Hey peeps! I'm back from a wild whirlwind trip to London for one of the best games of football I have ever seen. I can't even remember a better game right now! What fabulous play from both sides! Chelsea's counter-attacks were magnificent. Ronaldinho's second goal was a piece of art. The atmosphere at Stamford Bridge was totally electric! and most importantly...
CHELSEA WON, FAIR & SQUARE!
I was jumping out of my seat through the whole game. I think I screamed on behalf of the whole west upper stand!
Regarding a couple of points in your posts from yesterday:
- No, Eto'o was not taunted with a racist comment (the steward said something like "the pitch is manque (i.e. poor) today, did it make it harder to play?"
- the Barcelona fans were reprehensible. When Abramovich made his traditional walk across the pitch to the changing rooms after the game, they hurled insults and threw bottles at him.
- the stadium stewards were a little bit vigilante - they wouldn't let Ronaldinho go up to the Barca fans because they were afraid people would get too excited. A Chelsea assistant coach also got a little too excited and taunted Rijkard a bit. Together, this nearly started a melee.
- the Barca players said some pretty stupid stuff after the game. Mourinho might have reacted poorly after the first leg, but they were equally lame. (what did Eto'o say? Something about planning on quitting the game soon?!)
- replays show that the alleged foul by Carvalho happened after the ball crossed into the goal. Maybe Collina could see that better than us, since he was a lot closer than the linesman.
The controversy after this game was so contrived, because for once it was a fair game where the officiating did not influence the outcome (unlike the first game). Eto'o and Joe Cole both did some diving, and neither got much out of it, so I think it was even on that score.
I think Chelsea played to their stregnths. Compared to Barca, it is a better defensive team and so they defended and struck (3 times!) on the counterattack. Barca is a better offensive team and tried to control the ball and attack. In the end, Chelsea played better overall... and won!
OK... getting down from my soap box now, but WOW what a game! Peter Cech, John Terry, Makalele... hell, the whole team played so well.
