Champions League

[EJG1980]

Agree about City probably giving it more of a go. I saw a bit of an interview with Vincent Kompany after the match and he said that City are desperate for trophies, any trophies, at the moment., so they'd probably take it fairly seriously if the whole club has that attitude.

[nakamura]

If United don't give it a go they could end up with nothing.

[Adrock]

City have the players in their squad to mount a serious challenge on all fronts, so they must be considered serious contenders for the Europa League. Considering their B team would beat most of the Premier League I think they will be ok.

[yesteryeargames]

To be fair UTD have had a decent run the past few years in europe, UTD are building a new sqaud which certainly needs a couple of tweaks and a new player or 2 but i see them coming back much stronger next season
,I just hope they give it a go in the europa, the season can still be saved starting with an FA cup win! a strong run and we can be top of the league, and the europa would be a nice bonus.

[Flabio]

Napoli v Chelsea.
AC Milan v Arsenal.

That draw really couldn't have gone any worse for them could it?

[Kit]

Should be a quality game tonight. I'm expecting some really high tempo football. Have a feeling Chelsea might surprise us.

[Anpanman]

Glad Droggie got a goal & puts the tippie tappie Greg Louganis boys on the back foot.

[saturn-gamer]

Yeah, but the difference between the 2 is rather huge. Its Barca thats playing the football here really. I can't imagine Barca not scoring at least one goal here. And then there is Camp Nou.

[Anpanman]

Totally agree, I've no doubt that Barcelona will prevail, but...although they are the best club side on the planet I don't like the way they play with this tippy tappy bollocks and all the diving shenanigans.

[saturn-gamer]

I dislike their bevahiour as well, I mean, we did lose the World cup final against those nonces. But when they are actually playing and not falling down, its borderline brilliant. Clinical at times too. But I prefer this over Real Madrids display in Munich.

Those triangles, its the evolution of total football.

If Chelsea can keep this score, miracles do exist. They do have the players that can lock a game Mourinho's Inter style.

[Anpanman]

I dislike their bevahiour as well, I mean, we did lose the World cup final against those nonces. But when they are actually playing and not falling down, its borderline brilliant. Clinical at times too. But I prefer this over Real Madrids display in Munich.

Those triangles, its the evolution of total football.

If Chelsea can keep this score, miracles do exist. They do have the players that can lock a game Mourinho's Inter style.

Yep, remember very well the BBC pundits creaming themselves over the Spanish and moaning that the Dutch were actually getting physical and giving them a hard time, I was very pleasantly surprised that for once an opposing team were actually getting stuck in, something which Man U (my team) didn't in last years final.

Aah the triangles thing something I've abhorred since Liverpool were doing it in the 80's.

[saturn-gamer]

The only way to beat them is by getting physical, thats why I wasn't against our criminal style of play.

Its also what Mourinho tries, Real looks like a dirty team (well they are in fact, if you have guys like Pepe, Ramos etc), but they are playing good football for 80% of the time. Its the clasicos where they are playing like psychopaths.

There is sadly no team that can beat Spain and Barcelona with proper football. What those rival teams should do is invest in their own youth players, building a core that plays together for ages and can find eachother blindly. The most succesful teams in history, this Barca, Milan from the late 80's, Ajax '95.. they are all built like that. Those money teams like City won't be remembered anyway.

EDIT: Incredible result. Messi locked down. Impressive.

[Anpanman]

Milan from the late 80's, Ajax '95 now you are talking - really enjoyed watching those sides, and yes agree on the getting physical but...it seems too many teams stand off and are scared stiff of even attempting tackles, reminds me of the Japanese in the early days, they were too respectful of their opponents as if they wanted to get autographs from them on the pitch.

Anyway hopefully Chelsea can hang on in the second leg but I doubt it.

[sj33]

I've not been too impressed with Chelsea's form recently (they've been getting the results in spite of the form, in my eyes) but tonight was a good performance. They played well and didn't try to play Barca at their game. It was exactly the kind of game play they needed.

They achieved the most important objective of ensuring Barca didn't walk away with an away goal, but I suspect Chelsea didn't really come away from this with a comfortable enough goal buffer to make the second leg realistic. But we shall see - if Chelsea manage an away goal, we might have a game on our hands.

[rmoxon]

Its not like Barca have been flying this season or anything.

They are a over hyped team, people love to rave about them but at the end of the day its football, anyone can be beaten if you have the right gameplan.

A few years ago everyone was raving about how much better Barelona were than Man United in the Champions Leauge final. But the fact is that Man United were rubbish that day, Im pretty sure most teams would have beat them, but people wouldnt really have that, becuase its popular to rave about Bacelona so thats what they did.

i really hope Chelsea can see out the tie, not becuase they are engish as much as becuase its about time people stopped going on and on about Barlcelona like they are 500 times better than any other team.