Bayern vs Chelsea match analysis

[nachi88]

We lost 4-2 yesterday.

Here is what I thought of the match...

We just didnt defend high balls, and flighted passes well at all. Every time there was an aereal duel between kovac and drogba or lucio and gudjohnson, the chelsea guys would win it. Our marking was absolutely horrible, especially the second and third goals, when lampard was left alone, to do the damage. Demichellis was sorely misssed in this match. Also, I feel lizarazzu should be replaced by Gorlitz, who is bigger and is younger, for the return leg. We, didnt get one decent attack into the chelsea box, other than the free kicks or penalties. The Chelsea defense cleared every corner without any probelms. Compare this to the last game with arsenal, when we got atleast 15-20 crosses in the box. Frings and Ballack both had a bad game. We need a much better performance from Ballack if we are to get anything out of this game. Also, starting Salahamidzic as a forward seemed to be a mistake, Magath, should have rather player 5-4-1 and added Linke as an extra central defender, since without Makaay, Pizzaro and Demichellis, it was always going to be tough. Apart from Schweinsteiger, no body played to their capability.

But thanks to two rather lucky goals, we have a chance. The only thing Bayern showed in the last game is a will to fight. Chelsea outperformed us in every other department of the game.
We will have to raise our game by a whole level, if we are to progress to the semi's. It is possible, but we need a 100% out of Ballack, and hopefully with demichellis, pizzaro and makaay back, we will be a much better Bayern than the one that played yesterday.

[Ivan7637]

We lost 4-2 yesterday.

Here is what I thought of the match...

We just didnt defend high balls, and flighted passes well at all. Every time there was an aereal duel between kovac and drogba or lucio and gudjohnson, the chelsea guys would win it. Our marking was absolutely horrible, especially the second and third goals, when lampard was left alone, to do the damage. Demichellis was sorely misssed in this match. Also, I feel lizarazzu should be replaced by Gorlitz, who is bigger and is younger, for the return leg. We, didnt get one decent attack into the chelsea box, other than the free kicks or penalties. The Chelsea defense cleared every corner without any probelms. Compare this to the last game with arsenal, when we got atleast 15-20 crosses in the box. Frings and Ballack both had a bad game. We need a much better performance from Ballack if we are to get anything out of this game. Also, starting Salahamidzic as a forward seemed to be a mistake, Magath, should have rather player 5-4-1 and added Linke as an extra central defender, since without Makaay, Pizzaro and Demichellis, it was always going to be tough. Apart from Schweinsteiger, no body played to their capability.

But thanks to two rather lucky goals, we have a chance. The only thing Bayern showed in the last game is a will to fight. Chelsea outperformed us in every other department of the game.
We will have to raise our game by a whole level, if we are to progress to the semi's. It is possible, but we need a 100% out of Ballack, and hopefully with demichellis, pizzaro and makaay back, we will be a much better Bayern than the one that played yesterday.

I agree with everything. They always won the long passes. Even when there goalie kicked it all the way to bayern's side they'd always outrun or out play us in some way. When we played one on one we almost lost everytime with duff and cole and we also seemed to be slipping a lot. After the equalizer i was hopin we could keep it that way but we just kind of fell asleep and let them cross in whenever they felt like it. After that penalty which was clearly a dive(ref had mercy) we got two away goals. Overall it's better then 4-1 but i expected a lot more. I didn't expect us to concede 4 goals. Overall our offense sucked we only had 3 shots on goal. our offense was just horrible in my opinion and if it wasn't for chelsea mistakes we wouldn't have even gotten the first goal. Overall a good game and none of this was Oliver Kahns fault! he did everything he could to prevent the goals. LOL just had to say that because some of my friends were blaming him for the loss. :D

[lurvthang]

We lost 4-2 yesterday.

Here is what I thought of the match...

We just didnt defend high balls, and flighted passes well at all. Every time there was an aereal duel between kovac and drogba or lucio and gudjohnson, the chelsea guys would win it. Our marking was absolutely horrible, especially the second and third goals, when lampard was left alone, to do the damage. Demichellis was sorely misssed in this match. Also, I feel lizarazzu should be replaced by Gorlitz, who is bigger and is younger, for the return leg. We, didnt get one decent attack into the chelsea box, other than the free kicks or penalties. The Chelsea defense cleared every corner without any probelms. Compare this to the last game with arsenal, when we got atleast 15-20 crosses in the box. Frings and Ballack both had a bad game. We need a much better performance from Ballack if we are to get anything out of this game. Also, starting Salahamidzic as a forward seemed to be a mistake, Magath, should have rather player 5-4-1 and added Linke as an extra central defender, since without Makaay, Pizzaro and Demichellis, it was always going to be tough. Apart from Schweinsteiger, no body played to their capability.

But thanks to two rather lucky goals, we have a chance. The only thing Bayern showed in the last game is a will to fight. Chelsea outperformed us in every other department of the game.
We will have to raise our game by a whole level, if we are to progress to the semi's. It is possible, but we need a 100% out of Ballack, and hopefully with demichellis, pizzaro and makaay back, we will be a much better Bayern than the one that played yesterday.

Mr nachi you make some fairly decent points, but i think you are being rather hard on the Bayern team actually, i am a Chelsea fan as you know and having watched them all season very closely, they rarely allow teams anwhere close to the goal, so it isn't just that the Bayern frontline was weakened, it will not make much difference with Makaay and Pizarro in I can assure you of that. Chelsea defend and work hard from midfield up to the defence, the key to the good defence is that, they have a solid midfield in front of the defence.

Look, a team does not play 49 matches all season and let in 26 goals in ALL COMPETITIONS. Let me break it down for you

Competition Played Won Draws Loses Goals For Goals Against

Premiership 31 25 5 1 61 11
Champions L 9 6 1 2 19 9
FA Cup 3 2 0 1 5 2
Carling Cup 6 5 1 0 10 4
------ ---- --- ----- ------ -------
TOTALS 49 38 7 4 95 26

If you look at the goals scored they have been spread throughtout the whole team, I think you'll find Lampard, Drogba, Gjudjohnsson, Robben Cole and Duff
are into 10+ goals each then even Kezman and has about 6, it is a team.

I will complement Bayern with one thing a lot of poéople did not notice, Bayern forced Chelsea to change their game tactics, if you noticed the 1st 5 minutes Bayern were pressuring Chelsea high up, they put a lot of people into midfield quite clearly they had studied Chelsea and realised that they like to slow the game down and play through midfield, so Bayern had Ballack, Fringes, and Hargreaves were packing the midfield and squeazed the game, so Chelsea then used Drogba as an outlet to counter this, it was a tactical change because Bayern tried to squeeze Chelsea.

For Hargreaves to criticize Chelsea and say Chelsea just played the long first sounds ironic to me as this tactically is Bayerns game I saw them play against Arsenal in Germany, this is a style I have seen them play often this season, secondly it just stinks of sour grapes and bad sportsmanship, brought about as I think Bayern expected the same match and same result as they got against Arsenal , as I said B4 the match that Bayern would find this team a far tougher competition than Arsenal a more complete team, trust me Bayern will find it very hard to get anywhere near the Chelsea goal with or without Makaay and Pizarro, I have been hearing all this talking up from Bayern saying they can win 2-0 or 3-1 of course it is possible, but if I was being realistic, I would happy with a 2-1 win if I was Bayern.

My only wish is the referee is a good one as Bayern players are divers and play actors, they were doing it all night, I notice nothing has been said in german papers about the blatant dive by Ballack, just that "A LATE PENALTY GIVES BAYERN HOPE" as if it was earned, I really want UEFA to punish Ballack for this or at least give a referee who will book your Ballacks and that other divers Simid...vic (However you spell it).

Once again I predict:

Bayern 1 Chelsea 1

[nachi88]

Mr nachi you make some fairly decent points, but i think you are being rather hard on the Bayern team actually, i am a Chelsea fan as you know and having watched them all season very closely, they rarely allow teams anwhere close to the goal, so it isn't just that the Bayern frontline was weakened, it will not make much difference with Makaay and Pizarro in I can assure you of that. Chelsea defend and work hard from midfield up to the defence, the key to the good defence is that, they have a solid midfield in front of the defence.

Look, a team does not play 49 matches all season and let in 26 goals in ALL COMPETITIONS. Let me break it down for you

Competition Played Won Draws Loses Goals For Goals Against

Premiership 31 25 5 1 61 11
Champions L 9 6 1 2 19 9
FA Cup 3 2 0 1 5 2
Carling Cup 6 5 1 0 10 4
------ ---- --- ----- ------ -------
TOTALS 49 38 7 4 95 26

If you look at the goals scored they have been spread throughtout the whole team, I think you'll find Lampard, Drogba, Gjudjohnsson, Robben Cole and Duff
are into 10+ goals each then even Kezman and has about 6, it is a team.

I will complement Bayern with one thing a lot of poéople did not notice, Bayern forced Chelsea to change their game tactics, if you noticed the 1st 5 minutes Bayern were pressuring Chelsea high up, they put a lot of people into midfield quite clearly they had studied Chelsea and realised that they like to slow the game down and play through midfield, so Bayern had Ballack, Fringes, and Hargreaves were packing the midfield and squeazed the game, so Chelsea then used Drogba as an outlet to counter this, it was a tactical change because Bayern tried to squeeze Chelsea.

For Hargreaves to criticize Chelsea and say Chelsea just played the long first sounds ironic to me as this tactically is Bayerns game I saw them play against Arsenal in Germany, this is a style I have seen them play often this season, secondly it just stinks of sour grapes and bad sportsmanship, brought about as I think Bayern expected the same match and same result as they got against Arsenal , as I said B4 the match that Bayern would find this team a far tougher competition than Arsenal a more complete team, trust me Bayern will find it very hard to get anywhere near the Chelsea goal with or without Makaay and Pizarro, I have been hearing all this talking up from Bayern saying they can win 2-0 or 3-1 of course it is possible, but if I was being realistic, I would happy with a 2-1 win if I was Bayern.

My only wish is the referee is a good one as Bayern players are divers and play actors, they were doing it all night, I notice nothing has been said in german papers about the blatant dive by Ballack, just that "A LATE PENALTY GIVES BAYERN HOPE" as if it was earned, I really want UEFA to punish Ballack for this or at least give a referee who will book your Ballacks and that other divers Simid...vic (However you spell it).

Once again I predict:

Bayern 1 Chelsea 1

Your analysis on Chelsea's defense is good. And so is the Chelsea defense. I cant remeber any team scoring two goals against chelsea this season in a single match, in any competiiton (other than barcelona). So, I would conclude that, if a bayern without two star players , who were at the top of their game can score two against arguably the strongest defense in Europe ( ya, u guys are much better than those boring 'defensive' italian clubs). Then you imagine what we could do with them. Also, another point i'd like to point out to you, is that Arsenal are the highest scoring team in the EPL(73 i think). Still they hardly managed a goal at Olympistadion. That was a lucky freak goal. Demichellis holds our defense and intercepts vital passes. Thats his forte. Without him, we should have used another defensive player in midfield to restrict Chelsea, like Linke. Salahamidzic was a wrong choice. But i conceed that to beat chelsea by a two goal margin will be very difficult and will require a miracle. Ballack will have to perform to his utmost capability.

Also Chelsea has a propensity towards conceding penalties and freekicks. They have done that many times this season and unnessacarily so.Thats what i've observed in the last few games. Even against barcelona, there were some unwanted freekicks given and the penalty was really bad luck. If we pressurise Chelsea from the 1st second of the match and force them to commit mistakes, we'll have a fine game on our hands.

About the penalty, yes, he did dive, but there was a push also. But i dont think that deserves a ban. Everybody dives, and Chelsea players are no exception to that. A fine would do, IMO.

And about the papers, I would like to tell you with greatest pleasure, that neither the German people nor the German pres have any grudge against the English. We are not like that. Its that simple. But your tabloids are bad and constant use of words in them like kraut, scum, nazi etc even to this day indicate that a sections of the british society and and press are against Germany.

I wont predict a score. But should we fail, I'd wish Chelsea all the best for the comming matches. (though my second fav team in this competion is psv).

And finally, I hate roman abramovic. :D

[lurvthang]

Your analysis on Chelsea's defense is good. And so is the Chelsea defense. I cant remeber any team scoring two goals against chelsea this season in a single match, in any competiiton (other than barcelona). So, I would conclude that, if a bayern without two star players , who were at the top of their game can score two against arguably the strongest defense in Europe ( ya, u guys are much better than those boring 'defensive' italian clubs). Then you imagine what we could do with them. Also, another point i'd like to point out to you, is that Arsenal are the highest scoring team in the EPL(73 i think). Still they hardly managed a goal at Olympistadion. That was a lucky freak goal. Demichellis holds our defense and intercepts vital passes. Thats his forte. Without him, we should have used another defensive player in midfield to restrict Chelsea, like Linke. Salahamidzic was a wrong choice. But i conceed that to beat chelsea by a two goal margin will be very difficult and will require a miracle. Ballack will have to perform to his utmost capability.

Also Chelsea has a propensity towards conceding penalties and freekicks. They have done that many times this season and unnessacarily so.Thats what i've observed in the last few games. Even against barcelona, there were some unwanted freekicks given and the penalty was really bad luck. If we pressurise Chelsea from the 1st second of the match and force them to commit mistakes, we'll have a fine game on our hands.

About the penalty, yes, he did dive, but there was a push also. But i dont think that deserves a ban. Everybody dives, and Chelsea players are no exception to that. A fine would do, IMO.

And about the papers, I would like to tell you with greatest pleasure, that neither the German people nor the German pres have any grudge against the English. We are not like that. Its that simple. But your tabloids are bad and constant use of words in them like kraut, scum, nazi etc even to this day indicate that a sections of the british society and and press are against Germany.

I wont predict a score. But should we fail, I'd wish Chelsea all the best for the comming matches. (though my second fav team in this competion is psv).

And finally, I hate roman abramovic. :D

Hi m8 read your interesting comments you made some valid judgement about Chelsea conceding a lot of freekicks or dead ball situation play, that indeed is an outlet for Bayern which could work in their favour.

As for your point about Demichellis whilst I hear your point well made, however I would say if the tie was still at Stamford Bridge your arguments for his merits totally agree, however, the situation of this tie is now Bayern need for attacking options so I personally would risk Scholl and Ballack to be your driving forces, I have to say, Ballack has been rather poor in his performances thsi season generally, it seems to me he has started to believe his own publicity and not working as hard as he used to do, I observed at Chelsea he seemed to be just walking around the pitch and not taking on his other duties of defending and watching his opposite number ie Frank Lampard.
The problem for Bayern will be that they will need to attack and Chelsea are one of the fastest sides to counteract you will see.

First match we had young Glen Johnson (he is 19) who nearly gifted Ze Roberto a goal in the 1st half, he did a similar thing against Barcá at Stamford Bridge, personally he is a weaklink and I do not think he will start, he has these moments poor guy, but he is young.

Arsenal true have scored 73 goals in The Premiership, however, you missed 2 key points.
1) Terry Henry has scored some 30 of these goals, the next person has about 10. Chelsea on the other hand have scored 62 goals , with about 5-6 players on about 10-13 goals each
2) Arsenal have let in 33 goals in the league, Chelsea have let in 12

So what does this show, well simply that if I was playing against Arsenal, I know all I must do is take care of Henry and the main source of Arsenals goal threat disappears, it's like I do martial ats, we are told that the easiest person to fight is one with a knife, why? cos they are concentrating all their mind into how they will use the knife, but one who does not have a knife, will use whatever he can, so more unpredictable. Do you get my point?.
Furthermore, it also illustrates that Chelsea score many goals, but let in almost nothing.

About the diving aspect, I have played football at a high level as I am sure you have, let me give you 2 players to watch to illustrate what I mean by diving, watch Pavel Nedved, Salahamidzic (how I hate this diver) and Deco in the big match in Spain tonight.
Nedved will run with the ball, when he is challenged, he will lean on the opponent as the opponent is about to get the ball off him drawing a foul, their other trick Deco is good at this is he will push the ball to one side of the defender then fall at the defenders trailing leg, again this is not a foul theses are sutle dives, but then there are those where a SNIPER SHOOTS YOU FROM THE STANDS AND YOU HAVE TO THROW YOUR ARMS IN THE AIR AND THROW YOURSELVE BACKWARDS, IT'S DISGRACEFUL Mr Ballack , there was no push, there was an attempt by the Chelsea defender to pull his shirt at totally the opposite direction to the way he fell come on, the defender did not get a hold of his shirt, no defending that, the same player was trying to do similar crap throughout the match.
You say Chelsea players dive, who? when Chelsea players generally go down they are hurt.
You guys in Europe do not seem to understand the English mentality, when I grew up, if you dived to earn a freekick, your own tgeammates would be angry at you, you only went down when you were really hurt, sadly diving is coming more and more into the English game as more foriegn players have come

If we get a Spanish referee, then Bayern will stand a chance of getting some poor decisions in their favour, these guys are easily fooled as they see that sort of thing everyday, they are used to it.

You last point our tabloids are a DISGRACE, I AM ASHAMED OF THE WAY THE ALWAYS BRING UP SILLY WORDS LIKE "KRAUTS, NAZIs...blahblahblah", I CANNOT APOLOGISE ENOUGH, it has nothing to do with football and as such has no place there. The main problem here is the guys who are owning and running these tabloids are from that older generation who seem to think this sort of language is what the country feels which is totally wrong. However I read your Mr Hoeness when asked about the return match against Chelsea he said and I paraphrase here "...we must bombard them over and out", that sounded to me like a clear reference the 2nd world war, sutle but clear, wot do you think?

[nachi88]

good point you make about demichellis... but I still think using scholl would be a mistake. He is not all that strong physically, would almost surely loose the 50-50 situations against stronger mids like lampard or duff. Also Scholl , being smaller, isnt that good in the air, his strong points are through balls and quick crosses ( both of which would be almost innefective , as I expect Chelsea to pack thier box and do the quick ocassional counter). We need a long ball player. who can snuff out chelsea attacks . Thats why i suggested the Ballack and Demichellis combo. These guys are strong and would definately be physically tougher than scholl.
Regarding salahamidzic, you are right a 100%. He is more prone to diving than the average player. But he was playing as a forward at stamford bridge, in a position he hardly is familiar with, and against defenders who make him look like a midget. He didnt have much options there, as he was constantly outmuscled.
Also, we need some long range shooting parctice, and for such I would reccomend ballack and frings. The other lot of current Bayern players can hardly be called long range experts ( maybe other than ze roberto).

About Uli Hoeness asking the english to be bomarded.. I havent heard about it... but if he did say so, he's definitely means no offense. Probably incorrect use of english could be a reason. :D

[lurvthang]

good point you make about demichellis... but I still think using scholl would be a mistake. He is not all that strong physically, would almost surely loose the 50-50 situations against stronger mids like lampard or duff. Also Scholl , being smaller, isnt that good in the air, his strong points are through balls and quick crosses ( both of which would be almost innefective , as I expect Chelsea to pack thier box and do the quick ocassional counter). We need a long ball player. who can snuff out chelsea attacks . Thats why i suggested the Ballack and Demichellis combo. These guys are strong and would definately be physically tougher than scholl.
Regarding salahamidzic, you are right a 100%. He is more prone to diving than the average player. But he was playing as a forward at stamford bridge, in a position he hardly is familiar with, and against defenders who make him look like a midget. He didnt have much options there, as he was constantly outmuscled.
Also, we need some long range shooting parctice, and for such I would reccomend ballack and frings. The other lot of current Bayern players can hardly be called long range experts ( maybe other than ze roberto).

About Uli Hoeness asking the english to be bomarded.. I havent heard about it... but if he did say so, he's definitely means no offense. Probably incorrect use of english could be a reason. :D

I agree with you that two top strikers will make it an interesting game I hope they both play, but there is your dialema, now you have 2 attackers, so one midfield position will be lost, if you look from 1st leg Bayern were overran in midfield, I like Scholl and the young lad Swein, but I understand what you are saying about the midfield will be quite like, but hay if they are gonna get something they need to gamble, playing a slow game and then hitting it long to the 2 front men won't particulary hurt Chelsea.

Against Arsenal Chelsea went behind after 2 minutes, but they do not panick and they came back to draw 2-2, against Liverpool in the league cup final they went behind after 45 seconds, but came back to win 3-2, they just do not panic, last year they would have.

The teams who have troubled Chelsea this season are Bolton and Blackburn these teams have been very physical and kicked Chelsea about they had very tall players and played a lot of long balls to really tall target men, but even for these teams the manager had a strategy change.

You either love him or hate him, but José is a brilliant manager and this now is a well drilled unit who run and work so hard for each other, I cannot make the point enough about how hard they work, sometimes people do not really understand just how hard they work as a unit, tomorrow I will tell you now Bayern will find it hard to get near the Chelsea goal and when it breaks down, they can hurt you. Robben, Ferrera and Bridge are out, but to be honest with you, we make no excuses as players have come in to replace them.

For me, the main key players will be Makelele, Lampard, Cole and Duff, because Makelele is our defensive midfield who does so much for the team, Lampard is one of the best shooters in the modern game and gets goals, Cole and Duff will be needed to keep your defenders busy and of course Drogba will have rattled you central defenders so I think they will be worried very much about him. Meaning I don't believe Lucio will be too keen to break forward too often what you think?

Chelsea this season is the same team as last year with Ranieri only a few changes, the difference being now I tell you again José, I am really looking forward to the game and really hope your strikers are both fit so as to test your best against ours.

It will be interesting, Ballack has to do something, I still say he has really under performed this season, maybe he set such high standards for himself he is failing to live up to them now, wot you think?

Is it just me, but I felt Sangol was exposed for being rather slow, I worry for you if he is the right back, Liza seemed nervous and edgey would you argree with this?

Scholl was again good when he came on v Mönchengladbach, I think you would be better using him as your playmaker not relying on big Ballack.