Closed Chelsea v Barcelona

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

i'd rather have ramires alongside mikel than essien with sturridge on the right. their left back (adriano? ) whoever is their weakest link in defence and sturridge's pace and trickery would expose that and as far as essien goes, its a no-brainer. this is not 2009 sadly

I suggest you not to keep your hopes high for Danny playing RW because Ramires will definitely start.RDM subbed him,so he could get some rest for the game against Barcelona otherwise he had no reason to bring Malouda on.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Hasn't messi been playin centre ? i think a CDM has to keep track of messi. ramires?

Still I think our right winger has to track back. Barcelona are a difficult enough team to play against without leaving spaces.

[Strike 7,489]

I suggest you not to keep your hopes high for Danny playing RW because Ramires will definitely start.RDM subbed him,so he could get some rest for the game against Barcelona otherwise he had no reason to bring Malouda on.

yeah. and so he should. but at CDM

[Strike 7,489]

Still I think our right winger has to track back. Barcelona are a difficult enough team to play against without leaving spaces.

yeah. if its not messi its cuenca or sanchez on the left. both could be tricky

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

yeah. and so he should. but at CDM

highly unlikely although I hope Danny starts as a left winger.

[Strike 7,489]

i dunno abt the game but the chelsea-barca match thread might just break the record for most number of pages for a match thread. anyone know the current record?

[ack17 205]

Official: German referee Felix Brych (36) will be in charge of the CL game against Chelsea on Wednesday

Brych wasn't yet in charge of any official Barcelona game. Was referee in Chelsea's 4-1 win against Napoli in 1/8 finals this year

[TacticalBlues 2,817]

Torres has scored 7 goals in 9 matches against Barcelona (2nd only to Raul (11) amongst current players).

Still inclined to go with big game man Drogba who can absolutely wreck Barca's team, he's the most feared IMO. But Torres and Barca have history too. A good enigma.

[Nando 106]

I think he has 7 goals in 10 matches, but however it's a great record.

[TacticalBlues 2,817]

[Jype 6,398]

Official: German referee Felix Brych (36) will be in charge of the CL game against Chelsea on Wednesday

Brych wasn't yet in charge of any official Barcelona game. Was referee in Chelsea's 4-1 win against Napoli in 1/8 finals this year

Brych was solid in the Chelsea - Napoli QF. Didn't make any big mistakes and most of the minor decisions went our way. A good choice by UEFA.

[Kojo 4,676]

I've always wondered why Catalonian players play for Spain and don't just refuse and only play for Catalonia. Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Busquets, Xavi, and Fabregas all seemed pretty happy when they won the World Cup with Spain. I think Barcelona fans just play up their Catalonian roots for the mystique. Apparently, Spanish is dominant over Catalan in Barcelona.

If some of London spoke a slightly different language then we might become pretentious and start using phrases in that language for our signatures. Mur than a club and Long Lif Chelc.

Prediction: Chelsea 3-1 Barcelona hahhahahahahahaha prediction 0- 3,

and only play for Cataunya? what do you say :S Catalunya is another community of Spain like Andalucia Madrid or Galicia.....bfff :S read before write these nonsense please.

ah and i am from Barcelona, m´entens? jo soc de Barcelona, però sobretot soc espanyol.

You're a disgrace to football, coming on a forum gloating and boasting because your team is the best. I bet anymoney you starting supporting them a few years ago.

[BlueSanti 290]

This one is hard to pick up, Torres can be very quick and deadly in counterattacks but for Drogba I think it's something rather special than only semi-finals.

[Nando 106]

An English referee at the Bayern Munich-Real Madrid semi-final and a German one at the Chelsea-Barcelona tie.. hm

[YouNameIt 1,511]

This will indeed be 2 very difficult games but I do believe Chelsea has what it takes to advance considering what we've seen these past weeks with Chelsea in RDM's hands. Also a HUGE motivation for the senior players is revenge against Barca for when we got robbed.

With the first game at Stamford Bridge I think CHelsea needs to play very offensive because going to Camp Nou with 1-0, 1-1, 2-1 or something like that is NOT good. I would like to see the following formation:

Cech

Ivanovic - Luiz - Terry - Cole

Ramires - Mikel - Lampard

Mata

Sturridge - Drogba

With that formation we would have the option to play the ball around and have a quick and technical player in the box AND the option to play long balls on Drogba.

I would love to see Torres in this game but im not sure if he would be the better choice WITH drogba because I cannot see Drogba NOT starting this...and he should indeed start.

But for the LOVE OF GOD just keep Malouda, Kalou and Bosingwa out of this game whatever happens...

[Sheva. 5,373]

Same 4-2-3-1 for me. But with Ramires on the left like against Napoli, and Sturridge/Torres on the right.

I'd prefer the latter because of his work rate and pressing, plus he can also deliver a mean cross!

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Barca has very clumsy defense, If press little, they start to panic. Mata is best at passing along Lamps and he is creative man, could outrun few opponents in counter attacks. In defense he isnt great, but on counters he will be best, giving chances for strikers. And he is quite experienced playing against barca, with Valencia. He will be not afraid to take responsibility and try little more. That is all we need.

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

A win on Wednesday won't really surprise me.We played really well last night and are capable of thrashing Barcelona as well.

[Sheva. 5,373]

I fully believe we can score at least 2 goals against them, the problem though will be keeping them from scoring.

[Thor 2,703]

I'm really not worried about the result, although obviously I'd love to thrash them and win.

For me, I see it as a win-win for us either way. If we end up going through, great. If we don't, and get thrashed by some chance, then it will be blatantly obvious that the team needs a complete overhaul if we want to compete at the best level again. We'll finally be having a serious look at all those players everyone is excited about adding to our team in the transfers. Either way, I think it will be great football, and it will lead to great things for us. I don't think anything bad can come from this bar injury to any of our players.

I'm looking forward to great football, and whenever we face off, its usually been that way.