[Archived] Blackburn Rovers 0 Bayer Leverkusen 0

[RovertheHill]

Worst traffic I've ever had to contend with to get to Ewood so arrived right on kick-off in an already bad mood. Missed the first 3 minutes while Nobby No-levels behind the counter added up the cost of 2 pies (if you can read, and are reading this, £2.10 + £2.10 = £4.20 - try practising it)

In 30-odd years of watching professional football that is without a doubt the worst refereeing performance I've ever seen. It was either downright incompetence or something more sinister.

The Bayer players realised they could get away with anything because of the ref and promptly did so. For example, the no. 25 was at most 5 yards away from the free-kick at EVERY single kick, cos he waited for the ref to turn away, walked forward 2 steps and then 2 more as Bentley/Pedersen ran to take the kicks. At one point the ref even told him to go back and he just ignored the ref, who then walked away! As for the fracas at the end, I think it was Ramelow who started it. The ref booked the wrong players. It was frankly an embarrassment, but in true FA/UEFA style nothing will happen to the ref because it ain't a G14 club.

Out of the players, Nelsen looked like he's getting back to form. Dunn, on the other hand, looks miles off the pace. Suppose that sharpness will come with matches but can we afford to carry him - I don't think so. Pedersen and Bentley provided most threat. Nonda should have slotted one of the two chances he had at the end, although I'm convinced any goal we scored would have been disallowed for something. Oh yeah, for once, the crowd can say it played its part

Really, really frustrated and hope the season just doesn't fizzle out now.

[stuwilky]

Agreed both games we didn't control of the centre of the park which results in our elimination from UEFA cup. Unfortunately Savage broke his leg a month ago and our squad isn't big/good enough to cope with injuries to key players. I suggest it would have been different with Savage in. Dunny wasn't to blame for our glaring misses by nonda and mccarthy. The question you originally posed seem to intimate that dunny wasn't on the park but he was nearest to scoring tonight and if that and gone in he would have been an hero on here. What a difference a few inches makes !!!

OK, so the fact that he did bugger all, yet again, should make me worship him?

End of the day he gave the ball away too much, cant tackle for toffee and failed to score.

He was the worst culprit of the "@#/?" brigade.

I feel let down by Blackburn Rovers Football Team this evening, in fact its worse that that, Im bloody angry.

[brfc_jonesy]

OK, so the fact that he did bugger all, yet again, should make me worship him?

End of the day he gave the ball away too much, cant tackle for toffee and failed to score.

He was the worst culprit of the "@#/?" brigade.

I feel let down by Blackburn Rovers Football Team this evening, in fact its worse that that, Im bloody angry.

Agree with all of that Dunn is not quite there at all at the moment. So angry with the sub standard play.

Although McCarthy has been an integral part of the side this season. The past few games hes been so distant and doesn't look like he wants to be on the pitch at all. Nonda has had so many oppotunitys to show hes a first teamer but is not up to standard don't see why we should follow up the deal.

Gutted about tonight, i think if we don't qualify for europe this season then i think we could see a few players moving on

[Bazzanotsogreat]

TThought we give it our all tonight apart from Mcarthy/Nonda (when he came on) , we were the side pushing forward but fell into the trap of playing long ball as midfield was congested due to them having 3 anchor men, this tactic clearly did not work and handed possession of the ball back the to Germans.

The ref was very bad and seemed afraid of Leverkusen, castro should have been sent-off for his tackle on Dunn and they should have had 4/5 players booked for simulation and time wasting. Just hope we can do Arsenal next week

On a less serious note the Pie Boy comment can no longer be thrown at Dunny as when he took him top off at the end of the game he looked to be in terrific shape, which was surprising

[grizfoot]

My gosh what was Nonda doing two brilliant chances and he fluffed both of them.

That Ref was terrible as well completely fell for their time-wasting/acting antics.

[Nayef]

I haven't felt this low since my ex left me back in 2003.

I don't really want to write anything except that choosing to support the Rovers has proved to be a downright curse.

So many ifs and buts in my life. If my uncle hadn't taken me to Ewood Park back in 1994, I wouldn't have supported the Rovers. My closest club is actually Arsenal - damn my uncle. Damn him to hell!

[John Howarth]

In 30-odd years of watching professional football that is without a doubt the worst refereeing performance I've ever seen. It was either downright incompetence or something more sinister.

The Bayer players realised they could get away with anything because of the ref and promptly did so. For example, the no. 25 was at most 5 yards away from the free-kick at EVERY single kick, cos he waited for the ref to turn away, walked forward 2 steps and then 2 more as Bentley/Pedersen ran to take the kicks. At one point the ref even told him to go back and he just ignored the ref, who then walked away! As for the fracas at the end, I think it was Ramelow who started it. The ref booked the wrong players. It was frankly an embarrassment, but in true FA/UEFA style nothing will happen to the ref because it ain't a G14 club.

As a shareholder of the Football Association I felt compelled to send off an E-mail to UEFA advising them of the poor standard of officials in Alberto Undiano Mallenco, Fermain Martinez Ibanez and Ramon Hernandez Hernandez. Probably won't get anywhere but I felt better after advising UEFA of the shortcomings.of these three clowns.I only hope the UEFA officials at the game saw the officials as bad as the 24,000 Rovers supporters did

[DP]

Get a grip people.

OK, I've watched it on tv, and get a different view than being at the game, but:

They came with a plan, set out their stall and used every aspect of gamesmanship possible. Combine that with a pathetic ref who was conned every time and it was always going to be tough for us.

We controlled the game, worked very hard, and it was only our final ball that let us down in the first hour. Saying that we carved out a great opportunity which McCarthy uncharacteristically fluffed. It wasn't a sitter, but the sort of chance he thrives on. Nonda's was a worse miss, but I think he had one eye on the goalie.

I won't accept the heavy critism of Dunn. He worked his socks off and was all over the pitch, including making some timely last ditch tackles late in the game when we were lucky not to be hit on the break. He wasn't brilliant, but nobody was, but I think credit has to go to the opposition and the awful ref more than anything. Bentley started brightly in both halves but faded in both too. MGP was excellent apart from his terrible corners. Tugay is too much off the pace at the moment. Schneider played the Tugay role far more effectively for Bayer.

Overall I am gutted, but I won't lambast the team. It just wasn't our night, but I'm still proud to be a Rover.

[LeChuck]

The effort was superb, the crowd were superb, the referee was rubbish...but;

1) The last 10 minutes of hoofing the ball into the air was embarrasing,

2) Friedel (for all his strengths) is the worst goalkeeper at kicking a ball in the league.

Hopefully we'll be back next year with a full strength side and a bit of pace.

[rover6]

If Dunn was looking off the pace, why did Hughes not sub him? Peter and Gally were on the bench, or Roberts could've come on earlier.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

We showed no urgency until it was too late and we didnt look like we wanted it. It should have been Rovers quick to close them down when they had the ball not vice versa.

I must admit I was saying the same thing at half time,we did not put them under enough pressure in the first 45,too leisurely by half for my liking.

[DP]

If Dunn was looking off the pace, why did Hughes not sub him?

He wasn't, it's just that some people have got it in for him

[greggyk]

I must admit I was saying the same thing at half time,we did not put them under enough pressure in the first 45,too leisurely by half for my liking.

I think it was due to rovers not wanting to concede in the first half and have a real go in the second- thinking they would be able to score

[Guest Kamy100]

Well it is not often that I feel totally and utterly gutted after a match, but tonight I am. I really thought that we would get the result tonight and continue our European Adventure.

The match itself well other than the pathetic refereeing I thought that Bayer were extremely well organised and we didn't really open them up at will, game came down to the chances that McCarthy and Nonda missed, class strikers put them away and unfortunately tonight our strikers didn't, at this level the difference between winning and losing is wafer thin and had we converted one of those chances then we would have progressed.

Credit to the fans for going down to Ewood, the atmosphere was very good and great to see so many young people down there.

Hopefully the season will not fizzle out now, here's hoping to a few more wins in the premiership and producing the goods against Arsenal next week.

Now I am going to try and get some sleep, but I doubt i'll be successful.

[Scotty]

I thought we showed fantastic spirit and energy tonight, especially in the second half, but we lacked any real quality and were tactically out-thought by Leverkusen. They were well organised, incredibly competitive, hugely cynical and, over the two legs, probably deserved to go through more than we did.

A central midfield partnership of Dunn and Tugay was never going to be competitive enough against a strong Leverkusen team. They also kept players wide throughout the match, almost hugging the touchline at times, to ensure that they had an outlet ball and that our full-backs couldn't get forward as much as they usually do. They kept possession superbly at times, notably during the periods when the crowd were really "up", and used every underhand tactic in the book to kill the game when they came under pressure. Sadly, the ref let them get away with it. I have to say that if the Germans had a decent strikeforce I think they'd have beaten us comfortably.

After saying all that though we had the chances to win the tie tonight but it just wasn't to be. If I was to be critical of our tactics I'd say that Roberts should have come on much earlier for Derbyshire. Although Derbyshire started well, we resorted to the long ball more and more as the game wore on and Roberts would have been more suited to the game.

Overall though I just don't think we did enough to win the tie - either tonight or last week. The sad part is that I don't think Leverkusen are a particularly good team. If we'd have had a "proper" midfield we'd have probably gone through, and I really can't see the Germans getting a lot further. Unfortunately our injuries and suspensions took their toll.

It was great while it lasted though.

[ABBEY]

gutted,is alls i can think of apart from ,diving ,injury feignig,dirty,time wasting ....########## ###### #### #### ###### '######

and thats just the ref ...not blaming him for going out we missed to many easy chances but what a tool...

can anyone explain why when matty was down on the floor and the germans booted the ball the lenght of the pitch to waste time and playthe injury card ,why did he give a german throw,then change his mind and give us athrow to give them the ball back? how was a throw in given?

how he let them cynically take us out al night and no yellows,how many times did the germans kick the ball away ..no yellows?

how can he give goalkicks when it was our throwin ..how many offsides against us wernt?

he bottled it or took a big brown bag of euros

hard luck rovers we done good in europe..next time i aint blowing my money on usa

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Just didn't feel enough 'urgency' from Rovers in the first half greggk........I keep watching McCarthys miss from 2 yards!

[SamTheShrew]

firstly let me say how good it was to hear ewood with a voice tonight for a long time...even if most of it was aimed at the germans

as bad as the referee was, can he be blamed for us not winning? no. Our failure to put away chances was our own fault, not the refs.

leverkusen were a horrible team, ramelow has got that aryan face that makes me shudder evertyime i think that that is what Hitler wanted for the world, but they did their job, as we did at highbury. Brad had nothing to do all night

we should have gone three up front along time before we did

our set pieces were rubbish (apart from the two first half free kicks). we were given chances but didn't use them.

Derbyshire was sh!te and should have been subbed at half time if not before.

are u having a larf mate? I have Benni Mc on my shirt, and he shouldn't have even been on the pitch. Derbyshire tried his best at the long balls we endlessly supplied which never ever worked.

how ironic that when i opened my programme on the train home the first page it fell to was "Nonda - I want to stay."

if you stay, i think ill take up supporting rugby, or god help me cricket

[sany]

how ironic that when i opened my programme on the train home the first page it fell to was "Nonda - I want to stay."

if you stay, i think ill take up supporting rugby, or god help me cricket

He will not stay after missing that chance.

[Guest shoppybrfc]

why are people saying nonda missed two chances, the other chance he was not near connecting.

i like nonda, his goals this season seem to have been tricky chances that most would expect to miss, and yet he missed a few sitters. the talents there, his injury a few years back really has ruined him as a player him though.

zurab is overweight for a prem player as well, has noone noticed this?

[Oklahoma]

Well I wasn't surprised with their strategy but the diving, passig time and all dirty tactics were too much. The ref couldn't control them so he is to blame as well.

Since they defended deep, with a tall team that was good in the air, we should have offered a diferent type of game. Unfortunatelly, we didn't take our chances and we are out

I just hope Hughes manages to help the players overcome this disapointment and that we manage to win the nexxt two home games, that are vital for us.

[SamTheShrew]

why are people saying nonda missed two chances, the other chance he was not near connecting.

i like nonda, his goals this season seem to have been tricky chances that most would expect to miss, and yet he missed a few sitters. the talents there, his injury a few years back really has ruined him as a player him though.

zurab is overweight for a prem player as well, has noone noticed this?

so we should signed ruined players? he may not be the sole reason for tonights result, but he had the chance to be the one clear difference, and failed!

no thanks

[tonygreenbank]

I urge everyone to boycott Bayer ointments, potions and pills after tonight!!

A very frustrating night for us Roverites but it was great to see and hear a raucous Ewood crowd at last. Lets hope we get the same against Arsenal. I was impressed with their defence but was angered by the team`s cheating. If this is the criterion for success then you can stuff Euro football.

I do agree with Radio Lancs comment that the team has lost its sharpness due to the number of games played and the number of injuries. My MOM was Pedersen who was awesome with his effort and general play.

[tcj_jones]

I'm kinda glad that I wasn't able to make it tonight.

Leverkusen created nothing, but we couldn't even beat them. Still, we were by far the better team. They played a really cynical game, always diving and hacking at our players. The ref was shocking and didn't have any kind of control over the game and the players.

I thought that Bentley and Perdersen were again very good, but we were poor in central midfield, while McCarthy and Nonda missed too many good chances.

I was really disapointed by the lack of urgency in the last 20 - 30 minutes. None of the players, bar Friedel, seemed to want to win and I thought Hughes waited too long to make the changes needed.

PS, Voronin was pretty disapointing.

[jim mk2]

The Germans were rock solid in defence and in the centre of midfield, where we were outmuscled and ineffective ; I never felt we got any real attacking momentum going and quite frankly would not have scored if the match were played all night.

Disappointing end to a nice run in Europe ; pity, because I thought we were capable of emulating Middlesbrough.