Text here to move the logo across. please log in to view this image Vs please log in to view this image Hello and welcome to the official Not606 match thread for Saturday’s F.A Cup final between Liverpool & Chelsea. The game is scheduled to be played at Wembley on Saturday the 5th of May 2012 at 5.15PM. The game will be shown on both ITV1 & ESPN. ITV’s coverage begins at 3.15PM whilst ESPN’s build-up begins at 2.30PM. BBC Radio Five Live will have the radio rights to the game at around 3PM. Preview. So here we are. The F.A cup final. Devalued somewhat over the years but still one of the most famous cup competitions around. This year, Liverpool & Chelsea, will do battle to be named the winners of the F.A Cup. These two teams have built up a rivalry over the years with everything from big transfer deals that happened, ones that didn’t and some epic Champions League encounters. If this game can live up to some previous encounter between the sides, we can look forward to an absolute cracker! Both sides go into the cup final on the back of disappointing midweek results. Liverpool continued their appalling home form with a 1-0 loss to Fulham whilst Papiss Cisse scored twice to condemn Chelsea to a 2-0 home defeat to fellow Champions League chasing side, Newcastle. Both sides kicked off their campaigns in the third round and have had a mix of Premier League, Championship and League One sides to beat and find themselves at this stage. Liverpool have faced Oldham (5-1 victory), Manchester United (2-1 victory) Brighton & Hove Albion (6-1 victory) Stoke City (2-1 victory) and Merseyside rivals Everton (2-1 victory) Chelsea have also had a mix of Premier League and Championship sides to get past in order to find themselves at this stage. Chelsea have faced Portsmouth (4-0 victory) Queens Park Rangers (1-0 victory) Birmingham City (1-1 draw and a 2-0 victory) Leicester City (5-2 victory) and Tottenham Hotspur (5-1 victory) Looking at the results of the games Chelsea and Liverpool have faced, you could believe there will be goals. Liverpool have scored 17 goals in this competition whilst Chelsea have 18 goals so far. Liverpool especially have had problems scoring in the league but in the F.A Cup, the players seem to be able to find the net with more ease. The fact that 11 of those goals have come against sides in lower divisions is obviously a contributing factor to this but the goals seem to flow a bit better in the F.A Cup! Chelsea have also found the net pretty regularly in this year’s competition with one more goal than Liverpool at the time of writing. As with Liverpool, a significant portion of those goals have come against sides in lower divisions (12) but it shows that Chelsea can find the net. Of course, with players like Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard, Didier Drogba & Juan Mata in the respective sides, you can understand why the goals have been flowing. These players will be key for both sides and can expect to start and cause problems for both defences. Luis Suarez will be the main threat to the Chelsea backline. The Uruguayan has got 17 goals this season including 3 goals in 3 appearances in this season’s F.A Cup. The striker has failed to convert chances this season but 17 goals this season including a period out is a pretty good return. He has the ability to produce something out of nothing and the Chelsea centre-backs will need to get a close eye on him. On the Chelsea team, Juan Mata is one of Chelsea’s key players. The Spanish midfielder has been one of Chelsea’s best players this season and has been the creative spark in the Chelsea side. He has 12 goals this season including 4 goals in 6 games in the F.A Cup. Mata also has 15 assists. Those numbers indicate the Mata is a quality player and if he is given the space to work, the Liverpool backline will be under significant pressure. Some of the focus on this game will be on a certain Chelsea striker. Yes, Fernando Torres, the striker who left Liverpool for Chelsea in January 2011, will be eager to secure a place in the starting 11 and impress against his former employers. The much maligned striker has hit some form of late and after scoring at the Camp Nou against Barca, he hit a hat-trick against Q.P.R and has started to look like the player Liverpool had on their books for 4 years between 2007 and 2011. However, with Didier Drogba having an excellent record at Wembley (Scored on every visit to the home of the English Football) and having shown against Spurs that on this day, the Ivorian is completely unplayable and he could be given the nod up-front for Roberto Di Matteo’s side. All in all, we should have another classic cup final in store! Injury News. Liverpool. Charlie Adam: Knee Injury. Lucas Leiva: ACL Knee Injury. Chelsea. David Luiz: Hamstring Injury. Gary Cahill: Hamstring Injury. Liverpool 1 - 2 Chelsea Goalscorers: Chelsea... Ramires: 11th minute. Chelsea... Didier Drogba: 52nd minute. Liverpool... Andy Carroll: 64th minute. Liverpool: Reina - Johnson Skrtel Agger Enrique - Kuyt Henderson Gerrard Downing - Carroll Suarez SUBS: Doni Kelly Carragher Spearing Shelvey Maxi Bellamy Jay Spearing off and Andy Carroll is on: 55th minute. Craig Bellamy off and Dirk Kuyt is on: 78th minute. Chelsea: Cech - Bosingwa Ivanovic Terry Cole - Mikel Lampard - Meireles Malouda Kalou - Drogba SUBS: Turnbull Ferreira Essien Ramires Mata Torres Sturridge Ramires off and Raul Meireles is on: 76th minute. Juan Mata off and Florent Malouda is on: 90th minute. YNWA.
I have to go to a Wedding on the day, but hopefully I'll be back in time to watch it. I can't see us getting away with a poor performance for this final. To think that when the quarter final draw was made, Liverpool and Spurs were joint favourites. Now most people would quite rightly tip Chelsea to be the favourites.
Currently on Chelsea's to buy list from Liverpool Maxi Rodriguez Glen Johnson Martin Kelly Whoever scores for Liverpool on Saturday
Both center backs out is good for us, Terry will have a horrid time with Suarez, and with Carroll occupying Ivanovic could be tricky for them. Skrtel should keep Drogba quiet.
Like said in a different thread. The team will likely be: -------------------Reina Johnson---Carragher----Agger-----Enrique Downing/Kuyt----Spearing----Henderson----Bellamy/Downing ------------------Gerrard ------------------Suarez We will go 5 man midfield to combat the chavs. Suarez alone with Gerrard behind.
1 day to go! Excited! We better bloody win. Its been Weeks off the golden nectar, I'll be camped in the pub 2 hours before kick off. It's predominantly a United pub but I sense an invasion on Saturday.. Big Fry; soda, potato bread,Eggs, MEAT! Strong pot of tea. Then Pub and a beautiful beer. Well, ok probably pishy lager but alcohol non the less! Take some money off the Manc lovers at pool then settle back to watch a storming performance by us! Well that's the plan anyway. Be pissed by 8 regardless....
The real question is which striker Chelsea go with. As much as Torres has improved lately, I don't think he'd be mentally tough enough to rise to the occasion against our CB pairing (whatever that'll be on the day, but probably Carra/Agger) but Di Matteo will probably have faith that Torres will step up to prove a point against us. Drogba is the one who I'm more worried about and whilst our CBs should be good enough to counter him, he has a knack of performing in big games and getting a goal out of nothing. I hope the chavs play Torres... Mata is a danger as ever, so we'll pack the midfield to combat him although again, he can create something out of nothing so we need to close him down fast. Meireles can be ignored mostly...he's ****. I feel that our right side/their left side will be an interesting battle. Two attacking fullbacks and not really much protection from the midfield (Chelsea playing a narrow midfield and Downing/Kuyt/Henderson like to drift inside) so that'll be a good area to watch imo. Cahill being injured is massive for us tbh. Terry will be ripped open by Suarez if he keeps his recent form up, so Chelsea will be reliant on Ivanovic (most likely replacement I assume?) to cover him. I'd prefer Suarez being up against Luiz/Terry though, if I'm honest, I don't think sideshow bob really has enough defensive common sense to counter him as much as he has improved as the season has progressed.
Who gets married on FA Cup final day? Poor bloke must be under the thumb already. C'mon the lads, really getting wound up now, we have to attack and we need Bellamy and Suarez up front, I'm sure of that. Great thread as always, thanks Chris.
Keeping off the threads as im a ****ing curse...But ill be 100% behind the boys saturday.....Im not confident, which is good for us.......Managed to sort it so im watching the game with a Man Utd supporting Lesbian....cursed I tell ye
Im going Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My 1st FA Cup Final
Start a shift at 7pm so i'm going to watch first half in mine then dash across town and watch the second half in work so no cold nectar for me I'm feeling nervous ,positive at the same time hoping on a good game of football where the best team wins(us). CAN'T WAIT COME ON YOU REDS P.S cheers for the thread Chris always a good read
Some pictures from training. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
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New preds look nice. Won't be able to watch the game but will be following on my phone aka, great result boys!
