Chelsea Legend 11

we were without our best players in attack and lost our keeper and captain. I guarantee you the gameplan was to soak up the pressure in the first half and make a couple subs to knick it in the last 25mins. Had we not been forced to make subs I bet Schurrle, Ba and possibly Oscar would've come on to look for a goal. We didn't play our strongest XI and we went into a tough environment and kept the tie alive with it going back to the bridge! We can and will win there. This was another Jose Masterclass don't know what you're whining about.

Why is this thread still open? HE'S THE BEST! LOCK THIS SHIT UP ALREADY!

Really liking this kid. he has something the others don't, end product! He needs an aggressive loan soon.

Thought Willian worked his ass off today. Didn't offer much going forward but was inch perfect defending and got out on the break with pace. Next year he will have a massive year for sure.

Very happy with the performance the squad put in today. Luiz, Cahill, Terry, Mikel, Cole, Willian, Ramires and Torres worked EXTREMELY hard today and that's the kind of effort that wins titles. I'm not too bothered with Cech being out for the season, I feel Schwarzer is adequate cover and we'll be fine. Losing Terry will definitely hurt because now we'll have a very unfamiliar back 5. Not the right time of year to juggle things but it doesn't matter we'll get through it because we're gonna be at home for this. That wasn't our strongest XI and we went there and did a job! Certainly commendable! In the return leg we won't be full strength but will be with our best attacking players. I fancy us to knick it 1-0 at the bridge if we get Hazard and Eto'o in that game. This is another GOLDEN opportunity to go to a finals, we can't focus on who's missing its gonna take a gritty performance from everyone to make it happen. The big question now is who do we risk for Liverpool? Do we focus strictly on Champions League? If it were up to me I'd just put every egg and the chicken in one basket. No sense in fighting for the league when the FA seem hell bent on making the 25th anniversary of Hillsborough be a special one. Liverpool lineup Azpilicueta - Cahill - Ivanovic - Cole Mikel - Lampard - Matic Salah - Ba - Schurrle Atletico Azpilicueta - Cahill - Ivanovic - Cole Luiz - Ramires Willian - Oscar - Hazard Eto'o

I think it has a lot to do with PSG being the favourite and wanting to prove their worth. At least that's what it was for me... This tie has a different feel. Madrid are perhaps the slight psychological underdogs because they aren't tested at this level.

The one thing we have going for us is once again experience at this level. If we get through the first 15-20mins unscathed I fancy us to get a good result

Its a first leg game nothing will be decided today... hopefully.

Those are very important positions and they are all one yellow away from missing the second leg. Not sure this will happen

I'd also opt for a nice compact 4-3-3 Cesar - Cahill - Terry - Cole Lampard - Luiz - Ramires Willian - Ba - Schurrle

I expect Chelsea to play a lot of route 1 football to bypass what Atletico like to do defensively. Demba Ba will get the start for sure, Luiz will look to get the ball quickly up to Ba... Its pretty much the only way, they take away space so well. If Barca can't pass through them we definitely won't!

I don't agree but I think this is likely gonna happen.

He's ahead of McEachran in my eyes. Puts in a tackle and scores a fair amount of goals. will be interested in seeing what happens to him in the next few years.

Not sure if I agree or disagree. I think an element of it is truthful, kids that grow up in Britain may place more value in the Prem, while kids in Europe may value the Champions league. The flip side of it all is if we went with an English core we'd be shit because the majority of English players are not on the level we need them to be on.

Ya the ref blew the fucking call! The foul on Ramires and the "foul" on Matic when JT scored. We don't have the most clinical squad and we've been punished even further by poor refereeing decisions.

Give it a fucking rest dude! There have been poor decisions that have impacted the game!! SIMPLE AND PLAIN AS DAY.

It won't matter all they need is a draw now.

We're not gonna be at our best week in and week out! Poor decisions from the ref have GREATLY affected the title this year no doubt!

Exactly... Bullshit pen and a blatant pen on Ramires for goal too. The ref had a shocker

its only the wrong decision because of the outcome. Eto'o could have and should have scored... That was a relatively easy chance he just has to hit the net the angle wasn't as impossible as you make it out to be.

If I'm not mistaken Eto'o narrowly missed that. Wasn't a bad decision at all, Eto'o is our striker, he scored today and was coming in from the left with his right foot. Had he scored no one would've made any stink about it. Salah was in good space too but after last week I wouldn't bet on him to finish that

We need a killer up front. This is the first time many of these guys we're depending on have been involved in a run like this and too much pressure has been piled on them to score. The most costly decision Chelsea have ever made in the club's history was signing Fernando Torres for £50m when we had Drogba, Anelka and Sturridge. Think of where that money could've been spent... Roman you've given us so much and have been brilliant but never ever get involved in the acquisition of players, stick to signing cheques please.

Also what was the ruling on the JT no goal? offside or foul?

Dean was awful but no worse than our finishing. How many moon shots from Oscar and Ramires today? Eto'o missed a glorious chance, Demba should've at least tested the keeper on another. Am I the only one who thought Larsson fouled Ramires in the box when he had an open net?

First of all never a pen. Now that I got that out of the way lets not ignore the fact Ramires probably should've been sent off in the first half! What he was doing there is beyond me, huge game at home where we need to be air tight and focussed and he does that? wow. Zero Composure... I didn't think we were all that bad we had some good opportunities that weren't taken and Mannone did the rest. He made so many important interventions today. Hats off to them they came into a difficult environment and got 3pts when they needed it. Sometimes you just gotta give credit to the opponent and not fault our performance, we did enough to get the result but in the end Sunderland did a bit more defensively. They won on a poor decision we can't do anything about that just extremely unfortunate today. Its not yet Liverpool's title they still have some tricky fixtures to negotiate and until its over I won't give up...