CHELSEA 0-1 Inter Milan: Mourinho Still Costing Us In Europe
CHELSEA 0-1 INTER MILAN (1-3 AGG)
Well that was bloody painful.
Yet again we let Jose Mourinho come between us and the Champions League and ‘sick as a dog’ doesn’t even cover it. I suppose the only saving grace this time is that we won’t be whingeing like bitches about it being because of ‘this’ decision or ‘that’ decision’ because we have no-one to blame but ourselves.
At least we hung on longer in this game than the first leg, managing more than 3 minutes without conceding. We even started off fairly ok, with Didier Drogba trying to muscle his way through a couple of defenders in the early minutes before Malouda was blocked off in the area. Penalty? Nope. Free-kick on the edge of the area at least? Nope……I’m not getting into it though.
Back to the action then – if that’s what you could call Eto’o rolling around on the pitch. You wouldn’t have thought a brush of Mikel’s shoulder could do quite so much damage but apparently the pain spread right up through the Inter striker’s face such are Mikel’s biceps these days. Poor bloke looked as if he got caught by the Stamford Bridge sniper just as Zhirkov blocked him off as well, you just can’t odds that sort of luck on a pitch eh?
There was a bit of football played as well and a tidy ball in from Sneijder saw Milito blocked off by Alex, who’d kept Carvalho on the bench for the night. Lucio’s studs shaved Malouda’s face and this was about the point where you just knew Didier Drogba was going to have one of ‘those’ nights as he waded in with his own special brand of peacekeeping skills.
Not that even Drogba was going to compete with Eto’o on the theatrical front though, because a disagreement with the linesman’s decision saw his tantrum rewarded with a score of 8 – my mistake, it was actually a yellow card the ref held up on this occasion. Not to be outdone though, when Drogba was flattened minutes later, it was John Terry’s turn to find his pace at last, sprinting halfway down the pitch to voice his opinion on the challenge. And so, with just twenty minutes gone it really was all getting a bit niggly.
Patience really isn’t a Chelsea supporter’s strong point either and the more irritable they were on the pitch, the more it seemed to ripple through the crowd. And what was more irritating than anything else at this point was that you just knew we were playing against a Mourinho side by the swagger – because it didn’t seem to matter how we were playing because Inter were the ones with all the confidence.
On 25 minutes, Didier Drogba’s eyes were like saucers, bearing down on goal, only for Maicon to block his shot but with half an hour gone, there really wasn’t very much to write home about from either side. Eto’o did have an opportunity with a lovely ball floated into the box from Maicon, but as it sailed over Terry’s head Eto’o – obviously still distracted by the wounds inflicted on him – was way too slow to react.
Still, we seemed to have woken up enough by this time to put a bit of pressure on and some great footwork from Malouda saw him create a chance for himself, only for Samuel to provide the block this time. Then stretching Inter again, Anelka picked the ball up in the box but couldn’t get enough on it and saw it go out for a corners. The usual contentious decision followed, with Samuel all but bear-hugging Drogba in the area. Fortunately for Mourinho, he obviously fare’s better with the officials these days because even once Drogba had hit the floor, the decision wasn’t given.
We probably could have done without the half-time break at this point but once play resumed, we initially seemed to pick up where we left off but for all our efforts we were missing the killer ball. Ten minutes in and it was all getting a bit edgy as Didier Drogba conceded the foul for holding his man back, then a yellow for the slightest of touches on Motta, who milked it just to make sure. But we were letting Inter take advantage and Sneijder definitely did that, with a lovely ball to Pandev, who beat 3 of our defenders before Zhirkov got across him with a fantastic piece of defending. The corner from this saw us get into a bit of a mess although Turnball had got himself into a good position to save well.
The hour mark saw Joe Cole waiting on the touchline and although it could in truth have been any of our midfielders taken off, it was Ballack’s number held up. Inter were playing in and around our area by this time and it was getting increasingly uncomfortable to watch, even more so when the ball was spun over to Milito and with no flag raised it really looked as it could be all over for us. Mourinho certainly thought so anyway because despite his promise to show ‘no emotion’, his arse was already out of his seat in preparation before his dramatic swing of the hands as Milito shot wide.
We were conceding niggly free-kicks left-right-and-centre now and the Inter support was showing us up. Every breakaway Inter got was agonizing to watch and you could just see what was coming. Kalou came on for Zhirkov with around 15 minutes to go, with Malouda shifting back again – as if that was going to help. To be fair, Kalou did run into the area almost immediately before going down but his second shot didn’t exactly sustain the initial optimism as it made its way into the upper tiers.
And then we had the sod’s law moment. Eto’o, who’d spent the majority of his game rolling around on the floor, finally managed to stay on his feet long enough – to score – and there was never going to be a way back for us after that. Because this isn’t the Chelsea of old, the one who never knew when it was beaten, the one who’d never give up until the ref had pulled his whistle back out of his mouth. No, this was a Chelsea side who in all honesty, probably only believed in themselves for about ten minutes out of the ninety.
Oh and apparently no Champions League exit for Chelsea is complete these days without the Didier Drogba red card, so the ref duly obliged when the Ivorian was judged to have stamped on Motta in the box.
Still, Turnball managed to save us any further embarrassment by stopping Eto’o from getting a second right at the end and Mourinho made a swift exit before the whistle rather than push his luck waiting for ‘his song’ and as for Inter – they celebrated as if it was the final, but then it’s little wonder they’re dizzy getting so far in the competition for a change.
Overall though, I can bitch as much as I like but the truth is, we weren’t good enough. Mourinho might have pissed me off with all his talk about it being his team but the sad fact is, even up against a pretty uninventive Inter Milan, we absolutely looked like a side who’d been dragged out week-after-week, month-after-month, year-after-year. And it just feels like it’s time to stop flogging this particular dead horse.
TEAMS
CHELSEA: Turnbull; Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, Zhirkov (Kalou 72); Ballack (J Cole 62) , Mikel, Lampard; Anelka, Malouda; Drogba.
INTER MILAN: Cesar; Maicon, Lucio, Samuel, Zanetti; Cambiasso, Motta; Pandev (Stankovic 74), Sneijder (Mariga 84), Eto’o; Milito.
Filed under: Europe, Match report
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The annoying bit, I have to stay up till 1:15 a.m. for the games to begin and to watch the entire group stages and go out like this ..
Ancellotti either needs to build his own team or I have my fears about his ability in a match (A coach that could throw away a 3 goal advantage in a champion league final). I question his substitutions yesterday. My suggestion would have been, withdrawing Zirkhov for Kalou, play a 3 man defence of Bane, Terry and Alex, Have Ballack and Mikel sit in front of them, with Ballack progressing a little forward when we are attacking, have Kalou play right wing, Zannetti was on leave yesterday, and move Anelka in-wards behind Drogba. We were obviously chasing the game and you needed to do something strange to turn things around, a-la Mourinho against Tottenham. Only the bold conquer and Ancellotti was simply not bold enough. If I may ask who had more impact Kalou or Cole. And Ballack’s withdrawal only weakened our mid-field . Just my 2 pence.
Sad your team will have to focus on the league and make life a bit more difficult for the gunners but other than that I am realy happy to see the back of chelski in CL.
There will be another dissapointment waiting you guys in two months time so get over this one as fast as possible.
On possitive note, very nice report about the game. I occasionally read your blog and I like it.
the weakness was in the middle.it showed in the first leg.carlo has no balls to inject pace to the middle.with home support kakuta n kalou shd start but instead we were relying too much on malouda.many times i hv said that we need pace in the middle.but i’m not the coach.jose read us well.thiago motta n cambiaso made ballack n lampard looked small n useless.carlo said we were not in a hurry to score but i beg to differ koz we only needed a goal to win this leg.it shd be intense n full of waves after waves of attack.but instead we started very slowly n played into jose’s hands.we dont look champion material.we kept tons of talents on the bench n wasted them for nothing.timlos is spot on. carlo has no balls. he wont last another season with such performance.
I thought we were rubbish and didnt deserve to win,having said that the wrestling to the ground of Ivanovic and Drogba in the penalty box in full view of the referee is mindboggling.Chelsea will never get a penalty in a Champions League match. Its so blatant this refusal to give us a penalty its ridiculous. Surely a complainy from Chelsea to UEFA is due!!!
and terry is shit…..god he was so fucking slow it is unbeileivable…..alex looks half decent i grant you but Captain Calamity needs to be ditched pronto…. be t you loy that Abramovich sells a lot of your aging tem on during the nsummer with Crybaby mthe first out of the door closely followed by Ballock, the sulky german gobshite.
You lot need to regenerate your team….. try getting an decent manager that understand Football not some puffy faced fucker that cant manage
“Eto’o, who’d spent the majority of his game rolling around on the floor, finally managed to stay on his feet long enough – to score – ”
If you just replace Eto’o's name with Drogba’s, that sentence could sum up every game Drogba scores. You know how fucking irritating and annoyed you got seeing Eto’o roll around dive? That’s how anyone playing against Chelsea feels when Drogba plays.
Jenn – you seem to be assuming Drogba doesn’t piss his own supporters off.
Yes we lost the game, yes we didn’t play well, but that was also due to Inter playing very well. I don’t think that our defence looked all that bad, the problems were in midfield.
And Tonythered, I don’t agree at all, that Terry was shit. And definetly not, that he should be sold.
Jenn, Drogba used to compete with Ronaldo for the honour of the greatest diver in Premier League, and he annoyed me for one. But he’s changed his game to the better, and I don’t think it’s fair to compare him to Eto’o anymore.
But returning to the midfield, we do have problems there, most of all I think that Ballack is having a bad period at the moment. I would rely love seing some of the talent getting a chance. We haven’t seen Kakuta for months, he seems like the real deal,
Ancelotti might not have had the best of nights yesterday, but I believe he’s going to bring us the title,,and I hope we stay with him, we need stability.
I need to mention Anelka, he realy doesn’t look comfortable playing alongside Drogba in the christmastree formation, that we started playing in january. They were dynamite together before the newyear, when we played 4-4-2 with the Diamond, but I think, that we need to see a change, either back to the diamond, or Sturridge, Kakuta or someone else replacing Anelka in the front three.
if u ask me we need a good defense and good back up for our wingbacks if we loose ashley cole we are doomed and same goes for bosingwa ivanovic is a good back up but he doesn’t like goin up very much and we need some young players hope Ancellotti doesn’t do want he did in milan unlike milan we got finance to buy players hope he gets some in summer or we so doomed and we need a back up formation as well not just the diamond
A rare honest Chelsea fan! gr8 blog!
Well we can´t play the diamond formation right now. The entire 4-4-2 formation was used with Essien as a key role in the midfield. Since Essien is injured, they needed to change it to 4-3-3. Without Essien in the midfield, we don´t have shite.
it’s not like, we haven’t played the diamond without Essien this year, we have, and we have won matches doing it, furthermore, Essien played in several different positions in the diamond, so I don’t agree with you Leo. We have other good players. A diamond consisting of Mikel, Lampard, Malouda and Deco, or Beletti, Lampard, Malouda and Kakuta, there are many different possibilites.
There are many different ways, but you have to admit that the diamond has not been as affective without Essien. HE is one of the best defending midfielders today. And without him the midfield is not as strong. Just look at our losses, midfield has been crap. Obi Mikel is a good player, but nothing compared to Essien.Sure we can play without Essien, and even win. But with him, the team is complete and unbeatable. Believe it or not, Essien is one of the key players at Chelsea. Drogba, Terry, Essien, Ivanovic, Alex, Malouda, Kakuta, A Cole, will be the backbone of Chelsea next season, along with a few new players. Everyone else is getting old, including Lampard. And Joe Cole will probably leave as well, good riddance.
I agree on Joe Cole, who seems over the mountain, but Lampard is still one of the best midfielders in England.
And of course Essien is a big loss to us, but he’s a big loss in any formation, I just don’t agree, that we cannot use the diamond without him.
Of course we can use the diamond formation, but it won´t be as strong without Essien. We cannot rely on Obi Mikel against the big clubs. That is why they changed it to 4-3-3. They can play the diamond, but a big risk without Essien. I have a better idea that can win us the Champions League, without having to spend too much. Let Guus Hiddink terminate his contract with Turkey, and come back to Chelsea. That guy has many aces up his sleeve. If there is one thing I have learned over the past few years. Chelsea needs a manager that can inspire them and motivate them, and when that happens, there is no team that can beat Chelsea. It is all about confidence. The only reason why Inter managed to beat us, is because Mourinho gave it everything to win against the club that he made famous, and who fired him. Revenge is also motivation.
Seriously i felt so bad that i never felt like commenting here after the loss .. tho here are my personal views abt the game and the players and manager ..
1. The side is ageing, everyone knows that and a rejid is long but due. I see people like Anelka, obi, kalou, ballack leaving .. For better ones to join or others already with us like sturridge, kakuta, borini, matic etc joining us .. Anelka needs to go go gooooo .. hes jsut not upto the mark in big games esp wen we know we HAVE to score!
2. We NEED Joe Cole .. agreed hes not playing the best. But come on he can conjure stuff .. infact he did conjure a break through which anelka nullified by being offside!! I really hope he stays, trains and am sure he will be back in the greatest of his forms.
3. Ancelotti needs to be more flexible. If the diamond fails to work he stands clueless. Which wont do.
4. Our defence is fine really. If you notice most of the times the defence was patchy was coz the midfield wasnt clicking and the defence moved forward and bacame shaky. I have full faith in ivanovic, zhirkov, cole, terry, carvalho .. alex tho turns out to be a ASS at times ..
5. CHelsea really needs to make a case for better refereeing with the UEFA!! stupid gits ..