Beauty

The beauty vs the intelligence vs the beast.  and i’m not talking about any person here , hehe i’m talking about last night game between Chelsea and Barcelona.  it reminds me of 2005 Champions League Final between Liverpool and AC Milan, where Liverpool was trailing 3-0 down before half time to win through penalty shoot-out. 

That was three years ago, and last night, when the two titans met at Stamford Bridge, i was so excited to watch.  Honestly, i don’t have any favourite team(s) unlike other die-hard fans who are so fanatic about their teams’ progress, fixtures and results.  Unlike me who just love watching the beauty of the game.  Any teams would do as long as it could fill up my ‘Beautiful Game Tank’.

And last night, the game was OK until the end of it.  I was frustrated to see Essiens putting Chelsea one goal in front so early in the game, not because i favoured Barcelone more, but i know, Chelsea was going to start playing like they did in Nou Camp last two week, 10 men behind the ball.  And pretty much, they did it AGAIN.  Some say, it’s tactical purpose to put 10 men behind the ball when you face a team as good as Barcelona.  But don’t laaa, throughout the 90 minutes play, you don’t show anything special for the spectators other than your ball clearances. 

And my frustration getting worst to see Abidal sent off in the 67th minutes, i went “There goes Barcelona’s end, hmmm…” as i was expecting Chelsea was going to start an attacking play, exploiting the situation 11 vs 10 men on the pitch.  But, i was wrong.  Chelsea kept on defending to leave Barcelona keeping their possesions of the ball, finding spaces to score.

And when everyone thought the game was over, there goes Iniesta’s goal to send Barcelona to Rome and sending Chelsea home, frustrated.  Perfect ending!! Hehe :p

And Chelsea claimed that the referee snatched the ticket from them as he didn’t award the Blues at least 3 clear penalties that night.  I think you can find all over the WWW for more information and comments as everyone was soo excited talking and commenting about it. (Other than Perak Crisis).  

Despite the dissapoinment expressed by Drogba (He later admits that he was overreacted) and some Chelsea players, i was impressed on how Chelsea’s captain (John Terry) and his second man (Frank Lampard) reacted to the controversy: -

Despite Terry’s dissapointment, he visited the Barcelona dressing room and shook hands with each member of their playing and coaching staff. It was an act of sportsmanship for which the Barca team and staff applauded him out of the room.

”I want to thank John Terry for coming into the dressing room and congratulating us,” said Guardiola. ”He’s a true gentleman.”

 and

While the protests went on, Lampard exchanged shirts with Barcelona’s goal hero Iniesta before calmly taking time to criticise Ovrebo’s performance.

“It depends what people want to make of it but you have to understand that 11 men are trying to get to a final when there are at least three clear penalties not given. I don’t think you can really expect grown men to walk off and not say a word, whether it looks bad or not.

“We are disappointed but we have to be professional. We have to be big, stand up and carry on playing. If you don’t believe you can win the Champions League one day, there is no point carrying on playing.”

kiko: Bila laa agaknya pemain bola sepak Malaysia nak ‘being big, stand up and carry on playing’ dan bila laa agaknya pemimpin-pemimpin di Malaysia nak mula jadi pemimpin yang ’gentleman’…i wonder….