Chelsea v Steaua Bucharest

                                                    Chelsea v Steaua Bucharest

The final group stage game for the Blues was a home game against bottom of the table Romanian out Steaua Bucharest. Having already qualified, the game was effectively a chance for Chelsea to win the group and nothing more; which following the two disappointing performances against Basle int he group stage this season (the home game of which I had the displeasure of going to) would have been a big achievement. Nowadays, I usually go to home games mainly with my brother, not really anyone else I know who shares the enthusiasm of going to games regularly. Although to be fair, it is a lot more expensive now than it other was (like most things). Gone are the days of getting tickets for £12, now you're lucky to get a ticket for £25, usually the price for some cup games, while champions league games mainly go for about £35, or at least in the champions league group stage they do (the latter stages go for much higher).

I was supposed to meet my brother in the Prince of Wales in West Brompton at about 6:30 pm but transport issues saw him arrive late. The Prince of Wales is a decent watering hole, not really where you for pre-game atmosphere. For that, you're best off in Brogans or The Bell amongst other pubs. It used to be The Shed bar before they turned that into a restaurant prompting outcries of "WHY???" from Chelsea fans everywhere (including me), most likely a result of the corporate family friendly image the hierarchy at Chelsea re trying to build. The So bar was the other big Fulham bar for pre-game atmosphere but that was probably closed down by the police as a result of the number of 'naughty' people misbehaving in there....anyway, my brother is late. So we make for lost time by downing a fair few pints. As you do. Closer to kick off, we have to make our way to the ground and the number of pints consumed seems to have caused us to take a wrong turn and we end up in front of an electrified gate next to Fulham Broadway station - which would have resulted in us having to go BACK if a couple who must lived in the nearby flats hadn't opened the gate for us.

Anyways - we still missed the opening (and in the end only) goal of the game..... :-( To be fair though, regardless of spending too much time in the pub beforehand, getting into Stamford Bridge nowadays is a nightmare, they used to have ticket checkers on the gates and nowadays they have machines, which just slows the whole process down and takes about 10 minutes longer to get in. I find this infuriating to be honest, a case of trying to make things simpler but actually making it harder to get in in time for kick off. So anyway, we finally get to the game 12 minutes in, and Ba is starting. Good. He deserves a start. He has actually bagged the goal as well, scrambling home a knocked down corner from close range I see on the big screen replay at half time.

With qualification in the bag already, the game is a game of few chances, with one good chance for Steaua after 15 minutes when Iancu fires wide when through on goal - but that is really all they threaten in the whole game. Chelsea are more lucklasture than anything, spending most of the time trying to keep possession  and thread the eye of the needle and look for the 'perfect pass', but failing to do so. In fact, most of the action seems to come from the fans in the Matthew Harding Lower, always the best place to sit for songs and atmosphere. Dan Petrescu is the half time player shown around the pitch at half time, a former nineties hero and hero of mine - I remember when he scored the winning game vrs Newcastle in 1995 when they were top of the league and deciding he was then my favourite player, along with the fact he looked like Mulder from The X Files haha. 'Super Dan Petrescu' is sung around the ground and it's a nice, nostalgic moment. Back to them game again and a recent trend, especially on european nights, is the psychological abuse the goalkeepers to endure from the lovely folk positioned behind him, every time a goal kick is taken, what follows is just an endless sea of manic psychotic screams from everyone in the stand behind, tormenting the poor keeper for several minutes afterwards. Such great comedy value if a little bit naughty haha.

The game itself fizzles out and the job is done, but a number of chelsea fans appear to grow discontented at the performance by the end of the game and it got me thinking - is that harsh? We've won, and topped the group and are through, complete contrast to a year when we won our final group game 6-1 but went out. However, the performance is not quite the best - should some fans be jeering?(and a small number were) Should we expect beautiful free flowing high scoring attacking football all the time? Personally I'm happy with a win, it's all we would have asked for 20 years ago after all, even if some of the standard of football is a little bit mechanical at times. But anyways - onwards and upwards!