Champions League 2014/15

Chelsea swarm the ref more than most teams in England tbf - it's more prevalent abroad but still.

Also there's a big difference between a few nearby players surrounding the ref and the entire team. Costa ran at least 20 yards to the ref. And Souness pointed out that he wasn't bothered when the incident first happened but ran down when everyone else started to kick off. An indication that it's encouraged by Mourinho

Yeah I think every player bar the goalie and the 'injured' Oscar were around the ref. Surrounding the ref to that degree is definitely not common.

Yeah, while a lot of other teams will have one or two players surrounding the ref at decisions, I don't think anyone of them have the whole team do it as often as Chelsea do. Yesterday as pointed out, 9 players surrounded him, with Oscar and Courtouis being the only ones who didn't.

SIX AND COUNTING: Starsport analyses Jose Mourinho's Chelsea Champions League failures

2007-08 (LEFT IN SEPTEMBER)

Mourinho presided over just one Champions League group match before he left the club, the 1-1 home draw against Norwegian side Rosenborg proving his last.

Avram Grant stepped in from his role as director of football and guided the side past Liverpool in the semi-finals to a showdown with Manchester United in Moscow - where John Terry slipped in the penalty shoot-out with a kick which would have won the Champions League.

I guess Arsenal fans can be happy that their much larger failure is now no longer the focus of anyone.

Until next week of course

He was actually cheered before the game when he came out and was announced. It was only when he started to be a dick he got booed

We're set up for a 2-0 win and for Wenger praising our mental strength and glorious failure tbh

Can't believe no one predicted a 2-0 Arsenal win

Knew it was gonna happen ffs

Well that was inevitable.

City are getting ripped apart at times, if Barca didn't try to score the perfect goal then they'd be out of sight by now

I don't understand why Kolorov or Milner don't actually stay with Messi rather than just watch him run away and equally baffling is why the fuck is Sagna never anywhere near Neymar. It's the same move happening nearly every time, Messi dribbles inside and passes to an unmarked Neymar.

I was scared that the injury Messi had in the last couple of years meant he'd had hit his peak. Seems I was wrong, he has been superb this evening and in ridiculous form since the start of the new year.

Sagna is shite

Watch that last counter attack back and look at the effort he puts in getting back compared to the three other City players.

2-0 Morata and Juventus are through. Dortmund have been really disappointing tonight.

Only just realised how average the City squad looks, Aguero (and maybe Silva on his day) is the only world class player and even he wouldnt get in the Barca team.

Joe Harts been fantastic today, would have been game over ages ago

What a poor penalty, looked a dubious one too

Aguero fucking terrible yet again.

What a performance by Hart. Him and Fernandinho the only players that can come out of that match saying that they tried their best

Watch any attack and see how goddamn hesitant he is to make an attacking movement which slows the game down completely. Zaba just goes for it, Sagna thinks about it and then decides against it and it really hurts our attacks

Hart was fantastic tonight, amazing that it was only 1-0.

3 - Only three English teams have reached the CL quarter final stage in the last four seasons combined, as many as in 2010-11 alone. Glum.

— optajoe (@optajoe) Permalink

So Chelsea are two of those?

It's Chelsea and Manchester United, yeah.

Was Zabaleta injured or something? I have been struggling to figure out why he didn't play.

I wonder how Joe Hart is feeling right now. He puts in the performance of his life, but its all for nothing because his team mates did pretty much fuck all.

Also did anyone listen to the game on 5 live? I've never heard Robbie Savage be more irritating in commentary than that before.

Anyone else think abit much is being made of the apparent English demise in Europe? I mean it always seems to come in waves, wasn't always going to be like it was pre 2011 and it will no doubt pick up again in the next few seasons.

7 of the last 10 finals have had English teams in them.

Hardly a crisis.

Exactly, its blown of out all proportion.