what would you have said if 2 weeks ago i'd told you that Chelsea would beat Barca over 2 legs?
They have no defenders left and their best midfielder is suspended. Would fancy Bayern or Madrid to punish them badly.
Indeed, I would fancy us to punish them badly.......
In all seriousness, who are they going to play in defence?
Looking at their squad and they have Cole, Bosingwa and Ferreira plus a couple of kids; not a single centrehalf.
Have to see what the score is with Cahill and Luiz I guess.
I recon both Cahill and Luiz will be back. I guess they'll line up like this:-
------------cech Bosingwa-cahill-luiz-cole -------Essien--Mikel ----------Lampard ----Mata---------malouda -----------Drogba
Dula, I would take the above with Kalou in place of Malouda. I just think Kalou offers a bit of work rate right now. If they can stay healthy, they should be fine. They have a quality squad that can acquit itself well on any given Saturday.
That's not a great team, but its a team that can beat anyone on a given day. Got a bad feeling about this.
There's a good chance that they'll win the final, which means that finishing third is imperative at this stage.
If chelsea win the thing and we finish 3rd who qualifies automatically and who has to qualify?
We qualify directly if we finish 3rd. Chelsea get a chance to qualify next season at the expense of either Newcastle or Spurs (unless they finish 4th themselves of course). They're not guaranteed a place in the group stage as far as I know.
Doesn't seem to be covered in the regulations but my instinct is that all four teams will go into the group stage.
Klaus wrote: We qualify directly if we finish 3rd. Chelsea get a chance to qualify next season at the expense of either Newcastle or Spurs (unless they finish 4th themselves of course). They're not guaranteed a place in the group stage as far as I know.
Claudius was correct, the champions are guaranteed a place in the group stage.
That's this season's regulations though, UEFA have the special ability to change things when they feel like it.
Klaus, I suspect we are both guaranteed a place in the group stage. The title-holders are definitely guaranteed a spot in the group stage. So Chelsea would be through.
And so are the team that finishes third?
Captain: Cheers. They've changed it from when Liverpool won the tournament then.
Claudius wrote: Klaus, I suspect we are both guaranteed a place in the group stage.
Klaus, I suspect we are both guaranteed a place in the group stage.
Sounds reasonable. Third place is supposed to guarantee automatic qualification.
Looked around. It's not mentioned in article 1 of the rules. http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/19071.pdf I strongly suspect that we'd qualify for the group stages if Chelsea won the cup this season and we finished 3rd.
Sounds about right.
Think it might be up to the FA/Prem to decide who goes through auto & who qualifies. But I suspect 1 team will need to qualify.
