All posts tagged UEFA

Review: Chelsea vs Barcelona (2nd Leg) – Stamford Bridge (UEFA Champions League) – 6th May 2009

After the boring first leg between Barcelona and Chelsea in the first leg of the Champions League Semi-Final on 28th April 2009, a lot was expected in today’s game after Arsenal was knocked out from the Champions League Semi Final by Manchester United on 5th May 2009.

Chelsea was the boring team who kept piling up in their own half and Barcelona was the team who was going for it as expected. Chelsea did dominate the game because of home advantage on Barcelona, but on a typical defensive style of play. As possession is usually the key in such big games, and its all about taking opportunities.  Personally being an Arsenal fan I love Barcelona’s style of play and although they are strong in attack but in yesterday’s game it was all about physical and strong play from Chelsea that troubled Barcelona.

Iniesta - Image Courtesy TimesOnline

A lot of controversial fouls and cards in the match, but at the end of the day Barcelona pulled it off and is the team that will go to Rome to face Manchester United in the Final of the UEFA Champions League. By now I believe Chelsea shoud learn a lesson of going out there and playing open football rather than piling up in their own defense. They had to pay for the their style of play in the 1st leg when they thought that they would go to Nou Camp and it would be good enough for them to just play with one striker and pile up in defense to stop Barcelona take the home advantage. I am sorry to say this, but this strategy has hit them back in their own faces. It’s about time they should be fearless and play some football. And as a lot of Chelsea fans would be crying on the penalties that they didn’t get… well you get what you deserve because mostly Chelsea is the lucky team when other teams keep crying and the referees dont give fouls against Chelsea… you have to pay off somewhere don’t you? Its a fair world after all ;)

 

Three Cheers for Iniesta and Barcelona!! Atleast now I am excited to see some great football in the Final, because if Chelsea would have went in the Finals, the game would have been assumed to be boring already. Yes yes I know a lot of you would tell me that Arsenal lost 3-1 from Manchester United and Chelsea is still a better team.. but you know what? I am still proud to be a Gunner because we love to play open football and in both legs against Manchester United we never piled up in our own half and defended for 90 minutes, and I would still congratulate Manchester United for a great game.

 PS: By the way.. I am still wondering why did Chelsea had to play with 9 defenders and one striker? But way to go guys .. you really defended well!! Three Cheers for the Chelsea defense as well! But I guess Iniesta’s shot was too good that even 9 defenders couldn’t stop it? Train your defenders well for next year ;)

Reply to Protests Against ‘Letter to Mr. Wenger: Arsenal vs ManU (Champions League 1st Leg 29th April 09)’

I am writing this post as a reply to my previous post, that was an open letter to Arsene Wenger for the problems I have been observing in Arsenal’s side. This came out as a harsh outburst in the form of an email/letter directed to Arsenal’s top management and Arsene Wenger.

The intention of that email was not to insult Arsene or Arsenal in anyway possible. And although I do know that I did get a lot of harsh and constructive feedback on my email to Arsenal from a lot of Gunners out there, and a lot of people already do consider me a so-called ‘disgrace to the Arsenal community’ as a fan.

Arsene Wenger - Champions League

Arsene Wenger - Champions League

In reply to this, I would only like to say that I cannot just sit quiet and keep supporting the wrong moves of the team I love. I like to voice my concerns as a fan and I just couldn’t take it specially after losing the game against Chelsea at Wembley in the FA Cup Semi Final as a result of the few mistakes that were made. I want to be part of the club I support and I believe in critical analysis. Apart from this, I just want to say that at least I did an effort to reach out to Arsene and the Arsenal management one way or the other.

The main objective that I wanted to highlight was that, Champions League is something that Arsenal has never won. But approaching the semi-final in such a loose and a lazy manner was not what I was expecting as an Arsenal fan. I don’t care if we win or lose as far as we are giving a good fight back.

I know this team is very young and yet they are in such a top position. Arsene Wenger is one person who I truly adore and respect as a person and my mail in no manner intended to dis-respect him. I also agree to the fact that this team will develop into a great team, but only if they stay together. Because as soon as they develop in to good players, other teams are ready to pick them up for higher salaries. To all those people, who said that these players need time to develop and they will develop in to a great team together, I just want to leave a question before I sign-off today. Do you think a lot of great players will stick to Arsenal against great offers if we don’t win any silverware this season?

However, I have calmed down yet again and I hope we do a better job in the second leg against Manchester United in the Champions League on Tuesday, 5th May 2009.

I would like to heart fully thank the following sites:
1. Tribal Football for putting this letter up as one of the main feature on their website’s front page
2. Online Gooner for giving a link to my Open Letter to Arsene Wenger

Signing Off…

Sarosh Waiz