Barca!

[nelly the elephant]

Going online now(Kitbag) to get my Barca shirt in time for three weeks from now!

[Bosco]

Drogba was a disgrace!!! great to see them out

[jrc]

Drogba sums up everything that is wrong with soccer. He's big strong and skillful, yet dives if he comes within 5 yards of another player, and tries to attack referees after the final whistle. Scumbag should be banned for life. Come on Barca!!

[Comer Toes]

How sweet was that!? I dislike that mancs more but I was jumping around like a 10 year old when Iniesta struck. Let’s hope they can finish off the job now!

Drogba, Terry and Ballack were an absolute disgrace. Sky sports were just as bad. When the RTE lads first commented, they said that Drogba was the disgrace when he was effing and blinding into the TV cameras, the Sky team pretty much condoned it by saying it was perfectly understandable given how biased the ref was. They went through each peno claim in minute detail and then 10 mins later referred to Barca’s unjustified red card as an afterthought. Jamie was going to burst!

Was not impressed with the RTE lads saying how resilient and disciplined Chelsea were when all they were doing was hoofing it out every time. If it was Liverpool they would have had a different take on that particular approach.

[Comer Toes]

Horse racing is a mugs game...

If you select every Liverpool home match in the League throughout the season, and gamble on a 1-1, you'll come out with a serious profit. Certainly, Liverpool to draw at home.

Also, all non-League English football matches at 2-1 to the home team Another area for serious damage

Was just discussing this the other day. If I had a grand straight win on every Man U game this season i.e. ~60K stake, would I have in and around 70K return at this stage of the season??

Tennis is another good one. A friend of a friend is a pro gambler and he backed Federer in every game he player for about 3 years, has done very well out of it apparently.

Agree on the horses – I’ll have a flutter occasionally, and it’s a great sport and all, but definitely not one of the better ones to make money out of, unless privy to a decent network of inside info.

[jezzer]

By not going for the match in the first leg (during which they escaped any number of yellow cards and maybe a red) they left themselves 2 goals to get in the second leg, because there was no way Barca weren't going to get at least one.

Sure, there were a couple of penalty claims, against which Barca had a man sent off when it should have been Anelka getting a yellow.

All in all, Chelsea made themselves a bed and now they have to lie in it. Drogba and Ballack in particular are a disgrace to sport. Unfortunately, a club as rotten as Chelsea won't learn anything from this.

[Kyle]

I was disgusted at Hiddink's reaction as well. Its all well and good standing up and defending your players but you cant defend what Ballack and Drogba did. My only conceren mow is that both of them were booked, hence since the referee took action as AFAIK Uefa cant do anything but maybe fine Chelsea.

[simonno6]

Its becoming more and more of a joke. Post match interviews after they had calmed down were horendous. How they still didnt have the sense to shut their gobs is beyond me. UEFA out to get chelsea so it wont be an all english final again? come on lads, you should be better than that. At the end of the day, penalty claims aside, you should have wrapped the game up yonks before the 94th minute.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Chelsea seem to have conveniently forgotten that Barca had a man wrongly sent off...i can understand why they'd be angry but they should still remember that fact. The difference on rte and sky was extraordinary...Sky were saying the ref was a disgrace and Jamie Redknapp in particular was seething that a Norwegian ref had taken charge when he would rarely ref matches that entail that kind of pressure whereas rte were saying he only made one or two mistakes and was actually alright! Either way im delighted Chelsea are out and i hope Terry,Drogba and Ballack all get huge bans

[suisse]

Horse racing is a mugs game...

If you select every Liverpool home match in the League throughout the season, and gamble on a 1-1, you'll come out with a serious profit. Certainly, Liverpool to draw at home.

Also, all non-League English football matches at 2-1 to the home team Another area for serious damage

Was just discussing this the other day. If I had a grand straight win on every Man U game this season i.e. ~60K stake, would I have in and around 70K return at this stage of the season??

Tennis is another good one. A friend of a friend is a pro gambler and he backed Federer in every game he player for about 3 years, has done very well out of it apparently.

Agree on the horses – I’ll have a flutter occasionally, and it’s a great sport and all, but definitely not one of the better ones to make money out of, unless privy to a decent network of inside info.

The thing about the horses though is only in that sport could a favourite be priced at 7-1, and I suppose only in that sport could you land a 100-1 shot (the Grand National this year) when it's not an accum, or a bet you placed like three years ago on Grenada to qualify for the football world cup.
Football, rugby, and, as you said, tennis, are great sports to keep an eye on even though the odds are obviously shorter. It's always a two horse race (either between individuals or teams) and on a win-draw-win market, you have a 33% of winning, or in an individual sport, a 50% chance.
I totally believe the Roger Federer story, but it takes some balls to see that through, and it's why not everyone is going down to the bookies now to do something similiar on Rory McIlroy, Rafa Nadal etc. The player you select is likely to have a slump in form at some stage, and it takes an extremely dedicated punter to take their medicine through that spell. 90% of us would say "ah, this guy is finished, i've taken it as far as I can"

Boxing is till the best one-on-one sport. Don't know the stats, but hpw often does the underdog win? Then again, Hatton let me down badly

[suisse]

Its becoming more and more of a joke. Post match interviews after they had calmed down were horendous. How they still didnt have the sense to shut their gobs is beyond me. UEFA out to get chelsea so it wont be an all english final again? come on lads, you should be better than that. At the end of the day, penalty claims aside, you should have wrapped the game up yonks before the 94th minute.

Absolutely delighted for the new Chelsea Football Club. Was it John Terry who moaned at Liverpool players for influencing his yellow card (and subsequent suspension) in the first leg by targeting the referee? The fact that Terry has done this forever seemed to escape his memory, and his actions, like those of Ballack, Hiddink, Drogba and Cech were a disgrace.

Terry is the captain of England - what a wonderful role model for young kids wanting to get involved. It's OK to subject a referee to so much abuse that he has to be smuggled out of the country,a dn receives death threats. there is something fundamentally poisionous about Chelsea that referees receive death threats after officiating in their games.

Whilst Ballack was completely out of order, wasn't it funny watching that coward subject himself to years of torment from opposing fans, and future UEFA/FIFA sanction for his behavouir?

The sooner Chelsea Football Club go in to administration and liquidation, get relegated 3 divisions, and finally remodel themselves into a respectable club the better.

[Bosco]

Jamie "Camel Toe" Redknapp is a joke, just talks constantly but never makes a point, he is just there as a cheerleader for his buddies Lamps and Terry. Over the two nights Souness didn't cover himself in glory, Dunphy made a fool of him on tue night, and last night he looked out of his depth, you would think a guy with his experiance would know a bit more about football. Dont start me on Andy Gray....

[sarah_lennon]

Jamie "Camel Toe" Redknapp

Seriously! how tight are his trousers?

[Bosco]

its just wrong, have to watch the analysis with my laptop covering the bottom third of the TV, for the love of god sky buy some tables!!!!!!

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Jamie "Camel Toe" Redknapp

Seriously! how tight are his trousers?

Best nickname ever,that's class!

[dipper]

Apparently the ref had to be smuggled out of the UK by the police because they feared for his safety. The Chelsea players should hang their heads in shame for their behaviour. Very bad advert for soccer all round.

[sarah_lennon]

Nobody remembers Anders Frisk. This isn't new you know!

[claire_m]

I had to watch this as I was at my parents' on Wednesday night.

By the end of the game, I remembered why I don't watch football anymore and why I love rugby so much. None of that abuse of the ref would be allowed to happen (aren't the FA trying to get respect back for refs at the moment? There's a fairly high-profile campaign over here at the moment. It's ironic that the captain of England isn't actually practising what the FA is preaching.)

I thought Ballack & Drogba especially were disgraceful and should be banned for a long time. Don't bother fining them, as money means nothing. But ban them for a long time and they might think again about it. And Hiddink backing them? Whether or not you think Chelsea were hard done by, as a manager, you can not condone those actions. A sad day for English football.

Still, I'll be watching rugby again tonight

[Avenger]

Nobody remembers Anders Frisk.

I remember he reffed a game in Rome once and Phil "The Power" Taylor must have been in the crowd cause some one split him open with a coin or mobile phone or something (I can't actually believe that some footie fans throw mobile phones).

The attacks on him by the special one in 2006 were a disgrace. Probably the finest ref in the game at the time.

Redknapps attack on the ref the other night about Norwegians shouldn't be allowed to referee big games was nothing short of racist. Other than Webb, none of the English refs are good enough for that level and they all ref in a "BIG league".

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I had to watch this as I was at my parents' on Wednesday night.

By the end of the game, I remembered why I don't watch football anymore and why I love rugby so much. None of that abuse of the ref would be allowed to happen (aren't the FA trying to get respect back for refs at the moment? There's a fairly high-profile campaign over here at the moment. It's ironic that the captain of England isn't actually practising what the FA is preaching.)

I thought Ballack & Drogba especially were disgraceful and should be banned for a long time. Don't bother fining them, as money means nothing. But ban them for a long time and they might think again about it. And Hiddink backing them? Whether or not you think Chelsea were hard done by, as a manager, you can not condone those actions. A sad day for English football.

Still, I'll be watching rugby again tonight

I'm not saying it's right but i guess Hiddink doesn't want to alienate his players when he's only got a few more matches left and wants to make sure they're on his side to win the FA cup...at least i hope that's it and that privately he condemns them but as i said either way is wrong!