Chelsea v Barcelona
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This match seems like an interesting fixtureÂ… Already without all the incidents and accusations, the players on display alone will make this a good match to watchÂ… and if their past encounters in the CL these past 2 years were anything to go by... anything can happen in this.
Already Barcelona have accuse Mourinho is up to his old tricks again by dumping sand on their pitch and deliberately making it difficult for them. And Chelsea has new problems after the weekendÂ’s match. Their goalkeeper Petr Cech suffered a depressed fracture of the skull following his clash with Reading and will not play. 2nd choice Cudicini also got injured in that match and probably would not play too. Barcelona also have injury problems of their own... Samuel Eto'o is out for 5 months.
In their recent past encounters, there was always sending-off, so would there be one again this time?
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
A
Chelsea v Barcelona - Ch 24 - 2:30am (Live)
Werder Bremen v Levski Sofia
B
Inter Milan v Spartak Moscow
Sporting Lisbon v Bayern Munich
C
Bordeaux v Liverpool
Galatasaray v PSV Eindhoven
D
Olympiakos v Roma
Valencia v Shakhtar Donetsk -
Vs
CHELSEA v BARCELONA
Head-to-head record
Played: 9 Wins: Barcelona 5 Chelsea 3
Draws: 1
Previous meetings:
18.04.00 Barcelona 5 Chelsea 1 CL: KO
23.02.05 Barcelona 2 Chelsea 1
08.03.05 Chelsea 4 Barcelona 2 CL: KO
22.02.06 Chelsea 1 Barcelona 2
3.03.06 Barcelona 1 Chelsea 1
* Chelsea have lost only three of 57 European home games, the last against Barcelona in last season's knockout round.
* Before last season's defeat by Barcelona, Chelsea had won six and drawn one of their seven home games against Spanish opponents.
* European champions Barcelona have not been beaten in the Champions League since losing to Chelsea in the knockout round two seasons ago, a run of 15 matches in which they have conceded just six goals. They have let in just two goals in their last seven away.
* Barcelona will be playing their 53rd match against English opponents. They have won on three of their last four visits to England. -
Barcelona forward Eidur Gudjohnsen has revealed he has been telling his new club all about his old side Chelsea.
Gudjohnsen is keen for Barca to get one over his former side and has been telling coach Frank Rijkaard any inside information that could help see off Jose Mourinho's charges.
"I've been giving the manager some useful information on the tactics Chelsea are likely to use on the players," said Gudjohnsen.
"I was at the club for six years so know all about most of their guys, their strengths and weaknesses.
"I've also been able to tell the manager about some of Jose Mourinho's secrets - like specific training sessions he worked on to try and beat Barcelona last time we played."
Eidur Gudjohnsen has described Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho as "a father figure"
I do not regret signing for Barcelona - a marvellous city and a fantastic team."
The Iceland striker admits, however, that the two coaching regimes he has encountered could not be more different.
Barca coach Frank Rijkaard is "tranquil and sensible and does not speak more than necessary", claims Gudjohnsen, whereas Mourinho "shouts all the time. -
2 of their keeps down...
bad luck...nothing more than bad luck... -
if terry and co can keep barca quiet, it won't matter who plays in goal
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The thing is without Gallas, their defence is getting soft and they depended alot on cech to keep their goal safe... Now that cech is also out, we will have to see how captain terry holds up... But their new buy, Khalid Boulahrouz seems like a good strong defender, almost like Gabriel Heinze type of player.
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Bolton boss Sam Allardyce is ready to come to Jose Mourinho's aid and offer the Chelsea manager the use of one of his goalkeepers.
Allardyce has told his Portuguese counterpart he would gladly loan him Ian Walker or Oman international Ali Al-Habsi.
'He suggested in the last couple of weeks that if we can get these keepers out on loan, then that's something we will consider. -
GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST loves beating Chelsea — because he's an ex-Gooner.
The Barcelona ace is desperate to help the Spanish giants to another success at Stamford Bridge tonight.
And the Dutch left-back will take extra satisfaction in victory after his years playing for Arsenal.
Van Bronckhorst said: "I want to win because it is very important for Barcelona.
"And the fact that I'm an ex-Gunner is just a little more incentive to beat Chelsea. -
FT
Chelsea 1 - 0 Barcelona -
If Mourinho is to lead Chelsea to the European Cup final for the first time in their history, how many English fans will be cheering them on in Athens in May?
At least, after more than two years in London, Mourinho has finally discovered Cockney rhyming slang thanks to the efforts of the Berkshire Hunt who, he continues to insist, deliberately crocked Cech.
Yet, despite last nightÂ’s impressive victory on the back of such a traumatic period for the club, this has been another poor week for the Blues managerÂ’s reputation.
Barca boss Rijkaard was the first man to suffer from the Mourinho conspiracy syndrome.
Ever since Chelsea’s first clash with Barcelona in 2004-05, when Rijkaard was wrongly alleged to have cosied up to Swedish ref Frisk at half-time in the Nou Camp, Mourinho has been spouting the old Kenneth Williams line ‘infamy, infamy, they’ve all got in for me’.
Even the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust have apparently joined the vendetta against Chelsea, with MourinhoÂ’s dubious claim they failed to deliver Cech to hospital on time after his clash with Hunt.
So now it’s ‘infirmary, infirmary, they’ve all got it in for me.’
MourinhoÂ’s belief that the world is against his club has become a selffulfilling prophecy.
The more he rants and raves, the more conspiracy theories he spouts, the more every neutral fan on every sofa in England would love to see Barcelona give Chelsea a bloody nose.
Slurs against highly-paid rival managers and players may be seen as just part of the mind games.
A slur against members of the ambulance service, genuine everyday heroes who save countless lives, can be seen as spitting in the face of decent hard-working people. -
while all seems to be on Hunt's side, here's something I read that is different..
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/oliverholt/
HERE'S a little multiple choice quiz question for a professional footballer on how he might be expected to behave in a given situation.
A few seconds after the start of a match one Saturday evening, you see the world's best goalkeeper run out of his goal and gather the ball cleanly. You, an opposing midfielder, are still several yards away. Do you:
A. Realise there is no chance of the world's best goalkeeper spilling the ball, change the direction of your run and jog back towards the half-way line.
B.Go for the Hollywood option, carry on with your run and hurdle the keeper as he lies on the floor clutching the ball.
C. Continue to run straight at the goalkeeper as he lies on the floor with the ball, watch your knee collide with his head and then stand back as he is taken to hospital with a fractured skull.
Tough one, isn't it? A real head-scratcher. Or, in the vexed case of Stephen Hunt and Petr Cech, a real headbreaker.
The best that can be said of Reading's enthusiastic midfielder, who hurtled into Cech in the first minute of last Saturday's clash with Chelsea, is that he has an exceedingly slow football brain.The worst is that his aggression has put Cech out of football for a year and may have changed the life of the goalkeeper forever.
Cech has two metal plates in his head now as he lies in the John Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford and yet football's neanderthal instinct seems to be to leap to Hunt's defence. One of the worst things about the incident is the way the apologists for violence in football have formulated such a preposterous defence for the Reading player.
Because in their rush to defend the indefensible all they have done is blurred the message that what Hunt did was unacceptable and by doing that, they've cleared the way for it to happen again.
The grizzled old pros with no cartilage in either knee and not a lot between the ears either have been trotted out to produce the usual garbage about the good old days.
You know the type. The Monty Python merchants unwittingly re-enacting the Four Yorkshiremen sketch. "You were lucky," they say. "We used to dream about getting kneed in the head."
Bob Wilson wins the prize for getting closest to that but then I suppose that's what you expect from a bloke who was mentor to a muppet who called himself Safe Hands.
Let's get one thing straight right away. Hunt's challenge on Cech wasn't for a 50-50 ball. It wasn't even 60-40 against Hunt. Not 70-30 either. Not 80-20. Not 90-10.
Cech had it. It was 100 per cent his. It was under his control. It was in his possession.
"Our momentum meant a collision was unavoidable," Hunt said. Sorry, pal, I know you're desperate but that's not true.
It was totally avoidable. I'll tell you how. Just don't slam your knee into Cech's head. Simple. Fractured skull suddenly entirely avoidable.
Whether Hunt meant to do it or not is another matter. Only he will ever know that.
I imagine he is somewhat taken aback by quite how serious the consequences of his action have been to a fellow professional. Again, only he knows that. What is certain is that according to the laws of the game, he should have been sent off for the injury he inflicted on Cech.
He wasn't in control of the outcome of his challenge and it endangered the safety of his opponent. That equals a red card.
Luckily for Hunt, a wet lettuce called Mike Riley was in charge and the best he could muster was one of his thin little smiles.
And don't listen to the people who say it couldn't have been deliberate because it would be professional suicide for a footballer to knee someone in the head.
Those people say Hunt would never have done that because he would have been too worried about hurting himself.
Well, remind me then which player got carried off on a stretcher and is still in hospital and which player played for 90 minutes without a scratch?
Hunt may well have placed his knee in terrible danger when it collided with Petr Cech's head but thankfully the knee seems to have emerged unscathed.
Petr Cech might be in a bit of a state but Hunt and his knee are doing just fine. Sighs of relief all round.
Sometimes nice to see it from a 20000ft view.