CL R16: Chelsea vs PSG

Think it was Chelsea's only shot on target as well

Most clutch team in the game ffs.

guest_07 wrote:

Raptorgunner wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2015/feb/17/chelsea-fans-prevent-black-man-boarding-paris-metro-video?CMP=share_btn_tw
The fans then chant: 'We're racist, we're racist and that's the way we like it'

Disgusting behavior.

ugly football + ugly fan = awesome combination

If your first reaction to viewing racism on tape is that it's "awesome" simply because it gives you an opening to criticise a club you don't like, you really haven't got any moral high-ground over these people in the first place, do you.

Unfortunately no club is exempt from having their share of brain-amputated "fans".

Verratti dominates the flow of the game... he sets the pace and nobody can do much about it because it's quasi impossible to take the ball away from him.

The contrast in flow when he's on and off the pitch is drastic. You don't see anywhere near the impact when Motta or Pastore aren't playing.

Matuidi is another guy who brings that intangible factor to the midfield... he's not technical, but he freakin goes after everything relentlessly. Does all the dirty work and manages to get involved in the attack too. Individually, he doesn't look impressive... but then you take him off the pitch and you see the massive difference. It's the same with NT and it's not like he's replaced by bad players in Schneiderlin and Sissoko at NT... Cabaye and Rabiot at PSG.

We weren't actually set up to play football yesterday and the ref was beyond atrocious. PSG are a good team but yesterday pretty much told us nothing because that performance from us has been a constant theme throughout our season. We made players look much better than they actually are as we did against Tottenham, Liverpool, United and Man City. We only have Courtois to thank for still being in this tie.


Oh and how many times was Hazard fouled yesterday without any reprimand for the offenders? Essentially took him out of the game. 9 fouls on 1 player must be some sort of record.

B-Mac wrote:

B-Mac wrote:Chelsea fans prevent black man boarding Paris metro train

http://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2015/feb/17/chelsea-fans-prevent-black-man-boarding-paris-metro-video?CMP=share_btn_tw

disgusting bunch of rent boys jesus christ

Raptorgunner wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2015/feb/17/chelsea-fans-prevent-black-man-boarding-paris-metro-video?CMP=share_btn_tw
The fans then chant: 'We're racist, we're racist and that's the way we like it'

Disgusting behavior.

I am sorry, I didn't even see that.

Raptorgunner wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2015/feb/17/chelsea-fans-prevent-black-man-boarding-paris-metro-video?CMP=share_btn_tw
The fans then chant: 'We're racist, we're racist and that's the way we like it'

Disgusting behavior.

Not surprised. Their fanbase is littered with racist, scum.

Lol chelsea chav ****s!!

Make a bad name to the small percentage of decent chelsea fans. Fair play to Chelsea for reacting and making a swift action.

halamadrid2 wrote:I agree with Kick, I wasn't particularly impressed with Veratti. Chelsea players did not pressure the PSG midfield, Veratti and Luiz had all the time in the world to pick passes and everytime it was sideways, cant even remember ONE cross field ball they made. Also Veratti was lucky to be on the field, the guy has worse tackles than Xabi Alonso x2. He is a red card waiting to happen. Luiz was PSG's best midfielder but all in all I expected more from them than 2cm sideways especially with having so much freedom due to Chelsea deciding to sit back instead of press

This was a very physical match, thats why Verrati struggled, but did a very good job. He won a freekick for Ibra, made some deep passes, and no..he is not a good tackler, that is not his job, maybe he got angry with all those punchers in the other team...

RED wrote:

Raptorgunner wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2015/feb/17/chelsea-fans-prevent-black-man-boarding-paris-metro-video?CMP=share_btn_tw
The fans then chant: 'We're racist, we're racist and that's the way we like it'

Disgusting behavior.

Not surprised. Their fanbase is littered with racist, scum.

Lol chelsea chav ****s!!

Make a bad name to the small percentage of decent chelsea fans. Fair play to Chelsea for reacting and making a swift action.

Stupid comment. White people in general still have a huge problem with racism. It isn't just magically limited to one club.

The result is very good but, meh, Courtois bailed us big time AGAIN. Only reason we drew.
They were excellent saves, only because he's capable of making even greater saves it doesn't mean they're ordinary and routine saves. That's like saying Messi's goal against Iran in the WC is ordinary and routine because he's able to do even better.

I just don't understand why if RDM parks the bus and hopes for a fluke goal and relies on his GK he's extremely lucky and if Mou does the exact same it's a typical Mou away performance. At least RDM didn't have Matic and Cesc and had Malouda, Bertrand and Kalou as his attacking options, Mou has a much much better team and relied on a fluke goal and our GK to save us against Liverpool, City, United as well.
If we're going to concede a lot of chances and rely on our GK to stop them then might as well try to outscore our opponent.

tbf RDM parked the bus REALLY hard. Drogba was playing LB vs Barca

Mourinho plays defensive away, but at least has a decent offensive/counter-attacking plan while RDM's chelsea just looked like they were playing catenaccio

No his offensive plan is the same. Hoping for a set-piece goal/fluke counter and the offensive potential this Chelsea has is twice RDM's Chelsea's.

Shed wrote:

guest_07 wrote:

Raptorgunner wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2015/feb/17/chelsea-fans-prevent-black-man-boarding-paris-metro-video?CMP=share_btn_tw
The fans then chant: 'We're racist, we're racist and that's the way we like it'

Disgusting behavior.

ugly football + ugly fan = awesome combination

If your first reaction to viewing racism on tape is that it's "awesome" simply because it gives you an opening to criticise a club you don't like, you really haven't got any moral high-ground over these people in the first place, do you.

are you hurt?

i'm sorry

This was good work by Chelsea. Last season they let PSG get the better of them and it took some very hard work and a good dose of luck to get the English team through at the Bridge. However, Mourinho didn't make the same mistake twice and set his team up to get the away goal early this time.

If Mou made one mistake, it was that he perhaps sat back too much in the second half and invited undue pressure on the defence at a time when they didn't have a viable outlet through which to counter effectively after repelling PSG's attacks. In other words, given that their focal point (Costa) was completely out of sorts and failed to make any meaningful contribution to the hold up play (let alone scoring goals), the strategy of soaking up pressure and rebounding quickly with the long ball did not work.

Also, Ivanovic deserves special praise for being an underrated defender with a knack for scoring incredibly important goals. At a time when good WBs are few and far between, it's hard to look past the Serbian for well-rounded quality in attack and defence.

Forza wrote:This was good work by Chelsea. Last season they let PSG get the better of them and it took some very hard work and a good dose of luck to get the English team through at the Bridge. However, Mourinho didn't make the same mistake twice and set his team up to get the away goal early this time.

If Mou made one mistake, it was that he perhaps sat back too much in the second half and invited undue pressure on the defence at a time when they didn't have a viable outlet through which to counter effectively after repelling PSG's attacks. In other words, given that their focal point (Costa) was completely out of sorts and failed to make any meaningful contribution to the hold up play (let alone scoring goals), the strategy of soaking up pressure and rebounding quickly with the long ball did not work.

Also, Ivanovic deserves special praise for being an underrated defender with a knack for scoring incredibly important goals. At a time when good WBs are few and far between, it's hard to look past the Russian for well-rounded quality in attack and defence.

He might have scored a goal but his defending and positioning in that game was atrocious. Most of PSGs good attacks came from his flank.

Ivanovic's defending was by no means superb in that game, but it wasn't atrocious. I am praising him for his general standard of play, rather than this game. Nevertheless, I'd like to discuss his defensive performance vs PSG anyway...

I think that Ivanovic's defending must be viewed in the wider context of the compact system that Mourinho employed. In this system, both flanks are almost completely ceded to the opposition. This was most evident in the 2nd half.

Van der Wiel and Maxwell got forward to good effect and they were well supported by Verratti and Matuidi, respectively. Coveresely, you couldn't say that Matic and Ramires moved out from the centre to the flanks often. This meant that the team relied on Hazard and Willian to get back and double-mark the flanks.

The problem with relying on your wide forwards to defend crosses is that, in situations where the opposition move quickly, there isn't enough time to get back and prevent crosses from coming in. No wing back can be expected to defend crosses on their own when they are outnumbered on their side.

In this game, particularly after Matuidi made one of his excellent interceptions, there wasn't any time for Ivanovic to stop him and Maxwell from working the ball into enough space so that good crosses could be made. Willian wasn't able to get back in time.

To emphasise that this was a systemic problem, you only have to look at the several instances where Hazard had pushed up and Azpi was double-teamed by Verratti and Van der Wiel.

In sum, Ivanovic bore the brunt of PSG's pressure, but I struggle to see how he can be faulted for his positioning when he was at a tactical disadvantage for most of the game.

Forza wrote:
Also, Ivanovic deserves special praise for being an underrated defender with a knack for scoring incredibly important goals. At a time when good WBs are few and far between, it's hard to look past the Russian for well-rounded quality in attack and defence.

Who are you talking about?

Gil wrote:

RED wrote:

Raptorgunner wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2015/feb/17/chelsea-fans-prevent-black-man-boarding-paris-metro-video?CMP=share_btn_tw
The fans then chant: 'We're racist, we're racist and that's the way we like it'

Disgusting behavior.

Not surprised. Their fanbase is littered with racist, scum.

Lol chelsea chav ****s!!

Make a bad name to the small percentage of decent chelsea fans. Fair play to Chelsea for reacting and making a swift action.

Stupid comment. White people in general still have a huge problem with racism. It isn't just magically limited to one club.

It's rife within Chelsea though. Large part of the fanbase are UKIP supporting hooligans still stuck in the 80's.

It's very very curious how whoever is filming knows exactly the time and the spot of the misdeed even before it actually happens.
And even if they were really Chelsea fan, I doubt that Chelsea is brainwashing its fans to be racist or has done anything to make them become racist, so I really don't see why the first thing they would point out is that they're Chelsea fans as it doesn't have anything to do with it. Unless of course this is all tailor-fabricated by non Chelsea fans to put Chelsea and its fans to a bad light.

I now understand Mou's comments about conspiracies against Chelsea. He's always one step ahead of everyone.

junkyard wrote:

Forza wrote:
Also, Ivanovic deserves special praise for being an underrated defender with a knack for scoring incredibly important goals. At a time when good WBs are few and far between, it's hard to look past the Russian for well-rounded quality in attack and defence.

Who are you talking about?

Typo. Should've said Serbian.

nobody wanted to bump this thread

farfan wrote:nobody wanted to bump this thread

Mind games

Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Fabregas, Matic; Ramires, Oscar, Hazard; Diego Costa

Sirigu, Marquinhos, David Luiz, Thiago Silva, Maxwell, Thiago Motta, Matuidi, Verratti, Pastore, Cavani, Ibrahimovic.

My predictions are that it will be a low-scoring game with a red card to either Luiz or Ramires.

Dunno what Forza is on about in this thread tbh.

Ivanovic defending in that game was atrocious, every time PSG attacked down his side he was nowhere to be seen and was constantly covered by Ramires and Matic( who more often than not where the ones defending or blocking the crosses while Ivanovic was strolling around.)

That isn't good defending, in fact it's abysmal because his team mates were able to save his backside doesn't change that fact. If he wasn't scoring goals he wouldn't even be in the team, he's a crap defender.

Ivanovic isn't a crap defender, but he's 31 and has lost a bit of pace, imo. I just wonder for how long can Chelsea use him as full-back when he's naturally a CB anyway and starting to lose his peak physical condition.

Edit. Not that he ever had much pace, but I've started to see him get beaten a bit too easily by wingers.