So, did you watch anything decent on the box this evening?
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 11:12PM Is this a gloat? I guess technically speaking it is. Although I prefer to quantify it as payback for some of the abuse aimed at me by some Chelsea 'friends' through-out the season relating to our adventures down south in the mire of relegation. So, let's not waste a second more.
Football justice at the Bridge. Hard luck for defending deep over two games, nine players behind the ball and then failing to take control of the game against 10 men who nicked it with their one and only shot on target. Although to be fair, it was a job well done stopping the Catalan goal machine for 181 minutes. And if the decisions had gone their way, it would have made going to work tricky and the tabloid love-in for another all English Utd v Chelsea final completely unbearable.
But praise the lord, for he has given us Tom Ovrebo.
Was the Norwegian referee completely out of his depth? Yeah sure. He got the Barca red card wrong and should have given Chelsea a couple of penalties, if not more. But who cares when his performance gave us the magic of Ballack almost jumping on him in protest and the ironic genius of Drogba chaotically chasing the ref after the final whistle before turning to the Sky camera and crying 'fucking disgrace'. Yes, Drogba, you absolute melter, what a disgrace. I guess the moment was made for you having spent half of your playing career rolling around on the ground, diving and cheating. Dry your eyes and consider what would have been had you taken that one glorious opportunity to make it 2-0. Sleep easy tonight.
What topped it off was the minutes silence from the Sky panel post-match. Jamie Redknapp almost in tears, various suggestions that the referee possibly knew what he was doing when not giving obvious expected decisions out on the pitch. Chelsea hard-done by, thoughts and prayers all round. All in all a wonderful ending to a nights football, illustrating once more the complete lack of dignity and class when defeat is dished out.
Apparently it all kicked off in the tunnel. They really do know how to take it gracefully.
Reader Comments (37)
The best bit was the sky replay of drogbas rant when they forgot to turn off the audio.....classic
Nice vid!
Sound was down in the pub so good to see Drogba make a tit of himself again.
Ballack's reaction was bloody hilarious, the red card scandalous and Pique's hand ball obvious.
All in all a truly joyous evening.
COYS
IT COULD NOT BE BETTER ARSENAL SCUM ONE CHELSKI THE NEXT CHRISTMAS HAS COME EARLY THIS YEAR THANKYOU THERE IS A GOD NOT I GO TO CHURCH LOOOOOOOOOOSERS
Somehow, you just knew it would go tits up for them. To then see them react in their usual petulant manner is the icing on the cake.
A great result for fans of football throughout the world, but does anyone feel that if an English referee was in charge today the wrong result would have 'materialised'?
Bring foreign refs into Premier League football. Ours are a bunch of glory hunting pygmies.
Gloating is all well and good, but we know how it feels recently at Old Trafford. When it comes to Europe and Internationals, I give sides and players a pass out of the EPL; to me an English team was robbed by a poor Euro ref and once again the stench of football authorities pervades the game. Do Eufa hate the fact that English clubs are completely dominating the Champions League? You bet. Do Blatter and Platini hate the EPL? Damn right: they've all but said so many many times.
The decision with Fletcher (ie not to review/rescind) is a disgrace, the choice of Ovrebo for a match of this magnitude may also be questionalble, but the real disgrace is that all will be overlooked in punishing Drogba, Fletcher, Ballack, Oh and locally Jenas, when they speak out and say what for everyone else is the "bleeding obvious".
I think we should get behind Chelski, United and even bite the bullet on the scum when they play abroad. Distasteful as it is, would we have booed Seaman or Lampard or Cole if as England players they'd done the country proud?
Total agreement on refs pool being International and getting experience across Europe.
Finn, I respect your comments more than anyone's, but on this occasion I beg to differ. Have you had a bad pint?
The way I see it is the most English club in the UK has got to the final, that being Man U. Im glad Barcelona got through because at least then we will see a bloody good CL final. How English are Chelsea and Arsenal (or Liverpool for that matter these days)! By that I mean how many players that they have England international quality? I would say 2 or 3 at most and even then they arnt necessarily first teamers. Alright the ref was shit and had a mare does anyone really care. All thats important is getting back into the competition, winning it seems to be a bonus rather than a must these days.
Although Im extremely happy at the result it does give the old conspiracy theory a bit of length. Did UEFA conspire to make sure that there was not a repeat of an all english final. Off to find a Barca shirt on E Bay now.
What's all the fucking fuss about. 4 penalty shouts none of them fouls.
1st - Drogba fell over under minimal contact like he has done for his whole career. Andy Gray - "That's a penalty! Why ould you go over when it'd be easier to score?" - It's fucking Didier Drogba! He'll go over if yu breathe on him, he went down because he wanted the penalty and to get Abidal sent off!
2nd - The original foul on Malouda was outside the box, they got the freekick.
3rd - The ball hit Pique's chest then hit his hand, a case of ball to hand not hand to ball.
4th - Ballack hammered it at goal, the defenders back was turned before it had even left Ballacks foot, another case of ball to hand.
The ref sent off Abidal when he really should have booked him.
Chelsea's reaction was a disgrace NOT the referee, Drogba was more than likely pissed off at not scoring one of the plethora of easy chances he had over the 2 legs. What I saw over 2 games was 1 team hellbent on turning it into an ugly game stifling the purists of Barca. Barca over 2 legs continued to play their football and for that they deserve their appearance in the final.
I hope UEFA throw the book at Chelsea, especially that serial diver Drogba - Maybe he should learn to stay on his feet!
TMWNN:
Oh I wish, hard to find a good pint down under!
But yeah blowing off a bit of general steam at the people who run the game (IMO into the ground if we don't take care). Referees have recently made profound differences to the latter stages of the major competitions and in a number of cases have been proved wrong at these key points in the season. Now you know I'm lillywhite methinks, but when we are not involved then I'll go with the English club over the European one.....just the way I was brought up I'm afraid, (tho' admittedely I can and do rationalise the scum as not really being English). :-)
But I assume that my comments agreeing with the referee pool being pan european were not pintus-horribilus induced???
jamiespur is spot on but what more do you expect from scum like chelsea.
UEFA do make some really big cock up. Like staging the Champions League Final in Moscow where everyone will need a visa to get in and giving high profile games to refs from little leagues. A better idea would to give the game to to national refs, for last nights game a english ref would do the game in Spain and a spanish ref would do the game in London. I know its a bit radical in that it makes sense (UEFA wont like it because it makes sense).
"Do Blatter and Platini hate the EPL? Damn right"
I know penty of English Footbal Fan who hate the EPL, myself included.
In a few years when Scudamore and the top 4 have finally achieved their aim of making it football's version of the NFL, you will be the first to moan to UEFA to do something about it.
EPL is killiing English Football. Top 4 clubs get all the dough, (biased)press coverage and trophies year in, year out, and what of the other 72 pro clubs in the country?
Sooner the bottom falls out of the EPL, the better.
Over-hyped and over-rated, soon to be franchise that gets exported around the world for an extra dollar.
The plastic, shiny EPL.
Jamiespur tells it like I saw it too.
I wanted Barca from the start but I have to say I'm in a difficult place. I actually feel cheated watching that last night.
Forget the undignified end, what else would you expect from them, but that game was fixed.
UEFA is bent, Platini was seething at the thought of another all English final and I really believe the ref was influenced.
Jimbonda, you read too many English tabloids. For one thing, you're forgetting a Barca player was (wrongly!) sent off. I'll agree that a couple of the ref's decisions were debatable but I couldn't say they were definitely incorrect. The behaviour of some of the Chelsea players (Drogba and Ballack mostly) were a total disgrace, even if the decisions were definitely incorrect. A statement by Bosingwa that the referee was "bought" is equally shocking. If UEFA do not take stern action against Chelsea they are simply inviting other clubs to behave in a similar manner. A 10-game suspension for Drogba and three-game bans for the likes of Ballack seem in order. Bosingwa should be hauled before UEFA and asked to explain his comments. If he can provide proof of his allegations, good. If not, a lengthy suspension is in order for him too.
Jamie is spot on with his assessment. Think the whole Sky Sports coverage and over the top Chelsea reactions made it so much worse than it was in the way of decisions that failed to go their way.
None of the penalty claims were nailed on. They did enough defensively (almost for 93 mins) but other than a wonder goal, failed to kill off Barca. One goal is all they needed and that's what they got.
Have to say, I celebrated when it smashed the back of the net. Anything that makes those headhunting miseries cry is heaven in my eyes.
The press and the chelski scum seem to forget the penalty Barca should have had in the 1st leg, and also that Ballack should have been sent off.
The only definite penalty was the Pique handball, the others were all 50/50's, and Abidal's red card was very harsh.
However, Justice was done. The better team won, and the only team that wanted to play football won through to the final.
Chelsea's thuggish behaviour has finally back-fired on them and its time for UEFA to actually take action - Chelsea should be banned from European competition for at least 1 season.
normally i would say chelsea self discipline can be bad but hey i dont understand some of the comments here.
simply this was a champions league semi final and like the gomespenalty at Man u,the fletcher sending off miss the and now last nights unbeleivable ref ignoring clear penalties.......CLEAR PENALTIES!........the integrity of football the game is being seriously undermined by refs bad decision process..........name me one high speed sport that hasnt dealt with these issues to do with video monitors ,4th official etc ........imagine how we would feel after taking 4 years to get to a champ league semi final and got treated the same way....this blog would be full of emotional opinion
this game was redesigned by the ref......the EUFA set up is flawed........no red card appeal going into final?
no chelsea player hit anyone and although drogba was highly emotional it can understood and i feel cheated
......an injustice to Chelsea football club .........this happens in football but is it acceptable at these levels
no
Chelsea were robbed last night - John Terry's mum denies any knowledge
As Hiddink said he supported the actions of his players because they were 'upset' it's time to ban Chelsea from next season's CL and europe, making room for the team in eighth place to qualify for europe and Villa or Everton to go into the CL qualifiers. Then ban Drogba for at least twelve matches, Ballack for six and fine them at least £5 million for their general pathetic behaviour - they can afford a fine of that size. Oh, what a bunch of thugs they proved to be. I'm so pleased to see proof of just how far this team has fallen. Relegation next season?
That final 5 minutes was a joy to behold.
Glad to see that most of us all agree!!
Chelsea are as Didier Drogba puts it "A fucking disgrace" I pissed myself when I saw him say that! What a hypocritical bastard. If he hadn't dived about like a spanner for most of the second half (especially when he spent 2 mins getting treatment for an injury he miraculously recovered from) there would not have been any extra time. - Justic was served!
On another note, when Iniesta (how good is that kid by the way?) scored that goal I jumped off my sofa like it was Spurs who'd just scored.
Well done Barca, a victory for the beautiful game!
On another note......
Well done to the Academy side. I really hope that some of them make some first team appearances in the near future.
COYS!
Chelsea, tactically (thanks to Hiddink) were superb. You can't deny them that. They played the perfect game. The blame isn't with the ref, it's with the likes of Drogba who missed several guilt edged chances in both legs. But that seems irrelevant to them. Apparently their players are no publicly stating that the ref was 'bought'.
Throw the book at them.
http://www.upload3r.com/serve/060509/1241648354.gif
No conspiracy theory here. Not a direct one as such. Do think that the ref was inexperienced and not strong or good enough, so his selection rises the eyebrow, and you could at a stretch argue that UEFA/Platini appointed him for because there was a chance he would fuck over Chelsea. But equally, there was a chance he would do the same against Barca (and dishing out a red card).
If Chelsea took their chances, none of it would matter. It's made worse by the fact they didn't and Barca finally breaking through.
One of the best Wensday nights I have had in a long time.
They should be thrown out of europe
COY
My satnav is fucked
I typed in Chelsea and it told me I'm 2 minutes from Rome!
Finn, as an Englishman I do not feel duty bound to support the Chelsea 'brand' (or Arse, Man U or Liverpool for that matter) as a representative of my country in Europe. Nothing to do with any local rivalries but more the fact that as a fan of football I'd go for Barca every time. Last night's histrionics were just embarrassing.
All together now - "that's why you're w*nkers!"
Had Chelsea held onto win, they would have celebrated with arrogance and smugness and one or two would have had a quiet civilised word with the ref, pointing out that he made a mistake here and there. It would have more or less blown over. Instead, we have death threats and conspiracy theories.
Thin line.
None of the top 4 PL sides should count as English clubs when most of their players and fans come from abroad (in fact most of this league is more international than anything else), in particular some Russian billionaire's plastic plaything. I for one am pleased that a club that actually represents its community and has a fine footballing philosophy and tradition (one that is similar to our highest ideals at Spurs) went through. Chelsea were superb defensively and tactically and perhaps one or two of the penalties should've gone their way, but it is also true that Barca should've won at Camp Nou and had a player wrongly sent off. This match was a perfect example of footballing karma, if Dropba hadn't built up his own disgraceful reputation over the years and spent several minutes rolling on the ground in the game then Chelsea most likely would've gone through.
Drogba deflecting attention away from his own inept performance in front of goal. Classy lad.
Chelsea fans on TalkSport counted 7 penalties last night. It's been mentioned already, but at stretch possibly one of them would have been given by the ref but the fact is, a blatant pen wasn't given in the first leg in Barca's favour. So karma it up.
Re-reading my article again, I should state that Chelsea did do a job on Barca. Tactically brilliant, but the fact is - incompetent ref or not - Barca scored.
Chelsea = Ended.
NEXT SEASON......
Not suggesting it is "the" way to view it or that anyone else should be obligated, It was simply what we did at school, all rivalries were off when in Europe or for internationals...............that's not to say everyone agreed with that even then! :-)
Whilst its hard to prove corruption or conspiracy I do have to ask questions about the number of key decisions at pivotal moments of the season and its not just this season; the Italian's should have taught us not to overestimate the integrity of football's establishment. Add this to penalty counts for the top 4 which seem to arrive between 55 - 75 minutes when scores are nil-nil, extra time added or not added, inconsistencies in punishments especially when the top 4 are involved. Is is a bit bent or are the top 4 allowed to get away with what amounts to intimidation by any other name?
If a decision goes wrong at Old Trafford, ORN will bellow to the press and the poor ref is pilloried by every paper and tv programme for at least a week. This undermines his standing with his bosses threatens his status and livlihood as well as effecting his family etc: look what happenend to Poll. Wenger is no better and Mourhino had the Chelski fans offering up death threats!
Whatever the reasons, there needs to be some sort of review as there is simply too much tied into today's game and too many agenda's that look to feed off it rather than enhance it.