Barca should have had a penalty in the first leg - also, in my opinion in both legs the ref let Chelsea away with tackles that merited cards - but the Barca players quite often didnt even go down.

For years I listened to British (and Irish) commentators bemoan the "latin temperament" when it came to diving - but they're quite hushed about it now that English teams are just as culpable of the very same cynicism.

Meh.

(sorry)

I'm in mixed minds about it really. I wanted Barcelona to go through but can sympathise with the Chelsea players' anger at what I thought was one of the worst refereeing performances I've seen. Chelsea had four good penalties denied them and to my mind Barcelona showed almost nothing throughout the game.

I think that unless Barcelona can improve dramatically for the final, Man Utd have nothing to fear.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/b...paper-reaction

This is a good article about how the sporting media in Spain reacted to last nights match, the whole thing was thoroughly entertaining.

Personally i dont feel sorry for Drogba or Ballack with their pissing and moaning shit, neither have played properly for Chelsea this season and they dont deserve to be in the final. You contrast that with Barca who have had a nucleus of players who have excelled, and i dont get how any Chelsea fan can claim im being wrong to be happy Barca went through.

after a day to think about it.

1. Obstructed and forced to the ground inside the box. Defender would've been beat to the ball if he didn't obstruct. Penalty.

2. Bit of pulling on the shirt inside the box, but Drogba goes down too easy. Wasn't enough contact to pull him down or trip him. Not a penalty.

3. Blatant hand ball in the box. Hand ball is NOT called based on intention. Doesn't matter whether he did it intentionally (which it looks like it was) or not. Penalty.

4. Even worse than the first hand ball. It does catch him above the elbow, but look at the angle he sticks his elbow out, it's above his head. Intentional or no, that's using your arms to deflect a strike. Penalty.

Ballack and Drogba acted without class, but their anger is justified. That ref was beyond terrible. Worst officiating I've ever seen, in any sport.

The ref on the first leg was pretty poor too (Alex?).

Man U will probably feel more comfortable with a back four that has used to play together (and in case Ferdinand's injured, Evans can come in, the situation occured during the championship).

Barca will experiment at the back. A hit or miss.

I've given it some further thought too, after the hysteria has died down and i agree with you.

I think the two teams were pretty even over the two legs (Barcelona edging the first one, Chelsea the secong) and while it's almost certain that had just one of those penalties been awarded Chelsea would've gone through, it wouldn't have made them the better team. They have a right to be frustrated at the incompetence of the referee, but not at the justice of the final outcome.

I'd say Chelsea the plc has every right to feel frustrated at the financial ramifications of the referees incompetence though. There would have been a hell of a lot of money to be made by them as a result of getting through to the final, even more if they went on to win it.

UEFA is going to be pretty down on Chelsea right now, I reckon they should give 'em a really good reason to hate them, and take legal action against them to recover the loss of income as a result of the appointment of an incompetent fool as referee.

The incompetence thing is one of those impossibly grey areas in sport though. A referee is paid to referee competently, and when he doesn't people talk of a club suing them for financial loss. But what about a footballer? A footballer is paid to play competetently but if he misses a basic chance he's talked of as being either out of form or unlucky. I'm not excusing the referee, but he made about as many errors as Drogba did in that game. Had Drogba done his job as well as the referee was supposed to do his, then Chelsea would be through and nothing more said about it.

***POSTING IN A THREAD I'VE NEVER CLICKED BEFORE***

is this about the superbowl?

:)

yes.

who are you?

That ref had officiated 21 Champions League games before Wednesday apparently, so Jamie Redknapp and his "This guy was from Norway so he clearly just trotted in straight off a Sunday league pitch" arguement falls down just a tad

Anyway, i reckon West Ham will hold Liverpool this weekend and thus hand the title to Man U. I also expect a tiresome 0-0 between Newcastle and Boro on Monday leaving them both doomed even though Hull are so bad they could be Norwegian

^^^ football in liverpool, you say?

hang on... I knew that answer a minute ago....

I keep it written down on a stickie note...

for now, please call me John. as in John Madden. he features prominently in this thread, I assume.

I RESENT THIS

Go Oilers

^^^ pardon, who?

well, couldn't you folks find something else to play?? oh, say, like tennis?

football is really an american thing, don't you think?

:)

so how come americans are so good at tennis? are you pining for our governance once more?

You're thinking of Rounders

I have no idea what yr talking about.

tennis is for girls, not real americans.



ok. so, I feel slightly guilty about ruining something that I've managed to NOT ruin so far. that slight guilty feeling is a sure sign that I've gone WAY overboard. pardon our dust.

I liked rounders.

anyway, leeds v milwall in the league one play off semi first round. a match requiring more security than the G20 summit. leeds 2 - 1 winners i say.