Thetownend.com

Not usually a fan of champions league football, so unusual for me to watch but Barcelona are just starting to turn the screw in tonights game.

I reckon it will be 2-0 to them tonight.

There is a HUGE amount of Messi bumming going on by ITV

Can we sign Victor Valdes please....

Scunthorpe 2-0 Cheltenham (HT)
Northampton 0-1 Franchise

Just flicked over and fair play to the ref for showing the barcelona player a yellow for waving an imaginary card in his face, i hate that more than diving, and glad it's never taken off here.

Agreed.

Andreas Iniesta is a quality player. very under rated

Terry Henry knocked out....

Alex is a dirty cunt.

How many subs do Barca have?  :D

Well i know two at least that are cruising the North Sea.

 :zzz:

Good result for Chelsea to be honest... Barca had scored in every home game this season before tonight.

The referee is that paedophile from Eastenders!

massively right footed though, shame he kept cutting back onto his standing foot

i think chelsea are fucked, they will have to go for it at home which will open up space and barca will romp it.

That was like Barca's semi against ManU last year, where Barca passed the ball for fun, but ManU scored the goal that put them through.

I'd be pissed off if I was Roman Abramovich.

£300m-£400m (??) spent on players in 6/7 years and you put 10 men behind the ball for an entire game in a champions league semi.  Chelsea are a disgrace.

.... but still in with a shout

I had 2 betting slips. One with a Barcelona win and one with a Chelsea win. And they fucking drew.  >:(

A Champions League first leg semi away to Barcelona, the best footballing side in the world. It's completely understandable to play very defensive and hope to get one lucky goal, which Drogba nearly did. You won't see any side in the Champions League really going for it in the first match, and the away team in the first leg are always very cautious.

If they hadn't been so defensive it would have been 3-0. Abramovich will be delighted if they win the next leg with home advantage.

i understand your point, chelsea got what they played for. (although without an away goal I dont make them favorites for the 2nd leg)

Its not that they "didnt really go for it", it was that they were so negative it was unbelievable.  Even Liverpool, whose manager is famously cautious have more of a go in big european away games than that.  Same goes for Mourinho when he was at chelsea.

My point really is that if I were in Abramovich's shoes I'd be pretty pissed off that my team who were assembled at a cost of several hundered million quid were so shit scared of obviously superior side that they hardly stung 3/4 passes together or created a chance.

I hope Barca go through. it would be a moral victory as much as anything else. That and Barca v Man U or Arsenals has the makings of a good game.

Don't know if Chelsea were negative; when allowed the opportunity to go forward they did, its just they didn't get much of a chance to attack as Barca had the majority of possession. Drogba should have probably scored from the defenders mistake, and had one other chance.

Didn't Liverpool do a remarkably similar job at the Bernabeau last round? Only they nicked a goal in the away leg (Benayoun 82') and dicked on them 4-0 at home. I wouldn't expect Chelsea to pull of anything like that in their second leg, like you say Colin the match at Stamford Bridge seems far more open.

Agreed though that for £x00m Abramovich doesn't own a side playing the beautiful football that such large transfer fees and wages should perhaps bring. But they've been there or thereabouts in most competitions since he's been at the helm, so perhaps the Russian is content with winning ugly.

Personally I'd be pretty happy with 0-0 and last nights performance, if I were the owner. First team to stop Barca scoring at home this season, and they put some blinding tackles in all match but particularly during the last twenty minutes.

And for once I didn't think that Michael Ballack was a complete waste of space, which is a first.

Wasn't that why Abramovich sacked Mourinho, because he wasn't happy with just winning games, but wanted to see them play more expansive football rather than doing enough to get a two-goal lead then shut up shop? So I'd guess he may well have been thinking along exactly the lines you suggest CT back then, but has learned his lesson since

Truesay. But Hiddink is a stop-gap and he may revive the sexy football philosophy with his next appointment. Though not if its an Italian as is being touted.