capriccioso

Can I suggest that we add Victor Valdes to the poll? He took out Pique, thanks a lot Valdes!

I'd be delighted with Bayern. I'm pretty sure Kroos will have to be careful as well, LB. Lahm vs Ronaldo- he will dive and surely Lahm will get booked at some point. They are having heaps of internal problems- Ribery and Robben are at war with each other, and Toni Kroos is involved as well as he took the free kick that Ribery wanted to take (http://www.dailymail...time-scrap.html) and the vast array of talent they could be without for the final has me feeling very optimistic.

Gutted for Ramires and the rest of the lads that won't be playing. Terry won't get to make amends to the general public for Moscow (though we all remember just what a titan he was for 120 minutes) and that will hurt him, no doubt. Age, injuries, suspension- none of this will stop us. We are an irresistible juggernaut, and lets just hope that whoever we play in the final doesn't recognise that!

CHELSEA, CHELSEA, CHELS-EAAAA :blue scalf: What a day, what a day, I was absolutely dead after the game and slept until well after lunch time but nothing will take away from this! I'm taking the day off uni tomorrow to drink up I'm also proud to admit that Di Matteo/Newton's celebrations at the end very nearly, very nearly had me in tears. Moments later the gutted feeling that Australian football pundit and barely concealed Barcelona fan Craig Foster was emitting had me in tears of laughter.

I see BlueLion has resorted to cheating in a bid to stop me beating him to 30k posts by having a one-post-per-8-seconds rule.

He's one of the many Napoli fans

He's one of the many Napoli fans

I nearly smashed a light when Ramires scored!

Moan/gloat about the weather here. It is cold. It is cold. I cannot stress how fucking cold it is. For late April in Australia, 14 degrees half an hour before sunset itself is incredible, never mind the 50km/hr winds we're having that make it feel closer to 4 degrees than 14.

Apart from the goal, Torres was dog shit. Lost the ball a couple of times, could have cost us the match. Well taken finish though.

Respect to Barcelona and their fans in particular though. They took the defeat graciously and the singing of Cant El Barca after the final whistle with such passion despite the loss was exceptional.

Also, we have absolutely 0 chance of getting this card rescinded. Thiago Motta was sent off for what shouldn't even have been a foul in 2010 and yet he still missed out. Mind you, he did have a meltdown some 30 seconds after seeing red, IIRC he choked Busquets and that may have influenced the decision.

Spot on, K. John is still our captain and one of our greatest players ever. He has only let us down twice on the pitch in his entire career and both times, we forgave him.

We have now gone 8 games without defeat against Barcelona. In the words of the famous African-American boxer Jack Johnson, "You're not world champion until you've beaten me". And instead of the "Great White Hope" we shall have the "Great UEFA Hope" in the final.

Parking won't work against Real, we'll have to pull off a smash-and-grab against them. Mourinho is much, much smarter and much more of a Machiavellian person than Guardiola, he will give up everything he holds dear in terms of a football philosophy to win. Bayern, we can play off the park no problems. Keep 60% possession and have like 20 shots. Half their team, especially vital players like Lahm and Kroos are on the verge of missing the final. Ribery and Robben apparently had a huge bust-up in training, with punches being thrown. Mario Gomez is just a shit Drogba, Luiz and Cahill can deal with him easily. Schweinsteiger has me a little bit worried, but given the extreme circumstances they're facing, it's a foregone conclusion for me if Bayern get into the final, UEFA may as well give us the trophy before the match.

And this is probably the greatest picture of all time, up there with the Soviet soldier lifting the flag over the Reichstag in Berlin in 1945: Kalou and Drogba at right/left back

I hope this puts an end to all that 'Barcelona is the GOAT team' rubbish. If you can't break through something as simple as a packed defence, and with a 1 man advantage (which has happened twice) you're no better than average.

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.

I'll be leaving soon for a night of debauchery. Good night/morning/whatever