Football Season 2008/2009

[khilafah]

A night when the referrer had so much influence is not a victory for football.

 

Grow up.

 

listen I just wanna see teams that go out and try and win games be succesful. Over the two legs you cannot tell me chelsea tried to actually win the game.

 

Yes the ref had an awful game but chelsea's ultra defensive football was horrible. You might like watching that but thats not for me.

[LazyBoy]

Present! Enjoy!

[Ramar]

Present! Enjoy!

 

Glad you posted that because I had it, but didn't want to come across as a bitter mong by posting two gifs.

 

Disgusting behaviour from some of the Chelsea players.

[Bren]

HAHAHA Im so happy right now

 

CMONNN BARRCA

[Daft]

listen I just wanna see teams that go out and try and win games be succesful. Over the two legs you cannot tell me chelsea tried to actually win the game.

 

Yes the ref had an awful game but chelsea's ultra defensive football was horrible. You might like watching that but thats not for me.

 

No you're right, Chelsea's plan was to get knocked out.

 

We stopped Barca scoring at home which was an epic achievement. We nullified the threat of Messi and confined Barca to only one shot on target tonight.

 

We had two clear penalty shouts and one debatable one, but I would say it wasn't.

 

You're a fool.

[Ramar]

No you're right, Chelsea's plan was to get knocked out.

 

We stopped Barca scoring at home which was an epic achievement. We nullified the threat of Messi and confined Barca to only one shot on target tonight.

 

We had two clear penalty shouts and one debatable one, but I would say it wasn't.

 

You're a fool.

 

Henry should have had a penalty in the first leg.. Abidal was wrongly sent off..

 

Things even themselves out.

[Platty]

Henry should have had a penalty in the first leg.. Abidal was wrongly sent off..

 

Things even themselves out.

 

Yeah but Abidal should have been sent off for the blatant penalty on drogba. So justice done there. (apart from no penalty).

[Daft]

Henry should have had a penalty in the first leg.. Abidal was wrongly sent off..

 

Things even themselves out.

 

Abidal should have been sent of for one of those penalty decisions that we didn't get. This would have happened much earlier in the game. Fine, Henry should have had a penalty in the first leg, we still should have had two in this leg.

 

Things don't even themselves out automatically. Don't be so naive.

[LazyBoy]

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Sorry i'm over on /sp/, f*cking sh*tstorm.

[Ramar]

Things don't even themselves out automatically. Don't be so naive.

 

Football evens itself out eventually. I guess you've forgotten dodgy freekicks and penalties you've got in the passed.

 

Sometimes shit goes for you, tonight it went against you. You win it for yourself, out right, so contraversial (sp?) issues don't need to be questioned.

[Daft]

'Eventually' doesn't cut it in 90 minute matches.

 

I'm pretty sure Barca didn't win it 'outright' tonight.

[Ramar]

'Eventually' doesn't cut it in 90 minute matches.

 

I'm pretty sure Barca didn't win it 'outright' tonight.

 

You've got to look at the bigger picture I'm afraid.

 

As for Barca, they didn't have to win, the away goals rule meant a score draw was enough. Had Chelsea realised scoring away was a good a thing, they may have attempted some attacks at the Camp Nou.

[Daft]

You've got to look at the bigger picture I'm afraid.

 

As for Barca, they didn't have to win, the away goals rule meant a score draw was enough. Had Chelsea realised scoring away was a good a thing, they may have attempted some attacks at the Camp Nou.

 

Bigger picture? It doesn't get much bigger than two legs in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

 

Yes, maybe we should have attacked more at the Nou but the were going through until 4 minutes from time. Something the referee made sure of.

 

What happened, happened.

 

I'm annoyed that we lost, and I have every right to be. What really irks me is comments like we deserved to lose. I guess I should expect that since I am a Chelsea fan, but I don't really understand it. Although that's probably because I have no contempt towards other teams, bar maybe Real Madrid.

 

*Braces for Chelski comment*

[LazyBoy]

Last one. Someone got sent off for this remember.

 

Edited May 6, 2009 by LazyBoy

[Emerald Emblem]

There we go, Anelka did Dive with no contact.

[Molly]

Last one. Someone got sent off for this remember.

 

If you watched from the other angle when they played it live, it actually looked like he tripped. It definitely wasn't a red card but there were also 3 penalties not given, the ref had a shocking game for both sides. Chelsea did defend solidly but I think it's unfair to say they didn't attack it, they had way more chances on goal.

 

If the ref sent him off to do some justice for the obvious penalties, that's even worse in my eyes. 4 wrongs don't make a right lolol

[Kav]

Abidal should've gone in the first half for his trip on Drogba which in turn should've been a pen!

 

I'm a Chelsea fan, I'm not angry or upset, I'm happy with they way we played; I thought it was fantastic... but win some, lose some. These things happen in football!

 

I just find it extremely unfortunate that there were multiple refereeing decisions, big decisions, that have gone completely unnoticed, I find it an absolutely poor show on Uefa's part as they evidently had an impact as to who went through!

 

Ah well, what can you do..?! Best of luck for both teams in the final, I hope we don't have any incidents of this nature in the final so that we get a more fair reflection of the match!

[Chuck]

Ref was abismal tonight. Ballack and Drogba were right to have a go at him.

[DuD]

I hope we don't have any incidents of this nature in the final so that we get a more fair reflection of the match!

Here here.

 

Things don't look good though if the two refs in charge of this weeks games are the best europe has to offer

[tapedeck]

Good lord...awful decisions tonight. Shockers all round by the officials. Clearly should have been Chelski in the final ala 2008. You'd almost think UEFA didn't want an all English final again.

 

Who was promoting Football Karma earlier in the thread. Hillarious imo.

[Dyson]

Ref was abismal tonight. Ballack and Drogba were right to have a go at him.

 

Absolutely. Would've hit the bastard myself.

[Ellmeister]

I find it funny the way people are like... you win some you lose some not every referee goes your way etc, when I can pretty much make a good assumption that they've been in here bitching about the refereeing.

 

Anyway, for tonight, I enjoyed the match up until the last few minutes. I'm gutted! As for the person who says we parked a bus in front of the goal, thats bullshit, we had quite a few chances tonight, just because we did great defensively doesn't mean anything. Drogba should have finished that shot off when it hit the keeper's legs. I think the referee was rubbish as was yesterdays. Luckily yesterday the best team went through. Tonight I felt we had done it all tactically to a tee. The first leg we did what we seet out to do and we did it tonight. Heck they didn't have one shot on goal in the 90minutes! After coming away from a 6-2 against Real Madrid thats surprising, no-one would have guessed that!

 

Anelka dived easy, but the player probably should have been off for his challenge on Drogba. The handballs were indeed handballs, no arguing there. Jamie Redknapp was hilarious, Drogba was disgraceful but I said to my friend, in that moment I would be the same. You get robbed in the final moments of a semi final heading into one of the biggest games you could play and the referee makes a clear cut mistake! I'd be fuming. Hilarious on Sky Sports when they accidentally turned the volume up and you heard Drogba say its a "fucking disgrace!"

 

Oh well! Barcelona have no defence left what with injuries and suspensions. LOL.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I went to the pub to watch this, because I thought it would be an interesting game, and I always wanted to see who Manchester United got in the final.

 

Essien's strike was magnificent, and it's a shame that the proceedings have overshadowed such a great goal. For the most part, I think Barcelona were poor, particularly Iniesta who I thought was wasteful, and Alves, who delivered some poor crosses into the box, time and time again.

 

You know argue all you want about attacking football, but you can only attack if you have the defence there intact. That is why Manchester United were so good last night and last week at Old Trafford. We can defend, but we also have players than can attack with flair. There's no use attacking if you just know the team are going to come at you and score, where's the sense in that? For the most part, I thought Barcelona were harmless tonight. They never even looked like scoring, and Cech was untroubled.

 

It's ironic that it was Essien's failure to clear the ball (it was Essien, wasn't it?) that led to the goal. It was a great finish, but very, very harsh on Chelsea, and this is coming from a United fan. Chelsea did well to nullify Barcelona's attack, and to stop them from scoring in the 90 mins both home and away. Chelsea were very defensive in the first leg, but I think they were much more attacking here. They are a very, very different team to Barcelona, and if you're expecting both teams to pass the ball fluidly with pace, runs and sharp interchange, then you've entered this game with the wrong expectations. This is a Champions League Semi-Final, and neither team wants to lose. If this were a league game, it would have been very different.

 

But, like I said, the majority of chances fell to Chelsea. There's no two ways about it, there were various decisions tonight that will question the judgement of the officials. Abidal should not have been sent off in the second half, and it's harsh on him as he will not be playing in the final. Yet, he shouldn't even have been on the field at half time, so that was a bit strange to say the least. One thing that I find interesting is that people on here are using the referee's poor judgement to claim that "oh, it's karma." You get a bad decision one week, and a good decision the next. Where does it end? "Well, we had a penalty not given in 2004, but the one last Saturday shouldn't have counted, so its karma."

 

The Chelsea fans I spoke to at the end were very gutted, and a fight even broke out in the pub during injury time. It got very heated, and half the pub left through the doors, to stop themselves getting involved. I stayed, as I wanted to see out the rest of the game. But, on the whole, I think Chelsea are unlucky to go through. They should have got a second, and they could have done if for some better finishing.

 

No matter how bad the referee is/was, berating him at the final whistle will achieve nothing, except get you a yellow card. Once a referee has blown his whistle, you can do very little about it. Reactions like this by Drogba are just giving football a bad name:

 

Yeah, he's angry, and he's got every right to be, but footballers need to stay professional. There needs to be a time and a place where the decision making of referees comes into question, but doing it in this manner will do you no favours. What will be interesting is the reaction to all of this by UEFA. It looks like Monsieur Platini has his dream of a non All-English Champions League Final, after all. Funny that.

 

There's probably a lot more that I wanted to say, but my eyes kinda hurt so I was thinking more about that than what I was typing.

Edited May 7, 2009 by Fierce_LiNk

[Ramar]

Ref was abismal tonight. Ballack and Drogba were right to have a go at him.

 

That's where you're wrong, that amount of protesting is disgraceful and shows a complete lack of respect. Yeah the ref may have got some decisions wrong but he's the man in charge, and his word is final whether it's wrong or right. Screaming at him is hardly going to make his job any easier.

[Fierce_LiNk]

That's where you're wrong, that amount of protesting is disgraceful and shows a complete lack of respect. Yeah the ref may have got some decisions wrong but he's the man in charge, and his word is final whether it's wrong or right. Screaming at him is hardly going to make his job any easier.

 

Personally, I think the only players who should be able to talk to the referees are the captains, and really only for clarification on decisions made. Once a referee has given a card, he's not going to un-give it, or once a penalty decision has not been given it can't be given later on. Yes, referees are now getting a bad reputation for making high profile mistakes, or failing to give decisions, or giving ones too leniently, but it is a bluddy tough job and I for one think they're brave for doing it in the first place.

 

The beauty is that if you're in the stands, you'll have a different viewpoint to the game. At home, you have the benefit of replays from a million different angles, and sometimes that can be just as inconclusive. But, when people say that bringing in video technology would slow the game down, do these protests and claims not also slow the game down, and potentially ruin the occasion? What is the game last night going to be remembered for? Didier Drogba and his swearing after the game.