[Archived] Champions League

[philipl]

In less than an hour, probably the most remarkable last 16 set of matches yet seen will be under way.

When the draw was made, I fancied the English quartet to do well but having just listened to the World Service make all four English clubs rank outsiders from each of their respective ties, I don't know now.

[Bobby G]

phillipl,

i thought that this was the greatest match ups at this stage ever in the champs league too.

chelsea were favorites when their draw was made,but injuries to duffer and robben makes barca favorites for me,at least for tonights leg.

i fancy arsenal and liverpool to make it through.

united will find it difficult,in a close close match.

[Rovermatt]

Milan may be missing Shevchenko (for the first game at least) but they are a superior side to their criminally overrated United counterparts.

Arsenal will lose as always, Chelsea will go out to the eventual winners and Liverpool are so bad at the moment that Leverkusen will have little difficulty disposing of them.

[frosty]

Milan may be missing Shevchenko (for the first game at least) but they are a superior side to their criminally overrated United counterparts.

Arsenal will lose as always, Chelsea will go out to the eventual winners and Liverpool are so bad at the moment that Leverkusen will have little difficulty disposing of them.

Liverpool are winning 2-0. Garcia, Riise

[ben_the_beast]

Half time Arsenal losing 0-1 and playing very poorly

[ben_the_beast]

can't wait for barca chelsea tomorrow 1 of the best ties ever in my opinion. shame chelsea have so many injurys. Jose's fault though he could have thrown away their champions league place with his antics against newcastle bringin on 3 subs at half time and which has crippled his squad for tomorrow.

[Bobby G]

double edged sword.

if he didnt make the 3 subs,ppl would say he didnt care about the cup and bla bla bla.if he had turned the game around with the subs,he would be genius probably.but u cant win always.

[Rovermatt]

Milan may be missing Shevchenko (for the first game at least) but they are a superior side to their criminally overrated United counterparts.

Arsenal will lose as always, Chelsea will go out to the eventual winners and Liverpool are so bad at the moment that Leverkusen will have little difficulty disposing of them.

Liverpool are winning 2-0. Garcia, Riise

Right. Well my crystal ball must be broken.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

I'm pleased that Arsene Wenger, who sometimes defends the indefensible, was open and honest about his side's shocking performance last night.

Arsenal were abysmal against Bayern Munich last night.

Wenger said: "It was our worst performance since we started in the Champions League. There was no sharpness, no movement and no passing. I expected so much more from my players. It was a very very bad performance. At the moment we don't look like keeping a clean sheet."

Nice of Wenger to be honest for a change. Too often when Arsenal lose a match, he has the habit of making feeble excuses - or pins the blame for the result on the ref.

probably the most remarkable last 16 set of matches yet seen will be under way.

I hated the League format of the European Cup when it was introduced in 1991. It was clearly designed to benefit the richer clubs and maximise their income.

I much prefer the old system.

But now that we've reached the last 16 and the knockout stages though, I must admit the draw has thrown up some intriguing ties, philipl.

Hopefully they'll be some good football played tonight.

[ben_the_beast]

rumours have it mourinho might have pulled a fast one and duff infact may be fit to face Barca after Mourinho said he was injured. we'll have to wait and see.

thought it was odd him announcing his team yesterday

Edited February 23, 2005 by ben_the_beast

[blue phil]

I'm afraid I take no notice of this competition until the semis....Yesterday I switched the Arse off to watch Mike Basset , England Manager ....much more entertaining

[ben_the_beast]

blue phil what is wrong with you . how can u not watch chelsea barca. i can understand you turning off yesterday as it was a poor game but this is the greatest competition in the world at club level. well i see it as your loss

[jim mk2]

rumours have it mourinho might have pulled a fast one and duff infact may be fit to face Barca after Mourinho said he was injured. we'll have to wait and see.

thought it was odd him announcing his team yesterday

Well done.

Duff is in the team.

[LeChuck]

Milan may be missing Shevchenko (for the first game at least) but they are a superior side to their criminally overrated United counterparts.

Arsenal will lose as always, Chelsea will go out to the eventual winners and Liverpool are so bad at the moment that Leverkusen will have little difficulty disposing of them.

Liverpool are winning 2-0. Garcia, Riise

Right. Well my crystal ball must be broken.

Or your anti-English stance backfired?

[grizfoot]

Come on Milan

Edited February 23, 2005 by grizfoot

[Morph]

Went to Anfield with some lads from work last night. Liverpool were pretty good (Harry Kewell excepted, wouldn't have him at Rovers for all the tea in China) but Leverkeusen were very poor, and didn't look like they had much to offer up front. Suspect that even the scousers might struggle to blow the away leg. It was hard to supress a chuckle when Dudek ballsed up at the end though.

[American]

How did Donovan look?

[brfcshabba]

With his eyes

[Morph]

How did Donovan look?

Tiny . He made one good run that I recall, slaloming past a couple of players before making a decent pass which came to nothing. Liverpool had pretty much stifled the life out of the game by the time he came on, but he certainly posed them more problems than the player he replaced (Berbatov?) during the limited time he was on the pitch.

[ben_the_beast]

half time barca 0 - 1 chelsea. gd game so far chelsea after not goin near the barca penalty area hav started to look stronger and stronger. they're probably a little lucky to go in with a lead at half time but im not complaining. also chelseas goal created by our very own Damien Duff

GR8

[andy82]

When the draw was made, I fancied the English quartet to do well but having just listened to the World Service make all four English clubs rank outsiders from each of their respective ties, I don't know now.

Nice to see one area of the british press isnt up its own aris. German press fancied Bayern to beat Arsenal with ease, look what happened.

[Rovermatt]

Milan may be missing Shevchenko (for the first game at least) but they are a superior side to their criminally overrated United counterparts.

Arsenal will lose as always, Chelsea will go out to the eventual winners and Liverpool are so bad at the moment that Leverkusen will have little difficulty disposing of them.

Liverpool are winning 2-0. Garcia, Riise

Right. Well my crystal ball must be broken.

Or your anti-English stance backfired?

It's hardly an 'anti-English stance'.

I don't understand people who support English teams in Europe for the sake of it. I'd like to see Arsenal do well, but they're consistently rubbish in the big European games.

Liverpool are have a terrible season, it's a reasonable assumption to make. Chelsea did lose to a very good Barca team and much to my joy, United went down to a goalkeeping blunder.

Three out of four doesn't exactly constitute a back-firing in my predictions.

[tcj_jones]

Watched the Chelsea - Barcelonda match and I feel really aggrieved; argueably the only English team with a chance of winning the competition were robbed of what looked to be a win by the worst refereeing displays I have ever seen in my life.

EVERY decision of the first half went against Chelsea; Deco should have been sent off for the amount of dives he did and Drogba definately did not warrant his yellow.

Second half and the same thing continued when Drogba was given a second yellow for simply going for a ball close to the keeper. It was at this point the advantage switched from a pretty dull, but effective, Chelsea team to the flair of Barcelona who could now exploit the space and force Chelsea to play deep. They scored twice and could have had more.

Chelsea's hopes have been pretty much dashed by a ref. clearly intimidated by the 85,000 Barca fans after he was hit with a missile in the earlier stages of the competition.

To Barca's credit, they played very wel after the sending off, but that incident certainly switched the balance of the teams on the pitch.

What's so aggrivating is that he will get away without any kind of dicsipline or anybody really noticing or remembering. Sickening; if it were mere mistakes it would be ok, but this was clear intimidation in a big game atmosphere.

[ben_the_beast]

i agree tcj_jones the referee was so bad. i didnt expect anything better from him though. every decision went barcas way and the sending off was ludicras. i couldnt belive it when i saw it. it was the turning point in the game and threw the game barcas way.

it was a 50 - 50 challenge drogbas boot made no contact with the keeper and his studs wernt up.

on the upside duffs involvement in the goal was class and an amazing first touch. i can only hope chelsea win the tie and justice is served. anyone know if chelsea are going to appeal against drogbas suspension ??

[BuckyRover]

Chelsea have refused to make any post match announcements until they have made an official complaint to UEFA about a conversation that Anders Frisk and Frank Rijkaard were having at half time that was heard by Mourinho

Interesting!