This evening at 8:45 pm bt,
Barcelona plays the first game of the Champions league semi-finals against Chelsea.
Barcelona plays the first game of the Champions league semi-finals against Chelsea.
Chelsea squad list:
no list announced
Barcelona squad list:
Valdés, Jorquera, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Márquez, Cáceres, Abidal, Sylvinho, Xavi, Touré, Busquets, Keita, Gudjohsen, Iniesta, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Henry, Hleb
Read a match preview here and here
Re-live previous Barcelona-Chelsea games here
!!! LIVE MATCH CHAT !!!
From two hours before until two hours after the game you can join a match chat (read more here)
Before (what are your expectations, what's your prediction, what should be the line-up,...), during and after the match, you can also comment on the game here.
Posts
47 comments:
Predict 2:0 (Messi, Henry)..
ohhhh i cant wait 2 more hours ......
3-0
& the 0 is more important than the 3 !
2 more hours .. can anybody delete them from my life & start the match now?!
i have a feeling we will lose ..... or draw and not make it to the finals...
2-0
Touré, Eto'o
c'mon barca!!!
i cant wait anymore!!
visca el messi, visca el barca!!
I see this being a 0-0 or 1-1 if Barca comes out as they did this past Saturday, if they can play beyond the physical and come out as they did against Lyon and Bayern I can easily see this being a 3-0 or 4-0 game. I think the first five minutes will predict the outcome of the game. If barca ever takes their foot off the gas, and starts losing ball possession. I see it going badly.
Starting lineup: valdes;alves,marquez,pique,abidal;xavi,toure,iniesta;messi,eto'o,henry!
Puyol=/..i guess pep is resting him for real and ofcourse cause he is one yellow far from suspension,so as alves,,so we cant lose them both!
hmm, yanno, didn't Hiddink say that they were going to attack Barca? Same typical anti football bullshit. All Chelsea have done is boom it forward.
Chelsea are a total disgrace next to Barca. If there is any justice in the football world, Barca will score at least twice in the second half.
Pathetic Chelsea.
is the chatting room down? on 2nd half?
ok now
we r compleeetllyyy fucked !!!! no marquez or puyol for 2nd leg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now what...
we deserveda gol because iniesta was fouled what do you think it was a penalty or not or ballack he deserved the red for that.
Forca el barca!!!
Anti-football at its best?
I missed most of the game due to school, anyone mind telling me why it seems everyone on the fourm I go to is giving Alves a lot of dirt.
Damn right, Davis. Here they always hype up how 'great' the English league's so-called Big Four' are, I only saw why they progress. When they (exluding Arsenal) play against any team that actually wishes to play football, they defend (and the media compliment them on how impressive it is to keep a clean sheet). Typical outlook, do play the game, play for a result.
As for the refereeing, if you can call it that, both left and right back should have had yellows for their tackles on Henry and Messi. Ballack should have been red carded. And there were three offsides, two that could have lead to goalscoring opportunities,that should have never been.
blaugrana1: Adibal could play in centre, Silvinho left back.
I hope this don't end up like last year, the English 'style' prevailing due to not taking chances....One away goal and that would force Chelsea to play.
Well this sucks. We didn't score and Marquez (probably) and Puyol will miss the next game.
I know I'm bitching but the referee made two huge misses:
1. We should have had a penalty, I think it was Henry that got pulled down in the box.
2. Ballack should have received a second yellow card after punching Iniesta in the face.
I got the feeling that the referee was biased.
Pique for MOM.
Toure played without a mistake. Messi, Eto'o were almost invisible. Henry had some chances, but nothing special. Iniesta was brilliant. Xavi was okay. Abidal was okay. Alves was great. Marquez was okay, except for that mistake. Puyol was great. Valdes was amazing.
Brandon FCB: Alves was very bad in this game. His passing was off for most of it. He drifted out of position to often. Kept getting into petty arguements and stayed on the ground too long after fouls which disrupted the flow at times.
Generally, He should have calmed himself down in all aspects.
Alves and Messi were VERY disappointing. Messi really has no excuse; he was playing against a wrong-footed defender who was out of position. Nevertheless, he was absolutely invisible. I can't explain his virtual absence from the game. Iniesta looked dangerous, as did Henry at times, but Henry lacked any kind of finishing touch. I don't like our prospects going to Chelsea missing a natural center-back, but we'll see. At least we dominated the game, and I do think we'll score at Stamford Bridge, so we still have a decent shot at going through the tie. The team just needs to keep its head up, and we need our players to show up in London and take control of the game.
sorry for the language but the referee was a basterard he may have put us out of the finals puyol and marquez misses the next match which means are back are shit apart from alves and abidal we may have to play Cáceres and we no he is not that great a player. the ref also give toure a yellow for complaining once and give drogba nothing for his complaining and bad sports man ship
did you see him throughing water at the camera man at the end if you ask me he is a scum.i hate him same by the whole chelsea team but beletti.hleb is also crap i call he no feet.
best words and very true take the second leg 3-0
thanks
A man utd fan just smsed me and told me that football has evolved... huh? what the fuck was that supposed to mean? i now understand that they have absolutely no idea how to play the game. they think keeping cleen sheets is the way to go. i wonder how many EPL fans really enjoy themselves watching their league.
Today just confirmed wat we thought last year. The EPL is a total disgrace, they talk proudly of a big four.if they are really that good then y do they play with 9 defenders?
Man utd disgraced themselves last year. this year is the same for chelshit.the media artificially pumps EPL at the top. but it is an empty league.there's only money and cowardice there.they cannot create anything they just kick the ball randomly. Talk about an evolution in football....more like a devolution.
Today is a useless victory for spanish football. we destroyed chelsea just like we did against man u. we forced another english team to humiliate itself at camp nou. they showed they cannot outpass a more refined team and that they rely on mere luck.
Where do we stand now? it is not a bad result totally. guardiola's side played better than last year but its just that chelsea committed a lot of fouls to break the play. the referee was abyssmal. he didnt have a clue wat was going on. he allowed chelshit to play a dirty game. and by not giving out yellow cards when it mattered he encouraged dirty foot ball and long before the end i knew it would be 0-0.
the referee was key to chelshit's success. they committed fouls after fouls and the referee still didnt see anything. 2 offsides wrongly given. 1 clear penalty not given....the question is...WHY DO ENGLISH TEAMS ALWAYS SEEM TO BENEFIT FROM MISTAKES?
we didnt score becuz the referee didnt want us to score and it wasnt the teams fault.
the teams looks tired. i no longer care for champions league. its too dirty. i hope we blow madrid away. we need la liga more. we need a break. i wanna kick this asshole who makes fixtures... its ridiculous.
But we will prevail...becuz we can!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed that the Chelsea defense was very quick to double team Messi, or at least crowd the space around him out on the right. I read an article titled "Bosingwa Wins Messi Battle As Boring Chelsea Silence Barcelona" and I was just thinking, Messi had at least two guys on him almost the everytime he got the ball. AND didn't Guus say that Chelsea would 'attack Barcelona'???? What the hell happened to that plan Hiddink, you big bitch.
Don't worry about this draw because Barça will win at the Bridge. VISCA EL BARÇA
marquez out 4 the season and when will gabi milito be back?
at the bridge am sure abidal will partner pique at central defense. sylvinho or caceres as LB. i hope chelshit comes out and play...then we can score...
The Chelsea coach thinks it’ll be an open game at Camp Nou. “Both teams attack whenever they can,” he said. “We don’t sit back and wait but instead we go forward, so I reckon Tuesday’s game will be pretty open.”
Are you f ing kidding me
Yes, that was Guus' mind game and unfortunately, it worked well.
i hope we get a less lenient referee next time. speaking about refs.. we know how they love real madshit.. i also hope we get a fair m,atch in classico... barca loox tired.. but we will bounce back. its not barca's fault its the fixtures.
we can do this!!!
FORZA BARCA!!!...let justice prevail...
The game was terrible and Pique was the best player on the pitch
think about the positive side though
i have no doubt that we will score at stamford bridge, so either a win or a scoring tie will put us through, neither are things we can not do with this team
Henry should start the second leg as the Striker! Eto'o wasted too many chances. Then we move Iniesta to Henry's position and Keita comes in to help out the delicate LB Position as Abidal will probably move to the center of defense. I prefer Sylvinho over Caceres to play as Left-Back but he may to old too last in a high-paced game like this and Caceres has more height. I think Chelsea now takes the favorites tag because of our defensive problems and their home advantage. PS: Alves cutting in didn't work at all. He caused a hell of all more trouble earlier in the season when he crossed the ball. If Alves cuts in, what does Messi do! Good thing Ashley Cole will be back because he will have a harder time defending Messi because he will use his weaker foot when Messi cuts in.
We kinda need a player who can take spot kicks better... Or just practice with spot kick a bit more as Alves was close to scoring in one occasion
I agree with Iason. Caceres should have started a lot more this season so he gets to the point were he actually is reliable. If he preforms the way has on his good days regularly, he can be a very good defender but we shouldn't use him against Chelsea because the gamble is too big so Sylvinho would be a good choice.
Pep Guardiola prioritize el classico than won against chelsea last night. The player didn't go all out last night, about messi - despite the quick double team I think he's only conserve his energy to next match which is more important. Look at the bright sight, we didn't conceded any goals and there is a second leg in Stampford Bridge. Chelsea gameplay will totally different from last night, I pretty sure of that.
fatigue and the exausting fixture list .... 2nd leg depends much more on the elclassico now ...we have to win it get the confidence bost (without enjury) .... then we can take chlesea at there home were there mids will open up to attack ..and there def will start cmg forward and we well get ur chance .. and will score goals
you know, i would be really worried about this result if chelsea had played even one minute of actual football. but i cant see THAT shitty chelshit team doing anything in the next leg, so no worries guys. we need a scoring draw to progress for fucks sake. thats not very tough. but i felt very bad seeing messi play so bad.
Messi for not rreally Bad. Its just that he was not GOD yest and 2 players were marking him all the bloody time. And both were very physical with him , not letting him do wht it takes to be GOD.
Okay guys, here are my two cents:
The match was fairly uninspiring and a bad result for Barca. Chelsea did exactly what Man U did to us last season. Played poor, uninspiring football, or as some say anti-football.
It is now a well known fact that Guus Hiddink is a man with no integrity and whatever he says should not be given any attention. We have all clearly seen his brand of "attractive" and "attacking" football last night. It was a complete disgrace.
The big four can ONLY defeat truly creative and classy teams like Barca by playing like this - parking a bus and not going for the win. Didn't Hiddink say they were going to go for a win? Why then did Drogba cause little trouble (except for that horrendous pass by Marquez)?
I was honestly disgusted with the way Drogba and Malouda were acting and dropping down on the pitch like flies to gain free kicks and penalties. And Mourinho called Messi an actor!
The referee was blind indeed I completely agree. We should have got a penalty in the box. EPL biased BBC and Goal.com say it was a "slight tug". I say, MY FOOT.
Even before that, can anyone tell me why Bosingwa was not booked on the 14th minute:
14° Bosingwa is very lucky not to be booked after Messi pushed the ball past him and then as broke away he clipped him down. No card, but Barcelona have a free-kick which the Argentinian rises to kick past the far post.
I don't know about Ballack getting another yellow but Alex surely deserved another card. And so did Malouda. Alves was lucky not go get booked though.
Iniesta and Pique were by far the best players on the pitch. Aussie Barca will disagree and say that Pique was responsible for that Drogba chance, but he was not, as Drogba cut in from our right side, and he was marshalling on the left to a VERY good effect to keep Drogs at bay.
Messi was completely dominated to say the least, and I don't blame him.. although he needs to be more incisive and penetrate through walls. Alves was doing great until he got into a duel with Malouda. Notice how in the first 15 minutes he was the one causing real trouble.
Toure too had a decent game as did Abidal. Both of them stuck to their jobs and made very few, if at all mistakes.
Henry, Eto'o, Xavi, Bojan and Hleb were very, very disappointing to say the least. Players of their class should have done better. Henry was very selfish on many occasions which was surprising. Eto'o wasn't, but he barely made any impact on the game and should have been subbed earlier. It is now clear that not only is he blunt, but he has no effect in big games like these. I was quite disgusted to see him nearly not doing enough to score.
We wasted far too many chances like that one peculiar Alves cross. And I still don't understand WHY don't they let Henry take set pieces as opposed to Xavi who is no longer any good, and Alves who doesn't seem to be getting any better with them.
Hleb and Bojan wasted two golden opportunities, and had it been any other team, it should have resulted in two goals as Cech is not having the best patch in his career right now.
Marquez injury was unfortunate, although he did not nearly play well enough. Puyol was decisive, and his booking has created a lot of defensive problems for us. I guess in the next match we will play Alves Pique Abidal and Sylvinho.
I do not agree at all with the ratings given by Goal.com who gave Alves a poor 6 as compared to many of his English counter parts. Honestly quite surprised to see all our players except Iniesta get around 6-6.5 range whereas all Chelsea players got an average of 7-7.5.
Playing such uninspiring football might win Chelsea accolades from journalists and EPL fans, and maybe even silverware, but they will never, EVER garner any respect whatsoever from the fans of the beautiful game.
I hope Barca and Pep learn their lesson and play sharply and kill of the tie in the first half at Stamford Bridge.
Even if we lose, I will not be too disappointed because we stuck to our philosophy of playing attractive football rather than play none at all.
God bless Barca and I hope all cules pray for our success on next Wednesday. Forza Barca!
i completly agree with you knives out,but i want more ,i want revenge,i want to score 5 at stamford bridge just to humiliate them,
we are known as an attacking team,but we never humiliate our opponent after 3-4 we slow down always.i really dont want to slow down in the next game ,chelsea will be open it doesnt matter that its on their court ,bag 5-6 goals and show we are the better team......unless uncle will pay the referee again and they score more with penalties
I think the reason we couldnt score is our front three has been off the pace recently. If this was a month ago we would have got at least a goal. Look at the clasico where we scored 2. Its real unfortunate we werent on form to punish chelsea, but believe we will go through. Its the beauty of the away goals rule, that penalises teams which defend like chelsea
Henry's form has deteriorated sharply for me in the last few games. I think he is much better coming of the bench, maybe the long season has taken its toll on him. Those weak efforts he turns out on goal occassionally aren't going to worry any top class keeper.
Eto'o didn't do too badly for me but I would like to see him turn his marker and take that quick snapshot like the Eto'o of old. He however didn't get as many balls in his zone near the edge of the penalty area as he would have like. I think Xavi made too many lateral passes and he needed to try a few riskier vertical ones.
Hiddink was smart. He instructed his players to stay strictly zonal so that they don't get pulled out of position by the movement of the Barca players. In such a scenario Barca need to get the ball to that last defensive line and force a one-on-one or even a one-on-two contest there. I would take Henry out of the starting lineup and play Iniesta on the LW with Keita at LM for the next one.
Keita provides both support as well as the extra man inside the box. Also we need to crush the bus so I hope we see more runs from Dani Alves gate-crashing into the box. He also needs to be found quicker with an early diagonal pass rather from Iniesta to Xavi to Toure to Alves.
To look at things pragmatically, well we are in a difficult situation. Stamford Bridge is a small stadium, it is harder to maintain possession, easier to get up the field and support the striker. Chelsea don't have to attack throughout at the Bridge, they will do it in carefully regulated bursts. But this time Drogba will get a lot more support. Barca will lose the ball more often (another reason we need Keita to break up Chelsea's offensive plays) but they have the opportunity to make use of more space on the break. I hope we see more direct runs from Iniesta and Messi, with Eto'o pulling the defense wide.
This game resembled the Classico at the Camp Nou. We got lucky then, we didn't this time. The Bernebeu Classico is going to be no piece of cake either. We have to find ways to crush the bus against bigger, more disciplined teams. These games will remain as a footnote to history as the most stark footballing contests ever. The romance and artistry of Barca versus the brutishness and regimental discipline of the others. But to establish a legacy Barca will have to win and to win we might have to incorporate a little of what we so despise in others.
oh, if there was one contest we all ignored it was Mikel & Essien(2nd half) vs Toure and Toure without a doubt came up trumps.
Post a Comment