Closed Sparta Prague 0-1 Chelsea

[Styles 9,790]

Depressing football.

I would sacrifice a lot of things to never have to endure the Ramires-Lampard partnership ever again.

Marin was appallingly bad and Torres rubbish as usual.

Mata was the epitome of a luxury player tonight. Did nothing defensively or going foward and was largely ineffectual as he's too weak and slow.

[Hutcho 8,443]

45 minute delay? You should have come on here. We could have just warned you not to watch.

Yeah i suppose so... I didn't want to come on here, as i was thinking it would spoil the 6-0 scoreline. What i should have done was just skip back to live action and watch the last 30 mins... But you live and you learn.

[zolayes 14,489]

Hard to vote MOTM. Voted for Oscar even though he only had one very good moment but still that was better than anyone else. (If he didn't score, I'd probably vote for Lampard who did a few good things along with a few bad but at least he was noticeable.) When we get back to the league fixtures can we tell Oscar that we're still playing in Europe? Also, the team should fine any player other than Lampard, Mata, Hazard, or Oscar who tries a shot from more than 25 yards (except Luiz on free kicks). I'm even getting tired of Lampard's long shots but at least they're often on net and he is actually capable of scoring from there. I can't stand seeing Ramires, Luiz, Ivanovic, etc.. take these ridiculous 45 yard shots that go sailing out of the stadium. If you're in a good scoring position, please shoot. We try to be too cute sometimes and pass up good shooting opportunities for a perfect play, and a shot on target from a dangerous area is always a good thing, but not from an area of the pitch where you'll never ever score..(and Torres should just be fined for being who he is. I actually miss the blond hair because it was a little easier to quickly identify him and then not get your hopes up at all.)

its still easy to spot Torres ,,,he is the one standing still watching the game

[Hutcho 8,443]

Someone tell me why when hazard or someone gets the ball with space in front of them and starts running into it, torres drops deep instead of making a run behind the defence... Isn't that what you learn at under 7 level. Then you create a chance through recieving a through ball or even if he doesn't pass it then it drags out defenders which creates more space for the man running with the ball.

[Muzchap 8,966]

Pathetic team to put out in this competition and the players treated it with all the enthusiasm you'd expect. Despite that we still managed to beat a very ordinary team and will probably shoehorn in a couple of extra fixtures when we don't have the players to cover them.

All we learnt is that Marin really doesn't offer much, Torres is able of playing even worse than you previously thought, Cahill and Ivanovic are terrible at passing out of defence, Lamps likes shooting and the Europa League is as shite as it's name suggests.

Hmm not convinced on the critiscising of Marin...

Like his 2nd start?

Some players need a run of games and the rest of the team were absolute shite - he had nobody to pass too when he got forward.

Look at Danny after a few games at ScumPool he's been playing well.

Marin needs a bit of time - ok he's no Messi but at least offers width and a bit of excitement!

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

Poor performance, but I suppose it's half the job done. Tie could've been put to bed tonight, just gives us more to do next week. At least we'll have a few of the missing players back by then.

I must be in the minority... I actually thought Marin was decent, especially first half. Looked the most likely to create something.

[teignman 441]

Another tepid performance against weak opposition. Business as usual in the Rafalution.

[Hutcho 8,443]

How Rafa can still prefer torres over ba is beyond me (I know ba can't play in europa)...

[Muzchap 8,966]

Someone tell me why when hazard or someone gets the ball with space in front of them and starts running into it, torres drops deep instead of making a run behind the defence... Isn't that what you learn at under 7 level. Then you create a chance through recieving a through ball or even if he doesn't pass it then it drags out defenders which creates more space for the man running with the ball.

Love the way people are praising Hazard and slating Marin

Hazard was poor. Marin better and only 2nd game and had exactly the same problem - nobody to pass too!

Torres offers nothing for wide men. Stick Marin and Hazard on with BA to aim at and it would be better... I think play Cahill up front, he can knock the ball down and gets him out of Defence

Honestly - Hazard dissapointed me massively tonight - always too deep along with Mata, not able to beat players - a shadow of the player I kept seeing last season in France? He has been getting progressively worse under Benitez! I'm really worried - Benitez seems to be killing him

[Hutcho 8,443]

Love the way people are praising Hazard and slating Marin

Hazard was poor. Marin better and only 2nd game and had exactly the same problem - nobody to pass too!

Torres offers nothing for wide men. Stick Marin and Hazard on with BA to aim at and it would be better... I think play Cahill up front, he can knock the ball down and gets him out of Defence

Honestly - Hazard dissapointed me massively tonight - always too deep along with Mata, not able to beat players - a shadow of the player I kept seeing last season in France? He has been getting progressively worse under Benitez! I'm really worried - Benitez seems to be killing him

I am not praising hazard, i just meant him or anyone in midfield when they run forward. Hazard was poor. Only bright spot was his link up with oscar, but he neither of them were very good tonight. BA up top would have helped as he would have challenged for all those long balls etc and made forward runs which would beneift the three behind.

[Stingray 9,441]

Shit game really.

But .... Wtf was Torres (not) doing all game ....

[edetarod 2,155]

next round Ajax probably, hopefully much more interesting

[Jase 43,479]

next round Ajax probably, hopefully much more interesting

Play like this against Ajax and we'll get beaten easily.

[Sovieticus 743]

Play like this against Ajax and we'll get beaten easily.

Does it seem that Rafa cares lol?

[Jase 43,479]

Does it seem that Rafa cares lol?

Do the players care? The way they played today was like what happened in the Super Cup and Club World Cup final.

[Mustafa 885]

I was at school for the game and but i recorded it and when i got home i was super excited to see an emphatic victory !

Everytime Torres was on the ball ...

Everytime Ramires took a shot from 25+ yards ....

Rafa putting on Benayoun....

The fans calling Rafa a wanker for making that change...

Overall, unacceptable performance !!

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

Sack Rafa, Torres as manager, save us playing the cunt upfront. Marin can be his no.2 both fucking shit, 25 minutes of playing reasonable in a team thats playing shit means nothing.

Would rather lose playing attractive football than win playing this utter bullshit under Rafa, thats how bad we were, ok not really but we need to play fucking better jesus christ.

[Jase 43,479]

One thing I didn't like watching this was the fact that no one was making themselves available to be played in behind Sparta's defence. Everybody wanted to get on the ball and looking to past around which led to the lack of penetration. We tried to play 1-2s through them and it failed quite often. And heck, even that blondie dropped deep everytime we get the ball in the hole which made it even worse!