[Archived] Fa Cup Semi-final .

[Eddie]

pretty anonymous for me apart from a couple of very irritating flicks that cost possesion.

He ran all over and really worked for the cause, played a big part in our second half by holding the ball up well along with Roberts. The only flick he did that was poor was towards the end when he tried to backheel it to Roberts who had already gone forward, I'd be surprised if you could name another one. I'm sure that won't stop some of you as whenever we lose there has to be a fall-guy. I personally don't think you can be critical of anyone for how they played yesterday. There were three key moments where one or two players let themselves down, but overall everyone was fantastic. Some will have better games, but in terms of effort and commitment I don't think we'll see a Rovers side work harder for the cause anytime soon.

[1864roverite]

The morning after a fantastic day out wearing the clubs famous colours for a semi final outing at Old Trafford.

Like the rest of us I am gutted but lets take the simple view, being a Rovers supporter yesterday was just bloody amazing. Yes we lost but really ? Where Rovers expecting to appear at Wembley ? Like the news says all over today:

THE FA HAVE THEIR DREAM CUP FINAL !

And that really is about it, its THEIR dream cup final, NO-ONE elses. Cananyone ever really believe they will see a game like we witnessed yesterday at their 700 million pound stadium ? They may get 89000 fans but they wont get a great game of foobtall and for me it will be a big turn off like many others.

Back to yesterday. Started off in Bolton having a few beers around town with 20 other Blue and Whites, Not a winker in sight lol. Then we had champers as our big black hummer began the trek to Old T, did anyone see it ? I dont think I could have ever imagined travelling to a game drinking champers in such a vehicle, I was amazed as we rolled up outside the Trafford pub, which was Chlesea only, and got out like superstars in our shades ! What a laugh and the faces of those cockney muppets was a picture !

The Rovers crowd were amazing inside Old T. Imagine what it would be really like for MUFC if their fans sang like we did yesterday. That east stand Upper was rocking.

The Rovers teams were like Jose said HEROES, everyone of them. How many times have CFC had to endure a gama like that in the past 3 years ? I can only think of Barca away. We outfought them and apart from the first 20 minutes were more than equal to them. The game is littered with IFS etc but hey, come on, Rovers played proud each to a man.

When Roberts equalised, the atmosphere was simply electric. The rendition of Que Sera was spine tingling.

I think Rovers can genuinely be proud. Dunn was a revelation, Samba and Nelsen shut out 80 million pounds worth of strikers, Warnock was fantastic and Emerton complemented what I believe to be the best back 4 Rovers have had for 8 years. MGP, Bentley, Roberts and Benni worked their socks off. I was a little disappointed Benni at times but then we have to accept what he is sometimes, we cannot forget his goal contributions tis season.

People moan about Tugays non-introduction. For me Hughes was right. Rovers ha Cfc on the ropes and didnt need him. The only thing Rovers probably didnt counter for was the man of the match, CECH. In him CFC have the bet keeper in the world. He saved them from losing. Tremendous saves from Dunn, MGP and Terry kept them going when Rovers red and white were all over them like a rash.

Now the only bad point. The referee was simply one sided, he sided with Chelsea each and every time. How he managed to only book 4 Rovers players is a mystery!

So our season is over in our quest for European football next season. It most certainly is NOT over in the quest for prize money. A win on Wednesday sees us back in 10th spot. Rovers have to aim for a top 10 finish.

Like others, I am proud to be a Rovers, always have and always be. BRFC have provided the football world evidence that we are not a team of cloggers from up north, we can play the beautiful game and we can take on the big boys and be even better than them. Now we only have to have a little lady luck to complement our team and we are there !

Thanks Mark Hughes and co for a great day out.

[Cocker]

Well said Eddie. All of the boys did well yesterday and they should be very proud.

For those slating Benni, he was pretty much marked out of the game and you could tell Mourinio thought he was the danger man so that was the plan for them but in doing that it gave the others more time on the ball.

If anyone does slate us for yesterday then you are fools.

[thenodrog]

that 500 miles is a burnley song

i thought the team,the fans were brilliant,

why roberts was in the team before matt,confused me.

why tugay was not on the pitch confounded me.

but we drew 1-1 after ninty minutes with the champions of england.

no sorry to say 5/10 for sparky yesterday :brfc:

You must know that that last line contradicts the rest of your comments completely waggy!

[thenodrog]

Just as an aside....... A mate commented in the pub afterwards that the most hateful personalities in the starting Chelsea line up all play for England. Very succinct comment and one with which I couldn't agree more.

[johnny boy]

Got back at 3am this morning.

What a day! Really proud of the team and our fans. It hasn't sank in that we lost yet.

Two thoughts during the match :-

i) We're going to nick this 2-1, (but it wasn't to be)

ii) Craig Bellamy, do you want to come back to Blackburn?

Sounds like we have won a few friends now and hopefully put behind us the reputation from last semi final.

Thanks Jose but your fans were a bit quiet after the game, relief perhaps? Cech kept you in it IMHO.

Proud to be a Rover!

[adopted scouser]

Still can't understand why Tugay and Derbyshire didn't come on for Mokoena and Benny second half, and instead of getting annoyed at Gamst's header going wide, what if Essien's pile driver had gone in ?

We were the better team by a mile second half, and a performance that even had Maureen praising our players, chuffed to bits.

Anyone see that rovers fan sat down sobbing after the game on telly ? Guy probably in his 40's, bald , tache ??

[Neil Weaver]

He ran all over and really worked for the cause, played a big part in our second half by holding the ball up well along with Roberts. The only flick he did that was poor was towards the end when he tried to backheel it to Roberts who had already gone forward, I'd be surprised if you could name another one. I'm sure that won't stop some of you as whenever we lose there has to be a fall-guy. I personally don't think you can be critical of anyone for how they played yesterday. There were three key moments where one or two players let themselves down, but overall everyone was fantastic. Some will have better games, but in terms of effort and commitment I don't think we'll see a Rovers side work harder for the cause anytime soon.

Dead right Eddie. Don't know if I'm the only one wondering if his lack of goals recently and a bit of Dickov-esque running around might be related. It perhaps doesn't add up at first, but if he's not where his teammates expect to finish a move....... well it's a possibility. Agree with 1864 and others - no-one had a poor game, thought Dunny and the Axe were both excellent (and I'm not a Dunny fan). Subs - I was thinking after about an hour it was time for Derbs, but then we scored and it was difficult to find anyone to take off without disrupting how we were playing.

And had to chuckle at that Guardian link from Colin, '63 min: GOAL! Chelsea 1 - 1 Blackburn Shevchenko is hauled off; maybe he's got some plates to keep spinning, or a big pie to push in someone's face. Kalou replaces the Ukrainian, who drives off in his collapsing car. And then... parity! Blackburn win a free-kick out right; it's swung in by Pedersen low and hard, and touched on by Roberts from close range and past Cech in a flash. Game on.' Bit of competition for you, Bob F.

[Bobby G]

Why take off Mokoena who was playing brilliantly in defensive midfield for a more offensive player in Tugay? To open up gaps? Benni was good in the second half but I think he ran out of steam in extra time. But the Chelsea defence couldnt cope with Benni or Roberts with their backs to goal and I think Sparky didnt want to disrupt that influence.

[all you need is duff]

I think a big reason why Benni was kept on during extra time was in case it went to penalties.

[only2garners]

Dead right Eddie. Don't know if I'm the only one wondering if his lack of goals recently and a bit of Dickov-esque running around might be related. It perhaps doesn't add up at first, but if he's not where his teammates expect to finish a move....... well it's a possibility. Agree with 1864 and others - no-one had a poor game, thought Dunny and the Axe were both excellent (and I'm not a Dunny fan). Subs - I was thinking after about an hour it was time for Derbs, but then we scored and it was difficult to find anyone to take off without disrupting how we were playing.

I think it was fairly clear that both Tugay and Derbyshire were going to come on but then we equalised and the game plan changed.

[Eddie]

Which is why it surprised me when Dunn was taken off. I did think he was looking a bit tired (although he did look very upset when he was told he was coming off), but I would have thought he would have been kept on for any possible shoot-outs. Anyway, it is all conjecture and what-ifs now.

[sleepyjack]

Still can't understand why Tugay and Derbyshire didn't come on for Mokoena and Benny second half

...

We were the better team by a mile second half

Answered your own question there.

[adopted scouser]

Answered your own question there.

It would have been even better

[jim mk2]

Some observations on yesterday : well done to Rovers fans for outsinging Chelsea all game.

Bouquets to Emerton, who never put a foot wrong (never thought I would write that), Dunn, Samba, Bentley and Nelsen.

Brickbats to McCarthy (sell), Warnock (please learn how to control a bouncing ball), Hughes (poor use of subsititutes) and Old Trafford, which is like a council house compared to the luxury and space on offer at the Millennium and Emirates.

Finally, the Rovers moron who shouted tw** the f***** black c*** in a loud voice every time Drogba, Essien or Makelele had the ball might care to notice that we also have black players in our team.

[Hasta]

Superb day only spoilt by the result. Being around manchester centre with just Rovers fans everywhere from lunchtime onwards created an atmosphere to match the day. I don't know where the Chelsea fans were be we hardly saw any. From the Deansgate pub we walked under the bridge and up the dual carrageway to the ground. Half way there a lad in a Rovers top on his bike did his best to run me over - Colin was that you

The Rovers fans in the ground were on top form from the first minute until the end. We even outsang the Chelsea fans after the game outside the ground.

I didnt think I'd be able to flick through the video but I've managed it. It's funny how generally your first impressions on the ground are right, even the little things. The wall did creep about 4 yards forward for MGP's late free kick. Essien did back into MGP near his own corner flag and get a free kick. Ashley Cole did stand on Dunny, I could see that from the other end of the ground.

If anyone is to blame for the winner it is the Axe. If you watch him in the build up he lets Kalou go, then just stand behind Ballack when he can see he's unmarked. However that apart i thought that he was superb all game.

[joey_big_nose]

Mr Whiley was consistantly bad, he made some awful decisions against both sides. His use of his cards left much to be desired, seems someone told him that he couldn't book chelsea players for taking players out when they may break but he could for anything rovers players did. A different ref wouldn't have helped, it was just the lack of an extra on form striker to play with roberts.

Well I really seem to be in a minority of one here but honestly i thought Wiley was decent for us. Let the game flow, allowed robust challenges, let things slide when others would have booked players. The reason we had many more fouls awarded against us was because we were robust, and bloody good thing too as that is part of the reason we looked the better team in all.

Anyhow I don't want to harp on about it. Outstanding second half performance against the most expensive team in the world.

[American]

Which is why it surprised me when Dunn was taken off. I did think he was looking a bit tired (although he did look very upset when he was told he was coming off), but I would have thought he would have been kept on for any possible shoot-outs. Anyway, it is all conjecture and what-ifs now.

He had just taken 5 minutes to get back down the pitch into a defensive position after going on a run. He was clearly gassed.

He did show glimpses of why he was originally sold for 5 million.

[tcj_jones]

It's nearly a day on, so I can't really remember evereything but, nevertheless, this is my, somewhat disjointed, recollection of the game...

Prior to kick off, the atmospehere was absolutely electric; outside the ground, the fans with their horns, scarves, flags, inflatables, while, inside the ground, the 30 minutes leading to kick off were the most passionate and exciting I have ever witnessed. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach, the hairs stood up on the end of my neck at times, it was actually a bit emotional. An amazing and indescribable atmosphere.

We started quite sharply and we were the better team for the first 5 - 10 minutes, but never really created anything concrete. However, we let Chelsea dominate in midfield and we began to be over run. Dunn and Mokoena put in some good crunching tackles, but Chelsea's play was quick and slick and they were just cutting straight through us. I still don't think that a good understanding has developed between Nelsen and Samba. Individually they look cracking players - both put in some amazing challanges, Nelsen in particular - but together they didn't seem to be gelling. I couldn't really tell if anybody was at fault for the first goal, because Lampard got through with such quality, but there seemed to be a lot of confusion between Nelsen and Samba. On quite a few occasions Brad seemed to be yelling out directions to them. Defensively, we looked all ove the place at times.

For all our running and tireless effort to close the ball down, tactically we didn't seem to have any ideas and Chelsea kept exploiting the weaknesses in defence and could have had a couple. However, as the half came to an end, Rovers sparked into life; Bentley (I think) first with a cracking drive from outside the box brilliantly saved by Cech and then Roberts heading narrowly over from the resulting corner. A minute later and, although the play had been brought back for what didn't look like a Chelsea free kick, we had another curling effort travel just past the post. It was a good end to a half otherwise lacking in ideas from Rovers.

The second half was a completely different story. Every part of the team gelled superbly and we began to really take the game to Chelsea. Opportunity after opportunity was created, and either saved by Cech, or kept out by the Chelsea defence. We could have had three or four. What was great to see was Rovers on the counter attack. Dunn was brimming with confidence and was bringing the ball out from defence into attack for fun. He was taking it past players, out-muscleing them, berating them for pace ( ) and playing some lovely football. I have criticised Mokoena at length before, but yesterday he and Dunn were superb together. There were a couple of skied clearances and miskicks, but for the majority Mokoena was superb in the defensive midfield role. Emerton as well was bringing the ball out of defence especially well and was a danger going forward, while Bentley started to have a lot of joy on the wing, getting balls into the box. The two worked well together down the right. I have heard criticism of Warnock, but he put in some cracking tackles and I thought he had a very good half.

Up front, Roberts was giving Terry a difficult game and I can't really remember a time when he lost a header or failed to hold the ball up. Contrast this with the opening game at Ewood this season against Everton when he was just throwing himself to ground at every opportunity. He fully deserved his goal when it came. Pedersen's free-kick was intelligently played low and Roberts got the kick to get it past Cech. It was fully what we deserved.

What was so pleasing was that we did not crumble afterwards. There were some tense moments, but we continued to attack and looked excellent on the counter. Tactically, Mourinho got it right in the first half, but Hughes won the battle in the second. I have heard people criticise his use of subs, but I really didn't think we needed to change anything, even in extra time. Perhaps the only thing I might have done was bring on Derbs for McCarthy, but as out penalty taker, and with penalties looming, it made sense to keep him on. I thought Hughes's decision to take Dunn off was a little strange though, as he was the one leading our counter attacks. If Pedersen had have buried his header at the end, we'd be going to Wembley and no subs would have been needed at all.

In extra time we started to fade and it looked as though we were going to have to claw on until penalties. We just couldn't do it, and Ballack, anonymous all game, came up with the winner. It was crushing, but the fans were incredible and were backing the team 'til the end. The only thing more pleasing than the fans, was the attitude of the players. They gave more than any team could ever give, battled to the death and deserved a cup final. Next season really does bode well if we can keep this lot together.

Ratings:

Friedel - 8 - A fair few good saves, some of which kept us in the game in the first half

Emerton - 9 - Except for a few instances in the first half, excellent in defence, and superb going forward.

Warnock - 8 - Some cracking tackles and intelligent play. A very solid game IMO

Nelsen - 8 - I thought the first goal was down partly to both Nelsen and Samba. I didn't see quite what happened with the second, but for the most part he was excellent. Some of the challanges he put in were immense.

Samba - 8 - Ditto on the first goal. I thought he won every header going and made one superb interception to deny a certain goal in the first half.

Bentley - 8 - Slightly frustrated in the first half, but got in a lot of dangerous balls in the second half

Pedersen - 8 - Faded at times, but his free kick got us the goal and he looked threatening throughout the second half

Dunn - 10 - Man of the match for me. It was so good to see him full of confidence, running the ball from defence to attack and taking some of the best players in the world on, and succeeding!

Mokoena - 9 - An exceptional game behind Dunn. A few mis-kicks and mistimed challanges, but solid from start to finish.

Roberts - 9 - Brilliant performance. Gave Terry, one of the best defenders in the world, a difficult game. Held the ball up well and won virtually everything in the air.

McCarthy - 7 - disapointing game really. Didn't play badly, but didn't rise to the occasion like you thought he might have.

It was a shame for Tugay not to feature, but this was never a game for him. This was far too quick and physical and we needed a defensive minded midfielder against the champions. I thought that Derbs fully deserved a place in the starting line up, but Chelsea have struggled against big men up front all season. Roberts justified his selection and Derbs will get his chance again.

[emglch]

thanks for the game. the players can be proud losers.

it was a good fight.

[laughatthedingles]

Got to be honest and I never thought we had a chance, when it gets to semi's all too often the better side comes out on top, that was until Jason Roberts forced Cech into a save early on in the second half, then I realised we were gonna give them a game and boy did we! Full credit to everyone, absoloutly gutted but still we can always rely on the typical out of cup sayings "we wouldn't of beaten man u anyway", "at least we don't have to shell out for wembley" and the old classic "aye never mind maybe next year"

[Ozz]

Thought we were very unlucky yesterday. MGPs headers, and the way the ball ran for Ballack from a great block was typical.

We got to extra time in the semi finals of the cup, and were only ever loosing for 58 minutes. Great run, sadly not enough.

[rog of the rovers]

The Wembley final ticket details are out!!

BBC Sport

SHOCKING!!!

[doctorryan]

thanks for the game. the players can be proud losers.

it was a good fight.

"Proud Losers?" Are you kidding me?

That sounds like a bad name for a rock group.

[pleasure]

i've strange feelings today, incredibly proud and gutted at the same time.

that was some 2nd half display. it was definitely Chelsea's hardest game, under mourinho's reign. I've never seen them look so ragged, and but for cech (the world's best keeper) and a little bit of luck we would've beaten them.

our fans support was terrific, the best I've witnessed us being. here's hoping the 'floating fans' that went yesterday, will attend ewood games more often.

it's incredible that some of our players are being criticised. roberts, dunn, emerton and pedersen were our 'stand-out performers', but everyone gave their all and we couldnt of done any more to win the game.

my burnley supporting mates were even congratulating and commiserating with me, that's how well we played!

I also believe Jose was very complimentary - about hughes, rovers players, and fans! maybe he fancies managing us someday! :ph34r:

I take pride immense pride in the fact that - our small and cheaply assembled squad, outplayed and shoulve beaten, the english champions - a squad that has cost over a quarter of a BILLION!