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UCL: Olympiakos - Chelsea (Feb. 19)

1.8K views 103 replies 17 participants last post by  SAD ANDY  
#1 ·
Champions League is back!

All players registered for Champions League knock-out stage are available for selection.

My team would be:

----------- Čech
Belletti - Alex - Carvalho - A. Cole
--------- Makelele
---- Essien ----- Ballack
J. Cole ------------------ Kalou
---------- Drogba

Can't wait for the game to start. :excited:
 
#5 ·
Alec_Cobas said:
I want to see Drogba and Anelka in our attack, it can be devastating!
Me too!:thumbsup:

I actually took the day off work for this match so it better not be a let down.
 
#7 ·
I wouldn't be so sure, Olympiakos are tough nut to crack. They lost only two matches this season so far and both of these were away from home.
 
#8 ·
Finally, there was an explanation for the decision to leave Andriy Shevchenko behind in England, to gain match fitness with the reserves against Aston Villa this evening.

'Shevchenko is not here because he is not 100 percent so we prefer to leave him and play with the reserves and make him ready.

'We did the same with Ballack three months ago and we hope it will help his condition. If you remember he was very good before his injury and we hope to see him again like this.'

-------------------------

The reserves game has been called off. :mad:
 
#13 ·
Kyiv, How would a goaless draw be good? Do you know about the away goal rule? If you think we might tie, a decent result would be 1-1. 0-0 would be very poor.

I think Chelsea will kill the game off with a second goal at some point.

Andy, that is ridiculous that the Reserves game got cancelled. It would have been better for Sheva to go practice with his mates now. It's so discouraging to see him missing all of these games when he was starting to get cooking there in Dec.

Chelsea wins 2-0
 
#15 ·
FootyFan365 said:
Kyiv, How would a goaless draw be good? Do you know about the away goal rule? If you think we might tie, a decent result would be 1-1. 0-0 would be very poor.
I don't think anyone would like a goalless draw. However, a draw would be a draw and in this match I would see it as a disappointment. I expect nothing less than a win, but anything less than this would be a draw and we could easily finish the job at Stamford Bridge. I understand what you are saying about a goalless draw, but if this was to happen I still believe we are more than capable of winning at Stamford Bridge. Making a goalless draw Ineffective.
 
#16 ·
You never know...
lets just say Chelsea tie 0-0 in Athens. We go back to the Bridge where, yes, we will be at their heads and win comfortably, most likely. But lets pretend (even if I don't want to think of this scenario),that Drogba gets a goal early and we're looking good only for Olympiakos to strike back with some cheao goal in the 50-something minute. All of a sudden the fixture is turned on its head and its 1-1 and we are behind. The boys would be playing with added pressure, and if we are unfortunate to not score again, they squeeze through on away goal rule.
That will NEVER happen, buy you just NEVER know...
 
#18 ·
Sweet to see us with so many options... especially at a crucial time. I still prefer to see WB @ RFB, and Alex instead of RC. Terry looked good against Hudd, but i'm not sure if that was because he had a lot of space. I'm not sure if FL is ready for this as his passing was still off in the FA game. I'd prefer to see ME or CM backing up MB with FM on one side and SWP on the other. Throw in JC in support of DD, and we're set. CC, RC, AC, FL and NA as subs. Damn, NA for DD is a scenario I'd like to see!
 
#19 ·
Dude I didn't get all of those abbreviations so I'll just have to agree with you on that. However, I have to disagree with you about swopping Ricardo Carvalho to make room for Alex. I think that Carvalho is amazing. He's better technically than Terry and I love it when he ventures forward. Terry is "all business" while Carvalho is more risk-taking yet solid as well. Great combo.

Joe Cole has been playing lights out for about 2 months now. The boy is England's finest.

C'mon Chelsea, C'mon Chelsea!!!
 
#20 ·
Goalless draw wouldn't be too bad for either side. Olympiakos would have had a clean sheet at home, Chelsea would have an away leg passed. Of course, it is possible that we would be knocked out because Oly would get a result at The Bridge, but in games like these you can take nothing for granted anyway.

As for squad selection I would say so:

Čech, Belletti, Carvalho, Makelele, Essien, J. Cole and Drogba should all start.

Elswhere there are options. Terry/Alex - I would prefer Brazilian. Terry made several mistakes (one of them costed us goal) against Huddersfield and he doesn't have enough match practice. Ballack/Lampard - very much the same situation here. Lampard recently recovered from his injury and Ballack was rested at weekend. Also he looks to be better suited for European game, he can hold the ball and he is bigger threat from set-pieces than Lamps. A. Cole/Bridge - depends purely on tactics. Bridge provides better support for attacks, but defensively Cole edges him and I think we should go for safety first option here. Malouda/Kalou/SWP - the most difficult choice here. Malouda is the most experienced and he is also the player of the highest quality, but he cannot run at the defences and he is the weakest of the three when he is isolated against his defender. Kalou is terrible finisher, but he is commited, he has trickery and he can cause all sorts of problems for defenders. SWP is extremely inconsistent. He would be more than capable to destroy any oposition on his day, but these "his days" are few and far between. His crossing ability is terrible, his passes and shots aren't good either. And by selecting him you would force J. Cole to play out of position. Given that, I'd choose Kalou, who also could provide the best support to a lone striker by getting into opposition's penalty area.