Cave Dweller
Academy Player
- Joined
- May 11, 2012
- Messages
- 456
- Country Flag
- Club or Nation
Napoli game fair enough. Napoli needed to score in a period, because the constant balls into the box from Chelsea were defended terribly, and the limitations of three fairly average centre-backs were highlighted. The Napoli guys are midtable Serie A players competing in the knockout round of the Champions League, and unfortunately they weren’t up to scratch. Their gameplan depended upon sitting deep then breaking. But you have to be able to deal with the constant pressure, and defend the penalty box well. They did not and Drogba was superb.
The Barcelona games they relied on a couple of terrible Barcelona misses in the first leg. Going one up they will always have the advantage in the 2nd leg cause of the away goal rule. That gave them license to park the bus in the Nou Camp. They new scoring one against a tiring Barca who has been Tici Taca and pressing hard for 40 games plus, who just came of a El Classico and had a formation change as well as playing defensive midfielders as Centerbacks with a rather young and inexperience bench. Take nothing away from guys like Tello and such but they are developing youngsters and not guys who you can throw on do the X- factor for you. Mascherano gave away the goal which meant that Barcelona was facing a struggle at 2-1. Because if you park the bus Barca are not going to put it in the air and score. Its going to come through passes and they are going to try and ping pong it through your defense. So a fast CB rather than a slow big CB was better. Then Barca had too many defensive players on the pitch.
Mascherano and Puyol as CB's, and Busquets as a holding midfielder. Chelsea were breaking, but when Barcelona had the ball which was the vast majority of the second half they had 3 v 0 at the back. 3 Man defensive line ups are useless against anything other than a two striker formation. The penalty was obviously crucial to the game, and like in the first leg, Chelsea had to rely on poor finishing. Simple.
They did not outplay anyone or played some good magic football. They relied on poor finishing in the two games and in the final as Bayern wasted awful lot of chances and Robben missing the penalty. So no they did not deserve it but they were clinical with the scraps they had. They just had the luck on their side.
But the Champions League consistently produce the most intriguing, unpredictable games in modern football, and its most memorable moments normally.
