darrus

Crap weekend so far (from my point of view) as far as results are concerned, hopefully tomorrow will be better. As in us winning and City drawing. I'm not too confident but still I hope we nick these 3 points and stop the trend of losing away matches, now really is the time. I'd like to see Cole in defence instead of Brana at least for some minutes, he needs to get used to it. Or if Azpi is going to be shifted to Brana's place and Cole takes his, it too should be tested. 2-0 in first half and then change defensive formation to prepare for Atletico game would be ideal scenario.

Should we resign ourselves to Arsenal winning a cup this season or is there still hope yet?

Damn That was going so well.

Still 2-0 after missing the penalty. LOL beyond words

Also Vilanova (God give him health, but still) left them a lot of problems Martino is still trying to sort out, Messi's injuries included. Also they're playing now with a second keeper who is generally facepalm-inducing and hang on in La Liga by individual talent and lack of quality opposition. Atletico has a good manager and a great team spirit. Simeone really built *his* team, a bit in his own image but with great team spirit. But the thing is - they have a short bench and a tremendous pressure. It's the first year in my memory that they didn't run out of steam by February and are still going for the title. But they absolutely can't afford to drop points and they have Barcelona away match as the last fixture of the season. So it's a question wether they'll be able to fight on two fronts till the end. On the other hand the same applies to us. If we come to the first leg winning our 2 matches and City drop any points we are still in for the PL title and will have to be multitasking too, especially with must-win game in between 2 legs. Still, the fact that we play away first gives me hope. Really, all 3 teams were a bad draw for us for various reasons, if we want to win we still have to beat 2 out of 3 in whatever order. On a lighter note, there's another superstition going our way if we pass Atletico We are going to be the "guest" team in the final - in 2012 we too were a guest team, and Jose won both of his finals with "guest" teams as well. So - carefree

City needs to drop 5. If they drop 4 they win by goal difference.

The 1) is sadly untrue. They've lost in the Cup final last year. But other points still stand

Wasn't the PC cancelled after the announcement of Mourinho being fined?

They're looking good in La Liga which is not surprising but in CL they've got found out various times already which is one of the reasons Courtois' playing quality is standing out. They let teams counterattack, they tire quickly if they have to defend constantly (see their last match with Real, the team was almost dead 15 minutes before the end and it cost them points). There were enough matches where Costa and Courtois bailed them out, but even Barcelona managed to constantly get through their defense on Wednesday, and we certainly will be able to do it too.

Two superstitions clashing in this tie We are going to win this CL because we are the only English team left and last year's final was in England. But Atletico too is going to win this CL because last 5 teams that beat Barcelona went on to win the whole thing. Let's see which one is stronger It's a good draw just for the fact that the press circus will be tolerable, imagine the hoopla about Mourinho vs Real or Mourinho va Pep? It would have overshadowed everything going on on the pitch. At least with Atletico everyone can concentrate on football itself. And they can be beaten. They are good in attack - but PSG was good too. But their defense is suspect.

With English team bound to win this year and us the only English team left we are so winning this

And was pretty useless in attack but didn't he take the ball off Cavani when we were defending at 92th minute? So deserves a bit of praise too. Chelsea striker Demba Ba, speaking to ITV: “It all happened so quick. I saw the ball and it was in the goal. I just do what I have to do when I get chances. I didn’t have chances this season but tonight I took it.”

For everyone who claims Mourinho is extremely defensive-minded - we played with 3 strikers today when we needed to score.

LOL at Blanc, this photo is just too funny

To be fair, Cech did everything possible to distract him. Still I thanked all saints I know for that miss. I think we're even - we hit woodwork 2 times, they missed 2 clear-cat chances. And I'm still gutted that Dortmund couldn't manage a 3rd, btw.

LOL at the journalist offering Jose a pack of custard creams https://vine.co/v/M5Mia3KQFBt Anyone got videos/gifs of celebrations?

YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1. I'm not watching any Chelsea match while reading forum till the end of the season. Every time I have talkchealsea closed we pull off something magical. 2. I've almost had a heart attack. Like seriously - I'm on a meds for heart condition now, and this second half was not healthy. But wow. Wow. WOW!!! 3. Schurrle and Ba! Ba especially! I'm amazed by the guy. He's benched, he doesn't get a look in, and instead of sulking he comes out and does what is needed. This goal is great work and amazing reward for him! 4. We all were slamming Cech for 1st leg match, we should all praise him for today. He was great! Saved everyting he could, did enough to throw off Caavni when he was shooting at empty goal, and in the last 4 minutes he gave the best he could, it's because of him we ended 2-0 and didn't get our hearts broken in the last second. 5. Jose's run Almost recreating that one from Porto days, and only he could run into celebration and start giving tactical instructions. 6. Did I see right, was Mourinho praying when they showed him at 93th minute? I certainly was... 7. God, I'm so proud of this team. It's great to be a fan of this club! But unhealthy, I tell you. 8. Come on whoever comes in the SF! Woo-hooo! 9. Fair play to all PSG fans who came and offered their congratulations.

A bit scary that they're still outrunning us, hopefully we can keep concentration for 45+ more minutes and not let some silly one in. Schurrle is class. Just another 1-0 half, and all is well.

Come on, boys. Please do it.

Lampard. Hazard has scored how much already without missing, so it's increasingly likely he'd miss one, Lampard on the other hand has "reset" his penalty record and can go scoring them again

Also there is a fun fact. When Robson came to Barcelona, one of the first things he did was to sell Jordi Cruyff, and did so at Mourinho's advice. Makes you wonder if there are some grudges held.

You know, thinking about it - it may not be such a bad idea. I've just rememebered Euro96 final where Germans in the similar striker situation put Klinsmann on who was injured and clearly not ready to play, but still managed to distract defenders and force them to follow him and created enough space for others to score. If Eto'o plays defenders art least will be wary because they can't be sure what his condition is and he's still a class forward who can score in front of an open goal. So it may give us something. But only if he's able to run and hold his own at least 45 minutes. Or maybe come on as a sub.

Eto'o indeed is training, so... there's a chance.

He was writing and saying a lot of things about Real Madrid, some players and Mourinho in particular that were either proven untrue or came out to be a complete lies later. Mostly just reports about some events - players fighting, Real staff having a fight with journalists etc that turned out to be very colorful and far-from-reality interpretations of things you could see watching videos of said events. I remember he invented some story with Benzema's car (he never owned such car), wrote about Mourinho hitting translator in press conference and offending him (Mourinho shook hands with the translator and said 'thank you'), Mourinho being at war with Marcelo and not calling him up (Marcelo was injured) and so on. I also remember last year other journalist in some tv show called him a lier in his face, and one of the players (Arbeloa?) saying something about never imagining that it's possible to write so many lies in such a short text about one of his articles."El Pais" is considered anti-Madrid so it generally is to be expected, but Torres has such imagination that even if he says that 2x2=4 you'd better not take it as certain thing. He's a good fiction writer, and if he wrote fiction books he'd be amazing. Problem is he's writing about real people twisting a lot of things along the way. About the passage you quoted - it was an article in 2011, and there was a lot of indignation about it because Granero was not in the dressing room while (if) the scene described by Torres happened so Real fans mostly laughed it off. I also remember some inconsistencies with the "cried about MU" part - some people were posting links to photos showing some of the things as lies, but by that time I wasn't paying much attention.

It was probably funny the first year but got old fast. I mean, for real, did Mourinho kill his puppy or stole his lover or something? How many times was Torres proven to be lying, and he still is going on and on and on. Though he's from "El Pais", right?