Closed Benfica 0-1 Chelsea

[Justin_3d 1,140]

feel so happy for Kalou !!!

a nice win for the blues ... Torres getting sharper and sharper by the day.

good play from Luiz and some really crucial saves from Cech even though they might be regarded as regular ones!

Hope we don't squander this precious away goal at SB

edit : almost forgot was also happy to see PF play ... and i think he did really well !

Torres with a better mid and awesome wingers, will be killing teams!

Can't wait for the summer. Going to be great.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

Great display!!! Kalou Ramires Luiz Torres all did the work for me. We have totally found our ways in Europe, and Robbie can do no wrong. Kalou and Torres real really really help on defensive and mata wich we all know drogs and Malouda hate doing. wish romeu was playing, where is he?? Would be better for 4231 with him as apposed to mierles.

And stop with the hatin on kalou, he ds well today and deserved to get assist/goal. And Ramires, damn, just keeps plugin

away.

2nd leg: we got this!!! Now fukin villa who beat us at home, how the fuk that happen!?!?!?!?!?

[Billy. 2,742]

RDM got it spot on tonight i feel Luiz Rambo Cech Torres were epic tonight Luiz MOTM for me

[bluephoenix 1,131]

Torres with a better mid and awesome wingers, will be killing teams!

Can't wait for the summer. Going to be great.

indeed it would ... but depends on who will be the next manager and what plans he has in his mind

[capriccioso 2,545]

Torres has had 3 good games in a row now, but he had a similar run early in the season and then promptly went on a 20 match streak of utter wank. For me, the jury's still out on him.

[MagicManMata 24]

Torres proves why I wanted him ahead of Drogba.

The only thing Torres has proven is that he has excellent link-up play.

Otherwise, he has been a massive choker in front of goal for the better part of two years now. Drogba is still our first choice striker, Torres a backup who can fill in against lesser sides. When used in a creative role however, Fernando is still starting material.

Just don't count on any goals in the big matches (eg. Arsenal).

[Justin_3d 1,140]

indeed it would ... but depends on who will be the next manager and what plans he has in his mind

My future team if I had the money:

Cech

Azpilicueta/Iva - Cahill - David Luiz/Terry - Ryan/Baines

Ramires/Javi Martinez - Tiote/Romeu

Mata/Kakuta/Josh

Hulk/Sturridge - Torres/Cavani/Lukaku - Hazard/KDB

Young team to survive and conquer for the next 5 seasons.....

[MagicManMata 24]

Probably best to play the B team in the FA Cup now. All efforts must be made to secure CL money for the club next year, so the league and now the CL are top priorities in my view.

[BLionheart 516]

The happiness with the result is understandable , but the praise for the performance is not !!

In a game which we were structured not to concede , the opponents had two clear-cut chances , we had a goal-line clearance and Terry's handball should have been a penalty , but the bigger problem is that was against Benfica !! If we are to keep our advantage during the return leg , our next opponents will likely be Barcelona .. A repeat of this performance might turn into a disastrous score-line against Messi and co.

Glad we won , hope we can get more wins in the next two games but tbh i am more worried about our inability to keep possession , build up play , lack of creativity , urgency , and our inability to get the ball back anywhere before our 18 yards box !!

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

Torres has had 3 good games in a row now, but he had a similar run early in the season and then promptly went on a 20 match streak of utter wank. For me, the jury's still out on him.

That was cause he got that red against Swansea and sat out a whole month, which isn't going to happen this time so hopefully he just keeps getting better.

[GIBBO3000 20]

I think Nando is brilliant on the wing. Let him play winger and put danny as CF

[Ruben 13]

About the game, Benfica played well but had bud luck. I think if we have won this game was fair. But Chelsea won and congratz

Chelsea played with sacrifice and always waited (I think is this way than say) Benfica mistakes and they were succeful. In Stanford Bridge will be tough to Benfica. Benfica more but soccer is like that!

David Luiz is huge!! Great game he did... Man of the match.

God, it's so tough write in english

Another CL semi-finals. Impressive.

We will win it soon.

Humility mate, humility!! Another game left and da result was just 0-1 but I'll wait to see.

From the beginning my thought was a team to defend and hit on the counterattack, and that's exactly what happen.

Thats it. Thats what happened!

[English Freak 456]

The only thing Torres has proven is that he has excellent link-up play.

Otherwise, he has been a massive choker in front of goal for the better part of two years now. Drogba is still our first choice striker, Torres a backup who can fill in against lesser sides. When used in a creative role however, Fernando is still starting material.

Just don't count on any goals in the big matches (eg. Arsenal).

I wouldn't mind if Torres doesn't score goals, as long as he puts in 100% effort and provides some assists for the rest of the season.

And anyway, with the lack of service, lack of creativity from our midfield, even the likes of RvP, Rooney, Ba..etc would struggle to score goals for us.

[pachman40 357]

I want to preface my comments by saying that I haven't read any news headlines, haven't read any of the game-day thread, and haven't read any post game discussion in this thread. I just want to make comments based on my observations without being influenced one way or the other. If I end up way off base on anything I apologize in advance. Now that I got that out of the way......

Congrats to Chelsea for a well-earned victory in a tough environment. RDM has gigantic balls to come out with the starting 11 he did and I'm happy that it played out well for him. The boys were disciplined, well organized, and played a perfect Champions League away game. Luiz, my man, was fantastic. Torres did well, Kalou deserves a big high 5. Ashley Cole was immense, and Ramires was a man possessed out there. To be honest, I thought Chelsea gave Benfica a little too much respect and could've pushed the game a bit more but I guess the strategy was to keep a clean sheet and nick an away goal, and who am I to argue with that.

I have to say something about Mr. Gary Neville. As a Benfica fan he made me want to throw up in my mouth many times throughout the game. I don't know who got to him, but he was riding Chelsea's ball-sack all game long and was the most biased commentator I have heard in ages. For a former Man U player to be so pro-Chelsea was shocking to begin with but some of his observations were so over the top it was ridiculous. Also, some of the little facts and stats that were thrown out by these clowns trying to "inform" the viewer about Benfica were just plain wrong and they lost any credibility among anyone who actually knows anything about Benfica. There's no harm in saying that they are unfamiliar with the Portuguese side, but to read garbage about the team to try and prove they know something is an insult.

Regarding Benfica, I thought we deserved a better result and we didn't get any credit whatsoever from the commentary. We created a lot of chances and pinned Chelsea back for long periods in the second half. We had a ball cleared off the line, a blatant JT penalty denied, and had no bounces go our way. I thought Chelsea were very very smart to exploit our extremely weak link at LB. Normally Garay is there to help useless Emerson but he's been injured for a couple of weeks and his replacement Jardel is simply not good enough against stronger competition. Gaitan showed glimpses of brilliance and I maintain that he would be amazing in a Chelsea shirt.

Like I said before, I don't know what comments are out there, but I hope people are not very quick to write Benfica off. We were far from our best and played very timid and nervous in the first half. The real Benfica came out in the second half and could have easily popped one in. Next week will be a completely different game from both sides. Chelsea will be more open and attacking (I think) and Benfica will have less pressure playing away from home with nothing to lose. This tie is only halfway and I hope nobody is counting their chickens. You guys only caught a glimpse of what Benfica are capable of and the second leg is wide open.

I mean no disrespect with this post, I'm writing it from the point of view of a Benfica fan hoping to give you guys a different perspective. That doesn't make me any less of a Chelsea fan, I still love the blues, and I still hope the best team wins. If that's Chelsea I'll be extremely proud and will continue cheering them with everything in me!

[Sheva. 5,373]

Agree, the tie is not over yet but we're in a pretty good position.

Thought Benfica did alright, especially in the opening minutes of the 2nd half, but we did well enough to keep them from scoring.

As for ratboy Neville, he was the same when we played Napoli lol.