Over the last one week there have been numerous posts on whether the champions league was not what it used to be and the lack of attacking football on offer from various football plaudits which also includes the likes of Barca coach Rijkaard suggesting its a "pity" that english teams do not playing the kind of attacking football they should given the stardom they possess. I rubbish all these claims. For me, this case clearly resembles the case of "Grapes being sour"! Barca have nothing short of a disaster all season long. Clearly, their form in all competitions have been awful and its only because of their relatively easier draw they have made it this far, at least this season. And especially given the fact that they did not have even one legitimate effort on goal over both the legs (no matter how defensive minded ManU can be) is nothing short of a catastrophe for them given they pretend as though they are the sole representatives of the beautiful game of football adhering to its true principles! Come on Barca, Don't be sore losers. Give due credit to the opponents, especially when you are outplayed both on and off the pitch. By referring to off the pitch I meant the tactics, the ploy to employ Nani and Park behind the full backs of Barca yielded wonders for Sir Alex's side. And of course, on the pitch too they were outplayed by a classy Man United side.
Coming to the second match between chelski and the other Reds. Let me hit it straight on the nail. Benitez(coach of Reds) got the tactics completely wrong! Firstly, when you are dealing with someone like Drogba you have to more than careful! Never assault any great player before the crunch games(remember Carrick firing up Sachin before the 2003 WC clash with england!)
As the opposing manager would you anger and rile the guy so much that he no longer is playing to get into a CL final but to prove you wrong and to rub your nose in it? It is moronic management by Benitez I'm afraid as Grant didn't have to do his job at all with his star striker here other than put a casette into a tape player!! Come on Rafa!
This does not end over here, he picks up two defensive mid-fielders, Alonso and Mash, to start the clash is fine by me, however, even when the side is 2-1 down, you still having both of them is far from understandable.
However, Avram seemed like he could do no wrong! His decisions were spot on. Right from team selection to tactics. Lampard produced a trademark defensive splitting pass to find Kalou and he brought a save from Reina and then collecting the rebound Drogba produced a stunner from a tight angle. Reds equalized through Torres(not a surprize!).
All through the night(if you have watched the match!), StevieG was anonymous, this I think requires a special mention and Makelele, I should say made him invisible! In extra time, Blues turned it on. Ballack forcing a foul from Hypia and lampard for all that he had been through the last week, slotted home the penalty. The blues finally ended up as deserved winners. Nevertheless, kudos to both the teams given the fact that previous 6 CL encounters produced a meager 3 goals. This tie was without any doubt the best so far and a fitting encounter as a Semi-final. Hope to see a special CL final on 21st. ManU start favorites!
ps: RR vs KKR about to start :)
[Esc] :wq
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though cricket is not my interest ... but good to see that you are blogging regularly :D
Roger that !
LOL @ Liverpool
Man U start as favourites ?
Surely, you must be joking !
Man U have a bad record against Chelsea. They lost in the FA Cup Final. ( yeah, I know that can be put down to low energy levels ) They lost last Saturday. They lost when it mattered last last season. The only memorable victory over Chelsea that I can think of is the home win in the 2005 season when one of our YOUTH team graduates darren fletcher scored with a header.
Besides, the artificial surface at the Luzhniki stadium will favour Chelsea's "long ball to drogba" game.
So, stop playing your mind games now.
Not that it matters :P
@theflipper First of all get ur stats right! The match will not be played on artifical surface. ManU won the home encounter this season and also the community shields cup! I have made that statement from the point of view of a neutral observer given the rich form ManU have been enjoying this season.
I usually leave people be, as opinions vary. However, this "analysis" is on Liverpool and far too flawed and biased for my taste ;)
1. The game was 1-1 after 90 mins in both games. Look at possession stats, shots on/off target for both sides. See the match again. Still cite flawed tactics? Besides, flawed tactics means you get outplayed. Neither side was. While i dont agree with some of the post, the "tactics completely wrong" part makes zero sense, and you know it. :P
2. If a truly world class striker (which i suppose Drogba is) needs an opposition manager to fire him up for the SEMI-FINAL of the biggest cup competition at club level, he ceases to be world class. He ceases to be professional, actually, and would never have reached the level he is at. At the level they play, they need no furthur motivation.
3. Avram Grant could do no wrong? The Malouda substitution had zero impact, as did Joe Cole, who started. Makelele's lack of pace was directly responsible for Torres's goal, just like Riise was (directly or indirectly) responsible for two of the four chelski goals. Rafa had no other options, while Grant did have a 12 mil pound one. The super-sycophantic way you put it, one would suspect you worship an idol of Grant first thing every morning. Or worse. :D
4. Liverpool were looking comfortable in the first leg until Aurelio went off, Riise came on and gifted chelski a goal. Second leg, Drogba was (to a fair extent) under control when Skrtel was on the pitch. Torres had to be taken off for a hamstring injury late in the game. Not blaming injuries, as chelski had players absent in the first leg, which evens out to some extent, but its surprising how no "analysis" ever makes a mention of this.
5. Tactics again - Rafa made a mistake with Pennant and no Crouch. Grant put on Malouda (and later Sheva) who did, well, f*ck all. Babel scored a goal and Anelka created one, so on substitutions, both managers were equally good/bad.
6. The ManU-Barca thing - I always thought tactics were "on" the pitch. Mind games are what is "off" the pitch ;)
A link, which is possibly a neutral analysis, although i dont agree with some of it -
http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8742_3502040,00.html
This comment is as long as the post. Couldnt help it, sorry. But someone had to stick up for 'pool. ;)
bloody links to the website arent working. heres a text file, if you want to read it anyway :D
http://students.iiit.ac.in/~badrinath/f1.txt
errata - just remembered that sheva came on in the 119th minute. need to cancel all mention of him in the prev post.
In spite of being a huge Liverpool fan , I think Chelsea deserved the win.Avram's reaction after the win was hilarious to say the least although it was an emotional moment etc etc. Liverpool needed Gerrard to play the match of his life and he did not. When he does not play well, Liverpool do not have back up plans. I hope Rafa is sacked and we have someone like Jose (I hope its him - DIC wants him and so does Inter) coaching.
Xabi Alonso ain't a defensive mid-fielder!!! He can barely tackle :(
It's just that he's being used by Rafa in that way, and in the process being wasted.
Avram Grant doesn't do anything on his own. He's copying the special one a.k.a Mourinho
p.s:- Gerrard doesn't need a Makelele to become invisible. He does it himself.
trying to be fair and unbiased, chelski probably shaded the encounter, and liverpool's luck had to run out sooner rather than later. chelski (just about) deserved the win.
with that out of the way, i'll now proceed to pass comment on the comments. :D
@namrata
calling for rafa's head seems a very rash thing to do, and i say this because ive been following liverrpool's progress from during the times of the houllier era. Liverpool were on the brink of being kicked out of "Europe's elite", despite the 2000 season. the players were quite terrible as a whole and they lacked even whatever little consistency they have now. with a net outlay of just 20 mil a season (before this one) he has done wonders. compare the two squads before and after he came to 'pool.
with his job status always in doubt due to the board room tussle, it takes a very strong man to stick it out for the club he loves. he could have taken the easy way out and been off to barca or real or inter or bayern (who all want him), but he didnt. i could give many many more reasons, but dont want to make this too long.
@rahul
about xabi alonso, he is a deeplying playmaker, which is one of three types of defensive midfielders. tackling is his secondary job. however, a season or so back, he had the most tackles per game in the premiership, over the entire season. cant tackle? just because he doesnt dive into tackles like monster masch doesnt mean he cant tackle. i will agree however that xabi's reactions seem to have slowed a bit and he gets dispossesed too easily. gerrard was one of the worst players on the pitch, atleast xabi made some good passes.
like i said, i usually do not mouth off about this, as opinions do differ, but this is getting me a bit riled.
well, sorry for using a post of yours as a propaganda device. ;)
Chelski had to beat Live-a-fool some time or the other in the CL SF n this time they did :P They just got lucky with the brilliant away goal. I definitely thought Liverpool would score @ Bridge and the match would go to penalties and backed them to go through. Anyway, another United - Chelski clash! Last year it was the FA Cup n this time its the CL final!
A Gooner's point of view of the final:
"A United v Chelsea final is such a complete and utter shitfest that I don’t think I can possibly watch it. Nor do I care who wins. And I will go around with my fingers in my ears going ‘la la la la la la la la’ rather than find out the result.
If it was a film trailer it’d be ‘The Champions League final - 22 cunts and a ball’. F*ck off the lot of them."
Personally, I'm sick of watching United play Chelski coz they've already faced them thrice this season (Community Shield n twice in the league). It will be a cagey affair and its damn boring to watch such matches! Will root for United though :) Go United Go!
@Badri
1. Only in the second half when Yossi and Kuyt switched flanks, pool were effective for before that for the entire first half they were indeed outplayed. For me, possession stats do not matter, its what you do with the ball.
2.Nothing much to read/infer. Even for me Drogba is not a professional given his antics. The lad however has got abilities above par. May be in the EPL only torres is a better striker than him!
3.For me, Malouda was substituted for Kalou and if I am not wrong Malouda keeps the possession of ball and induce fouls from the opponents much better than Kalou. Given the dismal performance of Chelski in second half, he did improve the game! The goal came because of a collective defensive slack from Terry (leaving torres), carvalho's dive not coming off, Drogba and Makelele blocking each other off.
4.Yes. Affirmative. Given Pool lost out on key players is a valid reason but its a pity that even though they participate only in UCL, they cannot retain their best ;)
5. Babel's goal was more down to Cech's inability, I have problems if you credit him. Babel is good player and should have been on the pitch when Anelka was in.
6. Oops. I am at fault ;)
@Namrata Rafa is usually a tactical genius and is almost unbeatable over two legs! However, I haven't seen a more defensive minded manager than him at top-flight football! For them to complete with the likes of Chelski, Arsenal and ManU week-in and week-out, they need more world-class players(as of now only Gerrard, torres, Mash can lot into any given team)!
@Satyakris Hope the best team wins ;)
maybe Xabi Alonso should move on to Chelsea. All that the blues do is to dump balls onto Drogba's head up front and who better to do it than Xabi?
Couple of seasons ago, Xabi used to even score lot more goals. These days he hardly gets to goal scoring positions. He seems to be playing deeper than Mascherano. I personally feel he is on par with Gerrard, if played as an attacking midfielder
Aargh. Football fanatics!
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