ghetto you go.

A result I've just got on FM is to me, a good omen of our progression! Fucks sake I've gotten probably three times more superstitious since I started this thread

Despite my display of reckless nonchalance regarding the game, I'm shaking like a leaf.

It will be the ultimate if Barcelona go 2-0 up within 10 minutes and we score in the 6th minute of stoppage time in the second half. Edit: If someone can make that with a plain blue shirt that would be great. I didn't want to use the Kalou smilie there but there was no Chelsea trollface.

We still have to play Newcastle and Tottenham are bottling it. I'd say we have a half chance to come 4th irrespective of our CL result. Though I would be delighted if Spurs finished 4th and we came 5th and won the CL

Kostas is right; it's all about popularity and in those stakes someone from the home nations stands a far better chance, e.g. Ryan Giggs in 2009 with the BBC Sport's Personality of the Year.

Pro scouse media absolutely wetting themselves at the prospect of a humiliation tomorrow. Cunts.

Also, fuck off you wanker, Iniesta. We've got every right to deserve a place in the final. Pleb. Liverpool rode their luck in 05 but we don't see him say that they were lucky winners, do we? Barcelona lucked out in 2009 as well, why don't you talk about that? http://www.goal.com/...s-league-final?

We'll still have the FA Cup and potentially 4th place to show for our efforts, plus a great run to the semi finals in Europe. I would argue that our season has been saved. Barcelona were and still are expected to sweep all before them and all they've won is the Mickey Mouse Club World Cup where your first decent side you face is the CONMEBOL representative in the Final. And they could lose potentially everything they've fought for over the space of a week if we eliminate them tomorrow. That will be playing on their minds.

What we have on our side is that we have nothing to lose. We're still far from favourites for this tie, and everyone and his dog reckons we're in for a 4 goal thrashing. So we can go out there without really worrying about 'what if' we lose. Barcelona are the team that absolutely must win to salvage their season, that puts all the pressure on them.

Di Matteo certainly is a don. But yeah, if Jose comes in Di Matteo will have to accept a demotion or leave. Shame as he really is excellent.

He won LMA Manager of the Year not Barclay's Manager of the Year.

I may have said this before, but Strike really is rather good at writing these articles

My bad. But most of the time, it has gone to the League winner, the exceptions being 'Arry and George Burley back in 2000.

The mock badge doesn't look bad, but as TX says, our badge was designed to be a permanent one. I see no reason to change it except for special occasions, like 125/150/200 year anniversaries.