Tackles, balls and Seaman - The footie thread

[Danny Top Hat]

Yeah okay, quite a few teams stood up to Chelsea this season, particularly towards the end.? Liverpool always seem to give them a good game though, even if they don't win every time.? In the last two seasons they've knocked them out of the Champions League and the FA Cup, while taking a few points off them in the league as well.? That's a really big achievement, considering that Chelsea were looking unstoppable for a while.

I still stand by what I said - Liverpool have been the most exciting team in the Premiership since Benitez took over.? I know Man U are playing very well these days and Chelsea win on command, but I prefer watching Liverpool play.? They're attack-minded, well organised and have England's best player at the centre of it all.? I just don't get why people call them boring.


On the subject of 'exciting', Arsenal play Barca in the Champions League final TOMORROW.? I can't fucking wait, but I am also shit scared.? People often jump to say 'biggest game of the clubs history' but in this case it most definately is.? I'm still not entirely sure how confident I am of victory...I have hope but we'll wait and see if it's false hope or not.

COME ON ARSENAL!!!

[Shoco]

Yeah okay, quite a few teams stood up to Chelsea this season, particularly towards the end.  Liverpool always seem to give them a good game though, even if they don't win every time.  In the last two seasons they've knocked them out of the Champions League and the FA Cup, while taking a few points off them in the league as well.  That's a really big achievement, considering that Chelsea were looking unstoppable for a while.

I still stand by what I said - Liverpool have been the most exciting team in the Premiership since Benitez took over.  I know Man U are playing very well these days and Chelsea win on command, but I prefer watching Liverpool play.  They're attack-minded, well organised and have England's best player at the centre of it all.  I just don't get why people call them boring.


On the subject of 'exciting', Arsenal play Barca in the Champions League final TOMORROW.  I can't fucking wait, but I am also shit scared.  People often jump to say 'biggest game of the clubs history' but in this case it most definately is.  I'm still not entirely sure how confident I am of victory...I have hope but we'll wait and see if it's false hope or not.

COME ON ARSENAL!!!

you mean chelsea had the league won near the end and didnt care if teams beat them, as for liverpool, chelsea gave them two good beatings in the league this season

[Sweet s]

I don't mean to worry arsenal fan's but there has been apicture on the news of one to tommrows linemwn wearing a Baracelona shirt,he said it was just for a photo shoot and shouldn't have done it and UEFA  are not removing him from the match.............................

[Jamie]

Rumour has it Messi's back for tomorrow. And pretty much all of Barca's first team (with the exception of Marquez) were rested over the weekend so the player's will be fresh. Come on the Barca!!! 

[Danny Top Hat]

I had to stop myself from smiting you there Jamie.? It's in the rules - no upsetting Danny before the really important games.? Take it as a warning.

[2NaFish]

my money's on arsenal tomorrow. dont know why.

i can just feel it in my waters.

[Jim]

Your waters? You haven't been drinking that dodgy coca-cola stuff, have you?

My money is on Henry to score in the 85th to make it 3-2, but Barca equalize in the 2nd minute of that which was injury time.........

Barca then score in the first ten minutes of extra time, putting the score at 3-4, and regardless that Arsenal throw absolutly everything at Barca for the last twenty minutes (it isn't that silly silver goal, is it.............), and go close twice (and have a penalty appeal turned down), they don't get the equaliser. Fabregas cries. Henry goes to Barcelona after the World Cup.

And we all say thank ya.

[Danny Top Hat]

Don't make me smite you again dude.

[2NaFish]

hey man, don't mock my waters.

[MR W,AXL ROSE]

BARCELONA such a beautiful horizon BARCELONA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Shoco]

king larsson 

[axl_rose_700]

Ciao thus Arsenal

[Axls Locomotive]

that was one of the most boring CL finals in recent times

 

[Izzy]

Something fairly predicatable about the result ultimately

A bridge too far for Arsenal, but kudos for getting there after years of struggling to even get through the group stages

Rare for the best team in Europe to be crowned 'best team in Europe' - its been quite a return to form for Barca after their recent spell of 5 years without a trophy and its amazing that such a team has only 1 other Champions league win

I love the see-saw in Spanish football - Real Madrid dominate for 5 years, Barca dominate for 5 years - checking the history of winners its a quite alarming pattern - almost as if both teams know who's turn it is to dominate!

[Danny Top Hat]

Damn.? Just...damn.

Arsenal played superbly today and really did themselves proud with 10 men.? I feel so sorry for Lehmann who had a fantastic tournament and Pires who got less than 20 minutes on the pitch in his last game for the club.? Bringing on Flamini was a mistake - Fabregas was doing great and it just invited Barca forward.? The ref made the wrong decision to send Lehmann off when he could've played the advantage, but I think it would've been a massive uphill struggle anyway.

It just fucking hurts, is all.? The fact that their equaliser was offside stings like a bitch but i'm not gonna complain, just sulk for a while.? The game could've been so different if, say, Henry had taken his early sitter or if the ref had just allowed the goal to stand.? Who knows what could've happened.? That's football.

Did anyone hear the interview with Henry after the game?? Didn't sound promising.

[Shoco]

Did anyone hear the interview with Henry after the game?  Didn't sound promising.

yeah, what a crying whinging little prick he is

[Izzy]

I wonder what Henry's gonna do now - would be a shame to lose him from the premiership

[Ignatius]

Great victory.

I didn't go to bed until 6 am this morning.

The ref couldn't have been worse. I don't know why he didn't play the advantage on Bar?a's real first goal. By calling a foul, he not only hurt Bar?a but also arsenal cause they had to play with 10 for the rest of the match. Then Campbell's goal came after a non existant foul.

I didn't see off-side in Eto'os Goal, but I'll watch the highlights again later to see if it was.

[Jim]

Did anyone hear the interview with Henry after the game?  Didn't sound promising.

To be honest, I think that losing may have been more benefficial in as far as keeping Henry is concerned than winning would have been........

While Henry has grown on me over the last couple of years, he's still an arrogant little bitch. Why did he start laying into Ronaldinho?! Don't forget, this is the Henry that was widely acknowledged as 'going missing' in the big games; his individual record for France is appaling given the player that he is. The way he spoke about Barca's tactics didn't exactly sound like an endorsement of a move there.......

The only club outside of Chelsea that are big enough for Henry is Barca (sure he isn't stupid enough to go to Real?), and I could never see him in a Chelsea shirt...

Though, that said, he did say during one of his post-match interviews that he agress with Mourinho. I think his words were something to the affect of 'I'll go with' that. 

[Jamie]

Barcelona 2 - 1 Arsenal

How fucking happy am I at this result! Finally a world class club actually wins the Champions League, I made an oath at the start of that match that if Arsenal won then I wouldn't watch the Champions League again until someone deserving won it.

Now to adress the talking points:

The Lehmann thing : As a football fan (but even more a Barcelona fan) I would certainly have prefered Lehmann to have remained on the pitch and the goal to have stood. However watching it again, there was intent, Lehmann reached out to Eto'o, grabbed his ankle and pulled him over with the exact aim of preventing him from scoring. He had to go My Verdict : Lehmann is a cheating bastard

Arsenal's goal : A good move in general by Arsenal, went forward well, Eboue, blatantly dived, no doubt about it, even the English commentators and pundits said that, and they're blatantly biased. Good header by Campbell though, good ball by Henry. My Verdict : Eboue is a cheating bastard

Barcelona's Equaliser : Another great move, good pass to Laarson and a nice little flick by him to set up Eto'o, appeared offside at first but watching it again he was bang on. And one question to all of you that claim it was offside, did you watch the replay or just believed what the Arsenal players and Wenger said? My Verdict : I fucking hit the roof after this goal, but watching it again I thought offside, on closer inspection Eto'o was bang onside, good goal.

Belletti's goal : Brilliant, I was over the moon after this one, well deserved, and I'm glad to see Belletti get his first goal for Barcelona. My Verdict : I was extatic when this one went in, and Belletti is my new favourite footballer!

Referee was shit : No doubt about it, one of the worst I've seen, but I don't see how Arsenal can feel so cheated, he made some shit decisions against Barca too. My Verdict : He was shit for both teams, this is just a case of Arsenal trying to blame their problems on other's again.

Henry's comments : Henry is a tosser, how can he claim that Ronaldinho and Eto'o didn't play well when he was shit himself? I mean it certainly wasn't Ronaldinho's best ever game, but Eto'o was brilliant, and don't forget he scored that (not offside) equaliser. My Verdict : Henry is a tool