Chelsea FC Official thread

It was perhaps the most crucial, awarded to Bayern Munich in the fifth minute of extra time after Drogba had foolishly felled Franck Ribery. John Mikel Obi played his part, mischievously informing Arjen Robben that his former Chelsea colleague would know exactly what he intended to do; that Cech would make the save.
Cech, it turns out, was not quite that confident, but the thought process that led to him choosing the right way — a thought process built on a study of the Holland winger’s technique — remains incredibly impressive.
‘Robben always shoots different ways,’ said Cech. ‘There’s no pattern in his penalties. So I didn’t know what to do with him. Half he shoots to the right, half to the left. No pattern whatsoever. He even runs up the same way to the ball. But when you’re tired, when you’ve played for 95 minutes, players choose power rather than technique, rather than placing it. I thought he’d smash it somewhere near the corner and hope it would go through. He’s left-footed. I’m left-footed, and I thought if it was me I’d shoot across, left to right. Which is why I went to my left.’

This is a guy who mastered Spanish in a month, his fourth language. For this Champions League final he mastered Bayern’s penalty takers in two hours, destroying the myth that the Germans always win these shootouts. Even on the eve of the game Jupp Heynckes was pointing to the superior mental strength of his compatriots when it comes to scoring from 12 yards. Cech and Chelsea’s penalty takers took a sledgehammer to that theory. Not least with the saves to deny Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger.

How much did Cech know about Bayern’s chosen five on Saturday night? ‘Quite a bit because I went six times the right way for the six penalties,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘I either guessed pretty well or I was ready to guess pretty well. I’d seen all the Bayern penalties since 2007. It took me about two hours to go through them all on a DVD, on the flight over. The coaching staff studied them too and we took notes. When it came to the shootout I then said, “Guys, the notes?” But Hilario said, “You don’t need the notes, you’ll save everything”.
‘Mario Gomez hit the best penalty. I got close to Manuel Neuer’s. But I’d gone the right way each time and it would have been impossible to have kept guessing right and not saved one. That’s what happened. I got a touch on Schweinsteiger’s, too.’

Chelsea striker Fernando Torres will hold talks with the club about his future after criticising the way he has been treated.

Keanoo wrote:

Cruyff: “If this is how you need to win Champions Leagues, I prefer not to win them… It’s a disgrace. I don’t understand why Chelsea only starts to play football when they’re 1-0 down. Look at the names at their disposal. The only people happy with this result are the Chelsea fans. Bayern did everything right but they missed three penalties. If you miss three penalties, you can’t win. It’s as simple as that. Ajax wants to win the CL, sure, but not like this. Ever.”

What a cunt.

Marvin wrote:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2147270/Chelsea-win-Champions-League-Petr-Cech-saves-day.html

Makes for a good read, best part:

It was perhaps the most crucial, awarded to Bayern Munich in the fifth minute of extra time after Drogba had foolishly felled Franck Ribery. John Mikel Obi played his part, mischievously informing Arjen Robben that his former Chelsea colleague would know exactly what he intended to do; that Cech would make the save.
Cech, it turns out, was not quite that confident, but the thought process that led to him choosing the right way — a thought process built on a study of the Holland winger’s technique — remains incredibly impressive.
‘Robben always shoots different ways,’ said Cech. ‘There’s no pattern in his penalties. So I didn’t know what to do with him. Half he shoots to the right, half to the left. No pattern whatsoever. He even runs up the same way to the ball. But when you’re tired, when you’ve played for 95 minutes, players choose power rather than technique, rather than placing it. I thought he’d smash it somewhere near the corner and hope it would go through. He’s left-footed. I’m left-footed, and I thought if it was me I’d shoot across, left to right. Which is why I went to my left.’

This is a guy who mastered Spanish in a month, his fourth language. For this Champions League final he mastered Bayern’s penalty takers in two hours, destroying the myth that the Germans always win these shootouts. Even on the eve of the game Jupp Heynckes was pointing to the superior mental strength of his compatriots when it comes to scoring from 12 yards. Cech and Chelsea’s penalty takers took a sledgehammer to that theory. Not least with the saves to deny Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger.

How much did Cech know about Bayern’s chosen five on Saturday night? ‘Quite a bit because I went six times the right way for the six penalties,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘I either guessed pretty well or I was ready to guess pretty well. I’d seen all the Bayern penalties since 2007. It took me about two hours to go through them all on a DVD, on the flight over. The coaching staff studied them too and we took notes. When it came to the shootout I then said, “Guys, the notes?” But Hilario said, “You don’t need the notes, you’ll save everything”.
‘Mario Gomez hit the best penalty. I got close to Manuel Neuer’s. But I’d gone the right way each time and it would have been impossible to have kept guessing right and not saved one. That’s what happened. I got a touch on Schweinsteiger’s, too.’

Theo Filippo wrote:Drogba deserved his start, Torres being a stupid cunt.

Keanoo wrote:

Cruyff: “If this is how you need to win Champions Leagues, I prefer not to win them… It’s a disgrace. I don’t understand why Chelsea only starts to play football when they’re 1-0 down. Look at the names at their disposal. The only people happy with this result are the Chelsea fans. Bayern did everything right but they missed three penalties. If you miss three penalties, you can’t win. It’s as simple as that. Ajax wants to win the CL, sure, but not like this. Ever.”

What a cunt.

luke. wrote:One year ago today Ancelotti was sacked, scary stuff.

Also, it wasn't exactly our plan to only start playing after we conceded, that's exactly what the players said. I can remember Cahill saying after the match he didn't know why it only took us until after they scored to get into gear, but you can't blame us if Bayern wasted all their chances and couldn't finish us, plus, apparently we were going to get fucking battered so why wouldn't we play defensive football? We're not like Arsenal, we don't turn up to places like the Nou Camp and ignorantly try to attack and leave our defence open for teams to walk through

As expected, Bayern saw more of the ball, although their first half domination was very slightly less than the 60-65% predicted in the preview. In a strange way, Chelsea’s attacks might have been more dangerous had that figure increased – Bayern weren’t committing huge numbers forward into the final third or piling on the pressure, and therefore Chelsea didn’t have many spaces to break into. Credit should go to Bayern for this, though – the full-backs were reserved and Didier Drogba wasn’t a huge force upon the game until late on.

Marvin wrote:

Marvin wrote: