by stmichael » Sun Feb 27, 2005 8:16 pm
i know it always hurts to lose a final to anybody but to be perfectly honest i can't see how anybody can slag off the players after todays game. ok we didn't play the best football in the world, but for 79 minutes we defended superbly. however you cannot expect to surrender possession so easily agsinst chelsea (i think they had 75% of the possession) and win. the people sat next to me in the ground said it reminded them of the england-portugal game in euro 2004 and i have to agree. scoring that early almost worked to our disadvantage because we then ended up sitting so deep that we just invited pressure onto ourselves.
what i will say however is this:
1) jerzy dudek played really well, despite having to play the last 5 minutes of normal time and extra time with an injury.
2) finnan was superb.
3) the ref was an absolute disgrace. joe cole, damien duff and didier drogba's diving was outrageous. at one point i thought sami was going to get sent off due to a pathetic dive by cole. he also missed several blatant handballs by chelsea.
4) chelsea have spent £280m in the last 18 months. they could only get a result due to an own goal.
5) their second goal was as a result of a foul throw, not the only one in the game mind you.
6) we should have had a blatant penalty in the 1st half when gerrard was fouled. you can bet your @ss that if that was outside the box a free kick would have been given.
7) mourihno was a disgrace aswell in the way he gestured towards liverpool fans after the equaliser and was telling carragher to "f#ck off". he should have been ejected from the stadium never mind the pitch.
8) we still have as good, if not a better chance than them of advancing in the champions league.
don't be too downbeat. yes it is disappointing but we now have more pressing issues at hand. finishing 4th is now the priority, starting with newcastle next weekend.
walk on.
Last edited by
stmichael on Sun Feb 27, 2005 8:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.