Closed Chelsea 2-1 Benfica

[BlueLyon 9,359]

he was porto player, he must have really enyojed that goal

about match:

cech very good, except he should catch that ball instead of javi garcia scored. lampard, cole, terry excellent, mata as always, but needs to rest. torres should score, i dont blame him for miss, but it was said he is back and yet he didnt take responsibility...but good overall. ramires also should score from that chance, but well it happens...

but i am somehow disappointed with game we showed. we played at home, had advantage from previous match, no injury trouble, scored leading goal from penalty and had a player more for whole match...yet it was benfica who kept possesion, control and had tons of chances...we were again bit lucky, they could easily gone with win...what i liked is that control in our deffensive style of play, but everyone knows you cant play all game like that and win, because eventually, you concede a goal...we were solid, but should have more control on the ball...

question is how are we going to play barca? we have fitness, experience and strenght. tall players and revenge in mind...they are favourite, but i would never write chelsea off. with our key players in form, taking chances, solid display in defence and bit luck, we could go through...but we will have to be at best...

[Aussiedan 154]

Shit performance, but who cares, we're through. We didn't get out of first gear. we'll step it up against Barca.

Teams who are usually up from the first leg come out in the 2nd and try and defend the advantage they have.

[Justin_3d 1,140]

Not sure if this has been posted but here's Meireles's goal and celebration.

Cracking finish and gotta love the celebration.

Dude if we beat Barcelona I am going to have to watch that game again with this commentator.

They are awesome!!!!

[Liquidator 5,176]

Why are people slating our performance again? Benfica are a very good side who are good at keeping possession like most Iberian teams so its no wonder we were not dominating. They have some talented players, particularly Aimar who can cause most teams problems. It was just some poor finishing and slight bad luck that meant that we did not score more. Torres' deflection and Kalou's miss are examples of things just not going right on the night- not poor play. Benfica had nothing to lose in going out to attack so we were always going to be under pressure, they didn't just fluke their way into the quarter finals

[Liquidator 5,176]

would just like to add that I think Oscar Cardozo is a disgusting football player. We kicked the ball out of play while in possession when one of their players was rolling around making a fuss out of nothing, they pass the ball back to Luiz from the throw in so that we can have the ball back, it hits him on the shoulder on the edge of our penalty box and Cardozo shouted at the referee wanting a free kick. Disgusting twat who does not understand fair play.

[Sheva. 5,373]

[capriccioso 2,545]

Jesus is such a cunt. Never thought someone could beat Wenger in the sore loser stakes.

Yes we were poor on the night ... still knocked you out though. What does that say about your side? Fuck off now, love.

Hahahaha I was initially really upset when I saw that

[Wavy Crockett 190]

w

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[BleedsBlue 1,549]

Not sure if this has been posted but here's Meireles's goal and celebration.

Cracking finish and gotta love the celebration.

so much bass.lol

[Jase 43,479]

Haven't seen the replay of the incident but I think if he had let it run, Mata would have been able to shoot

With the situation that Mata was in that time, he was only ever able gonna shoot with his right foot. And Kalou took the shot with his left foot. Either way, whoever of the 2 would have only been able to shoot with their weaker foot and would probably miss the target.

While it seems that Kalou has pissed everyone off with his contribution attacking wise, let's not forget he played his part defensively and arguably created our two best chances for Mata and Ramires which they both completely spurned! Had one or both converted their chances, we would have probably be sitting down here and praise him for his assist(s). Not defending him here but just find it very unfair for people to use him as a scapegoat for the performance last night when the entire team played horribly.

[Strike 7,489]

With the situation that Mata was in that time, he was only ever able gonna shoot with his right foot. And Kalou took the shot with his left foot. Either way, whoever of the 2 would have only been able to shoot with their weaker foot and would probably miss the target.

While it seems that Kalou has pissed everyone off with his contribution attacking wise, let's not forget he played his part defensively and arguably created our two best chances for Mata and Ramires which they both completely spurned! Had one or both converted their chances, we would have probably be sitting down here and praise him for his assist(s). Not defending him here but just find it very unfair for people to use him as a scapegoat for the performance last night when the entire team played horribly.

yeah.it is true that kalou is made to be the scapegoat of our attack

[Jase 43,479]

I'll have you know that Mata lost the ball more than Kalou did tonight. He lost it 26 times by my count, Kalou an enormously better 8 times. He created bugger all and every time Kalou played him in he was offside. Poor show.

Mata completed 38 of 55 passes attempted(69%) while Kalou only managed to complete 24 of 42 passes(57%)...

[zolayes 14,489]

yeah.it is true that kalou is made to be the scapegoat of our attack

its a religion on here started by TX ..Kalou must be sacrificed ,,,

[Strike 7,489]

Mata completed 38 of 55 passes attempted(69%) while Kalou only managed to complete 24 of 42 passes(57%)...

are u defending kalou or criticizing him?

[Strike 7,489]

Chelsea captain John Terry says two cracked ribs

are leaving him gasping for breath during matches - but he intends to play through the pain. "I couldn't breathe and my chest was closing up," said Terry, after he was substitutedduring his team's Champions League win against Benfica on Wednesday night

[Jase 43,479]

are u defending kalou or criticizing him?

Neither. Was just only refuting what Capri said about Mata losing the ball more than Kalou.

[BenficaSempre 25]

Not sure if it is appropriate but here is a video of the reception at Lisbon airport this morning around 5:00 am. Despite the emilination and having in account the attitude at the Bridge more than 300 Benfica Supporters received the players and gave them strengh for the next FINAL on Monday against Sporting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEAI0Vx-m7w

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3293231764472

Congrat's you guys for the passing. Later I will give my opinion about yesterday's game!

Smash Barça and Platini please!

Cheers

[Beirut_Blues 306]

Not sure if it is appropriate but here is a video of the reception at Lisbon airport this morning around 5:00 am. Despite the emilination and having in account the attitude at the Bridge more than 300 Benfica Supporters received the players and gave them strengh for the next FINAL on Monday against Sporting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEAI0Vx-m7w

Congrat's you guys for the passing. Later I will give my opinion about yesterday's game!

Smash Barça and Platini please!

Cheers

Thanks mate...About Benfica we all know the feeling when u play well and lose anyway.,its a bad feeling and Benfica played well last night.

But I think our team is not fukking around when it comes to the Champions League and they believe they can beat Barca.. so we believe it too.

We know from now that the referee will have decisions against us, so we need some insurance against that so we dont get fukkd by the referee.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Post-match conferencecs:

[Jase 43,479]

With the situation that Mata was in that time, he was only ever able gonna shoot with his right foot. And Kalou took the shot with his left foot. Either way, whoever of the 2 would have only been able to shoot with their weaker foot and would probably miss the target.

While it seems that Kalou has pissed everyone off with his contribution attacking wise, let's not forget he played his part defensively and arguably created our two best chances for Mata and Ramires which they both completely spurned! Had one or both converted their chances, we would have probably be sitting down here and praise him for his assist(s). Not defending him here but just find it very unfair for people to use him as a scapegoat for the performance last night when the entire team played horribly.

Contrary to what I said in the 1st paragraph above, francozola, looks like you were right. Just saw that move in the game again and Mata would have indeed got a clean shot with his left foot had Kalou let it run. Even then, still don't think Kalou warrants the scapegoating that he's getting after the game.