Good man! I just a look at their team for the first time in a while. That was some team - miles better than ours on paper. Dida - good, but a flapper. Maldini - a footbaling giant. Nesta - another worldie. Stam - quality player. Cafu - Top class player. Pirlo - amazing player. Gatuso - awesome. Seedorf - Legend of the game. Kaka - young upstart, awesome at the time. Crespo - Top class. Schev - Legend of the Champs League and Milan. Such a shame Chelsea ruined the two of the greatest strikers of past 10-15 years or so.
Peruzzi, Ferrara, Di Livio, Conte, Inzaghi, Iuliano, Deschamps, Birindelli, Pessotto, Zidane, Davids. Subs: Rampulla, Montero, Fonseca, Amoruso, Tudor, Tacchinardi, Esnaider. The Juve team in 1999 in the 2-3 win for United. Some class there aswell. How far has italian football fallen though?
Zidane, Deschamps and Davids were quality for them - and quite a few others in that team. In fact its pretty awesome really. And yeah, it has massively fallen, although has bottomed out I think. I think worldwide the game isn't what it was even 4/5 years ago - let alone in the late nineties.
Great teams but neither even close to Guardiola's Barca. On paper Milan 05 > Juve 99. Juve had a terrible season in 98/9, their worst for decades, finishing sixth
The easiest way to prevent this from turning into a ''My club is better than your club'' thread is to be fair. Chelsea deserve credit for defying the odds in the semi final. They were down to 10 men for a long period against the best attacking side in the world, because their captain is a knob. This took a lot of courage. In 1999, Roy Keane put in the performance of his life even though he knew he was going to miss the final, he was a giant in helping Manchester United come from 2 down. As for Liverpool, what they did in 2005 was remarkable. 3-0 down at half time against AC Milan? Sorry I don't think its right to discredit other teams achievements.
I thought the only way the chavs could beat mighty Barca was to do what they did. It wasn't exactly football but any other way they would been stuffed. I wanted the chavs to win because I didn't want Barcelona to feel they were invincible and lord it over the rest (the underdog principle). They then against all the odds went on to win the tournament itself. Fair enough, as it was a cup competition at that stage and anything could happen. But not only in the final but throughout the whole compo, the chavs were not the best team. Not even among the best 4 teams. This is what happens in knockout competitions, weird results occur from time to time
I cannot find anything wrong with Chelsea's tactics. It was boring and they did park the bus, but its a results business. If it was all about fancy football, Arsenal would be the best team in the world. Sometimes you have to forego fancy football to get the required result and thats what Chelsea did.
I'm not sure what you are trying to prove here, many teams do poorly in the league when they focus more on the Champions League, AC Milan only finished 4th the year they won it even though Juventus, who were the Italian team to beat at the time, had been relegated (and kicked out of the Champions League), Chelsea also had a poor league campaign when they won it, and let's not forget that Juve collapsed that year when Lippi had a shocking start start the season which included losing Del Piero to injury, once Ancelotti took over for the second half of the season they were vastly improved in both the league and Europe.
Whilst i almost agree with the majority of this post and it's sentiment, to say we were not in the top four best in complete and utter bollocks.
I can't disagree with you there Drogs but your embarrassing halfwitted fellow Chalsea fan seems to be implying that a team that finishes sixth in their league aren't really that good so you can understand the mixed messages you appear to be sending. Let's face it, everytime we beat Barca it's because they are no good. When we beat Juve they finished sixth that year so they are clearly no good, our achivement therefore irrelevant. You lot finishing sixth in the league, by that baseline, means you were no good. Barca can't have been any good if they were beaten by you so therefore you achievement is not as good as you think.
I think he meant top 4 on paper rather than top 4 based on performance. Barca, Madrid and Bayern were most peoples top 3. United probably 4th as reigning champions of England. Obviously it didn't work out that way, especially for United.
United were disappointing in Europe last season, struggling v Benfica and Basle. Thank god they embarrass the Premiership v Barca yet again last season. Another 4-0 ole job. But United have been generally disappointing in Europe under SAF. He has had continuity, stability and backing to build four or five teams great domestic sides and should have won CL more. No excuses. He says it himself. Imagine how European Cups Bob Paisley or Rafa would have won in 20 years at Anfield. Or Pep at Barca. Carlo at AC. Or Hitzfield at Bayern. Or Jose. Or Lippi. Or Sacchi SAF should have more than one every 13 years but he has never really got it right. And United have never dominated the European Cup like AC in 89/90, Juve in the 90s or Barca more recently. It's a shame
This isn't a dig at Alex Ferguson or Manchester United as Alex Ferguson has to go down as English footballs greatest ever domestic manager. However he's let himself down with his failings in Europe. I'm saying failings, as he should have won more in 26 years. Bob Paisley is English footballs greatest ever European manager. Whilst Fergie conquered a country..Bob conquered a continent.
Do you think Paisley is better than Cloughie? Both did very well, albeit in an era when Spanish and italian football was weakish
Let's not forget that it took a long time for English football to make any sort of mark on European football after they were banned from competing, before '85 English teams in general were constantly improving and were winning European trophies but that ban meant English football fell far behind many other nations in terms of European competition.
