I read earlier today (during the matchcast while I was at work) that Zlatan had a close range opportunity for a header and took the ball hard, directly in the face, fucking up the glorious chance. Does anyone have a picture of this? If so, can you post it for me? There's nothing I enjoy more than seeing that man embarrassed/physically abused on the pitch.
I haven't been on this site since our dramatic, and incredibly painful loss, but I must say that I'm EXTREMELY proud of our team; I've definitely been rockin' various Juve jerseys for 5 days straight. Our boys left it all on the field; I'm convinced that over the 2 legs we were the better team. Chelsea's goals in Tuesday's match were rubbish... (The first for obvious reasons, the second because I disagree with Chiello's ejection).
I also have to say that I thought the 4-3-3 (with Alex a little deeper... almost a 4-3-1-2) turned out to be an excellent formation for us. I was championing this formation in the preseason, but as time wore on I was worried about changing it up from the 4-4-2 (because of the lack of support for the fullbacks, and because Ranieri basically refused to rotate formations earlier on in the season). I was definitely wrong to doubt the offensive prowess of our team. Yes, I just wrote that. I've always loved the trequartista role, and I think a 4-3-1-2 would suit us well going forward... Diego anyone? Fuck, would he ever look good in our lineup.
I think it's clear that we need to go up tempo and get as many of our best players (i.e. the strike force) on the field as possible. We put Chelsea under a lot of pressure, which definitely helped relieve some of the pressure on our own fullbacks. Actually, in truth I thought our fullbacks handled themselves fairly well in this match (considering who they were up against, and the importance of the match, I thought they were great... I can't believe I just wrote that).
I think this match was a clear demonstration that Ranieri needs to forget about playing Seba on the left of the 4-4-2; It's just not where he's meant to play. We should play the 4-3-3 (especially now that the midfield is so beat up), there's more room for the boy as a substitute and he could potentially start a few more games from here on out. I know we HAD to score, and that Chelsea were keen to sit back a bit early on, but I really enjoyed watching us bombard their end of the pitch for the first 30-35 minutes or so. We played a quality 2nd half as well. Anyways, onwards and upwards. FORZA JUVENTUS!!!