Closed Chelsea 1-3 Atletico Madrid

[robdog 2,084]

Rightfully so! They had three men marking him all game. I thought it would've been better to have him play the 10 yesterday, less tracking back and able to get on the ball more. Oh well

IMHO any of our players had the ball, they would be confronted by 3 AM players. I thought the AM work ethic was awesome. I knew this would be a tough match & AM excelled after we scored. They went up a level as we got complacent. My hats off to them & I think they will have a good shout for a Double (La Liga & European Cup).

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

IMHO any of our players had the ball, they would be confronted by 3 AM players. I thought the AM work ethic was awesome. I knew this would be a tough match & AM excelled after we scored. They went up a level as we got complacent. My hats off to them & I think they will have a good shout for a Double (La Liga & European Cup).

They were good but in the first half we got forward at will and had loads of space. The difference to me was the formation switch when Eto'o came on for Cole. we went from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 and were punished. In the semis of the champions league you are never going to have it easy, we just had a few lapses and they made us pay for it. If I'm gonna cry I'd say UEFA fucked us by allowing Courtois to play. The save he made on Terry and the reflex on Luiz were the two keys to the game.

[Starman60 1,343]

Why you trying to misrepresent what i actually meant? I admitted Atleti were better in both matches! but you expect everyone to give the performance of their lives in these kind of match as they come once a in while!

And never said Cahill was shit through out the season and must be sold! It's UCL semi-final for fucks sake 1 win and you're 1 step from lifting that damn trophy! we came this far why let it slip easily now! you expect certain players to man up and give their 100 percent 120 percent if you will. Schwarzer i accept he is really old you can not ask him to perform like Courtois but Cahill he was under performing tonight. that what's pisses me off.

The 3 goal they scored wasn't down to their brilliance but our own mistakes!

Which goal was Cahill to blame for? What did Schwarzer do that was so wrong? Our team was and is just what it is. Our players are human, therefore open to "human error". Nobody went out and gave anything less than 100% in my view. We were just beaten by a better side with better tactics on the night. Sometimes you just have to accept these things with good grace. It is an honour for me to even see Chelsea in a Champions League semi final. I remember Chelsea been beaten by teams like Scarborough many moons ago, so if you think last night was a disaster well you dont remember how far Chelsea have come in a very short space of time. And, we will get better and we will be back !!!!!!!!!!

[robdog 2,084]

If I'm gonna cry I'd say UEFA fucked us by allowing Courtois to play. The save he made on Terry and the reflex on Luiz were the two keys to the game.

Chelsea has always said Courtois could play, but they would have to pay 3 million for his appearances. This issue will have to be settled in court. The two clubs agreed to & signed a legal, binding contract. I am sure there isn't a court that won't rule in our favor. IMHO this is another bargaining chip for CFC whenever dealing w/ this club.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Chelsea has always said Courtois could play, but they would have to pay 3 million for his appearances. This issue will have to be settled in court. The two clubs agreed to & signed a legal, binding contract. I am sure there isn't a court that won't rule in our favor. IMHO this is another bargaining chip for CFC whenever dealing w/ this club.

I hope you're right. So long as we make money from this its not a bad thing, seeing him make two worldy saves to keep us from the finals is still leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. If it leads to us grabbing Costa at a discount I might not hold a grudge.

[xPetrCechx 13,571]

Where i can find quality pictures from this match?

[icipher 12]

Atlético fan here:

I just registered here to pay my respects to Chelsea FC. The atmosphere of both matches was awesome, filled with tension and strength but always keeping fair play.

You have a great team, a great manager and great supporters.

Good luck in the PL.

(and sorry for my lame English, hahahaha)

[robdog 2,084]

Atlético fan here:

I just registered here to pay my respects to Chelsea FC. The atmosphere of both matches was awesome, filled with tension and strength but always keeping fair play.

You have a great team, a great manager and great supporters.

Good luck in the PL.

(and sorry for my lame English, hahahaha)

Que Bueno & mucho Suerte vs RM

[iseah100 5,612]

Que Bueno & mucho Suerte vs RM

Voy a apollar el Atletico! Vamossss!

[robdog 2,084]

Voy a apollar el Atletico! Vamossss!

por que? lo siento mi espanol es muy mal

[drog.ba 239]

Im not sure we were necessarily beaten by a better side/tactics; we went 1-0 up - we just needed to get to half time. We made simple errors in defence to give away the first, which were out of sorts for us. After that goal you could see we looked almost beaten.

Then Eto'o gives away a penalty that is stupidly soft, why he thinks he should be making a challenge there with his previous Im not sure. After that it was game over and of course they looked good - as Real did, for a counter-attacking team its easy to look good when the other teams chasing (see us vs Arsenal). Games like this are usually decided by fine margins, had we defended a ball you'd expect us to, had Eto'o been put on a bit later we could be through.

Hope Atletico go on to win it, they're a really good side, a better unit then we are currently. Next year with Matic in the middle, a new striker, and maybe Courtois in goal I can seeing us going further; I hope Mourinho's consistent failure in semi finals in recent years ends

[The Rising Sun 711]

More coaching in attack as well for next season please!!

It was important for us this season to get everyone to become defensively solid in terms of understanding their responsibilities when we lost the ball. That has been accomplished!

I would hope that our ENTIRE game approach is not based on only counter attacks, as we do have some amazing footballing players. We can surely do both.

This game had many errors of judgement from both manager and players, so we just have to move on.

I only hope that we become a little more adventurous in our game, as this style of counter attacking only works against gung ho attacking teams in the PL, but even if we buy a striker, when teams come to SB and park the bus, we will not be able to break them down as we cant counter attack.

Tactical tweaking necessary this summer.

Roman wants attacking footy, and will get it. Mourinho is still the man to do it.

[cosmicway 1,333]

Anyone else think the substitutions were weird? At 1-1 we bring on Eto'o for Cole? changed the team shape and it burned us. The time for that move would've been later in the game I thought.

If it were up to me I would've taken Cole for Schurrle and looked to play Hazard in the middle with Willian and Schurrle flanking. Then if its still not working you bring on Eto'o for Torres and Ba for Ramires.

From 45' to 60' we did n't see the colour of the ball.

Also in the first half we scored more or less against the run of the play, just when an exasparated fox news speaker said "it does n't look like Chelsea can score".

Eto was unlucky to get involved.

The only time it looked like Atletico had their backs against the wall was between the 1-2 and the 1-3 (!) but of course the poisonous counterattacking could not be checked.

[Liquidator 5,176]

Well done to Atletico. That's all I can say really. They were just better than us.

Good luck in the final, the Atletico fans I came across yesterday seemed a very decent, down to Earth bunch and very good supporters of their team too. Smash those arrogant pricks Real in the final and hope you win La Liga too

[Liquidator 5,176]

I don't recall those banners being flown before @ Da Bridge. Are they new?

We've had them since the start of this season but last night was the first time we had all 4 out at once. Generally we only use them for Champions League but bring out the Champions League one for games against Arsenal and Spurs just to take the piss

[Liquidator 5,176]

Atmosphere partucularly flat last night, too many fucking tourists apparently, most of which left early, probably to catch the start of the theatre

It was quite good at the start and up until they scored but after that it all went a bit shit. You're right, it was filled with fucking tourists and lots of empty seats with 10 minutes remaining. A lot of people used the 'tube strike' excuse, although that didn't really wash with me, more that they are just really shit supporters

[soccerfreak7 2]

I am rooting for Atletico in the final. They played a good game. I hope Courtois is our number 1 next year

[Stats 7,142]

Seeing Sterling and Enrique mock our champions league exit on twitter makes our 2-0 win over them on their own turf much sweeter. Guess they are still bitter at the fact that we are likely to be the team that stopped them winning the league. And we done the double over them

[cosmicway 1,333]

Well done to Atletico. That's all I can say really. They were just better than us.

Good luck in the final, the Atletico fans I came across yesterday seemed a very decent, down to Earth bunch and very good supporters of their team too. Smash those arrogant pricks Real in the final and hope you win La Liga too

I sort of mixed with foreign supporters only once. In 1983 Juventus - Hamburg. The Germans were city gents and the Italians noisy but friendly. Then in 2007 we staged AC Milan - Liverpool. All I remember from that one was a scouser selling some really nice Liverpool t-shirts for 10 euro only. I walked around the city square and when I came to the same spot, the Greek fuzz had chased him away. Pity, I wanted to buy one ...

The worst lot you must ever have had in London must have been the PAOK crowd from Salonika against Spurs. Come on, say it !

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]