CL | 1/8 Finals: FC Barcelona - Chelsea 4-1 agg.

[BarçaBarça]

Conservative Valverde at it again

 

[xXKonan]

With Dembele starting, Alonso will be pinned back and it will leave Chelsea without a possible attacking outlet from him.

 

[FCBfan22]

They successfully cloned Willian.

Bastards.

 

[serghei]

Maybe we should have put two Messi, so that Chelsea would forfeit by not showing for the game.

 

[God Serena]

No Vidal, Gomes, or Paulinho in the lineup for a big game. Huh. Didn't think that was even possible.

 

[Devils]

Dembouz da GAWD

 

[henias]

Again I really like Dembele and want him to succeed but he also misplaces a lot of passes and he is very easily dispossessed far too often. He also doesn't offer the defensive cover of Paulinho or Gomes (as terrible as those two are, at least they have that in their favour).

I agree Dembele did very well against Juventus but he's been a different player since his injury, which is to be expected. He showed signs of brilliance on Saturday and I hope to see more of that today if he plays but he's put up more average performances than great ones since his transfer.

About Chelsea not being prime, I don't take too much comfort in that. Chelsea is our boogey team---they simply know how to stop us and we seem to freeze against them. The last Chelsea side that eliminated us was arguably worst than this side---they were struggling to even make 6th place in their league and had recently sacked their manager. Oh, and they played with 10 men for most of the game. And there is also the matter of Conte being good against Spanish opposition---eliminated Spain with a fairly mediocre Italy side.

I want Barca to win today and I won't be disappointed if Paulinho starts ahead of Dembele. My only issue will be if Paulinho puts in a stinking performance but EV keeps him till the 70th minute.

He isnt dispossessed alot, he was only dispossessed 2 times and had an 80% pass percentage and most of them were forward passes as he was trying to create. He completed 5/8 dribbles and maybe the 3 failed dribbles made people think he was "dispossessed" alot. He's being risky and still had a high success rate which is pretty good. He'll most likely be more cautious against Chelsea as Messi is there to create.

Coutinho on the other hand was dispossessed 5 times.

Paulinho has some defensive capabilities, yes, but he cannot function out wide and lost the ball and his side and back passes actually got intercepted alot. He doesnt even know how to go forward even when theres space in front and looked scared. But I cant blame him. He cant play out wide. All this resulted in more turnovers and easy counters which is far frm safe.

I'll trust Paulinho to sub in for Iniesta when we take the lead and defend like no tomorrow. But not when the game is still open to possibities.

 

[FCBfan22]

Chelski is going to cross, cross, cross, cross, cross and cross with Giroud in there.

 

[El Flaco]

[tw]973993075428200448[/tw]

[tw]973993319985504256[/tw]

 

[Raketa10]

This is really important game for Dembele. Huge pressure on him today, really hope he delivers!

 

[serghei]

Chelski is going to cross, cross, cross, cross, cross and cross with Giroud in there.

They should get into crossing positions first

 

[MessiCam]

Dembouz, Iniesta, Busquets, Messi, Suarez and only 1 workhorse.

I must be dreaming.

 

[raskolnikov]

Valverde giving us the line up we wanted. Really looking forward to this match right now.

 

[Stoichkov1]

Dembouz, Iniesta, Busquets, Messi, Suarez and only 1 workhorse.

I must be dreaming.

I don't know if you will dream when we will get trashed 3-0 because workhorses aren't there

 

[George_Costanza]

[tw]973990531134091269[/tw]