2012/13 Europa League thread

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Blasted his penalty miles over and wide. But mostly, just him being fucking useless all season.

Wasn't it his goal that kept you in the last round?

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Colossus]

We were discussing it at half time last night, everyone around me would rather have won last night then win the derby Sunday. Top 4 is important, but a fans point of view should never be 'get in the Champions League for more money', it should be 'get in the Champions League, try to win it'. Mmm... cups.

Anyway, gutted about last night, moreso just down to the way we built a mountain with the silly mistakes in the first leg. Benfica looked quality first half but Pardews gameplan worked perfectly in terms of holding til halftime. Second half for long spells Benfica couldn't string two passes together, and there were a few 'if only' moments between a Ben Arfa strike, some typical Cisse offsides and what seemed a fairly decent penalty shout. Ref completely bottled the most blatant second yellow card you'll ever see for Almeida shortly before the Benfica goal too. Oh well, (year after) next year...

I obviously agree that the second half was all yours, but there weren't that many clear goal chances. And we could have ended it in the first half with the way the game was going.

Maybe, but there weren't that many clear goal chances

Nah, you definitely deserved it over the two legs, but it was really nice to see us really compete with a big European side (how many unbeaten now?) and not be completely outclassed. But for a few injuries (Simpson and Williamson were actually okay last night, but a fit Debuchy and Ben Arfa would've caused some problems on the right) who knows how we could've done.

Your flares made our twats look silly too...

36 games unbeaten. Our last defeat was against Spartak. Still haven't lost a single game in all Portuguese competitions as well

[GoN_]

For the whole season we have:

46G - 35W - 9D - 2L - 108GS - 29GA

So we only lost to Barcelona and Spartak so far.

[Colly]

Two minutes away. Gutted...

[stokeriño]

ONE TEAM IN EUROPE!

I expect tonight's match to see Chelsea be as utterly unadventurous and defensive as they can possibly be [when managed by someone who's not that good at it, unlike RDM]. Nicking a 0-1 win is no doubt Rafa's dream result. A 0-0 or 1-0 loss is just as likely. A 3-0 loss may occur if we're just rubbish.

To summarise: don't watch this match as a neutral, it will probably be painful viewing.

[stokeriño]

Yes, I'm going to be talking to myself in this thread for the next few hours.

The match preview on the CFC website is full of all sort of unpleasant statistics:

* Chelsea have lost four of our last five European away games, including against Steaua Bucharest and Rubin Kazan.

* Basel are unbeaten at home in six European matches since the start of the group stage. They average two goals a game at St Jakob-Park in the Europa League this term.

* Basel have only suffered two defeats in their last 28 games in all competitions.

* This is the 34th successive midweek that Chelsea players have either played for their club or been away on international duty. The last clear week all the players were at Cobham training was the last week of August leading up to the Super Cup against Atlético Madrid.

Lovely.

[Baddar]

2-1 or 3-1 to Chelsea tonight!

[stokeriño]

FCB: Sommer; P.Degen, Schar, Dragovic, Park; Elneny, F.Frei, Die; Salah, Streller, Stocker

Subs: Vailati, D.Degen, Diaz, Cabral, Sauro, Steinhoffer, Zoua

CFC: Cech; Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole; Luiz, Lampard; Ramires, Hazard, Moses; Torres

Subs: Turnbull, Mata, Oscar, Mikel, Cahill, Benayoun, Bertrand

[stokeriño]

Victor Moses unwittingly makes it 1-0 to Chelsea!

[Ant]

Mata on the bench? Bit surprising as it's the only competition you can win.

I suppose if you win the first leg though it'll be a stroke of genius

[stokeriño]

Can't play Mata every game - we have to beat Swansea on Sunday too.

[stokeriño]

Hazard should have got at least one of those two chances on target. >_>

Concentration is probably the main thing I can praise about our performance so far tonight. Really good position to be in after 45 minutes and we just have to keep it up in the second half - another stat I read was that 70% of Basel's Europa goals have come after half-time so...

[Pesci]

Cristian just missed a penalty for Fenerbahce. He walked off the pitch crying at half-time the poor bloke

[stokeriño]

Massively unlucky for Torres not to score there.

[Nerf]

Meireles is dead

[stokeriño]

Bit too open for my liking in the second half. We've relied too much on Basel's screw-ups in the final third.

[Nerf]

Fenerbahce are finally 1-0 up following a corner that shouldn't have been given.

[stokeriño]

Luiz leaves a foot in and gets away with a yellow...hmm.

[stokeriño]

Penalty to Basel.

Edit: Soft as all bloody hell.

[DavidMarrio]

Yay Basel Even if it shouldn't have been a pen