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Citation : Monaco 3-1 Chelsea


Ten-man Monaco struck twice late on to leave Chelsea's Champions League hopes hanging in the balance.
Hernan Crespo's close range strike gave Chelsea a crucial away goal when he swiftly levelled Dado Prso's header after 15 minutes in the semi-final.

But after Andreas Zikos was sent off following a second-half clash with Claude Makelele, Chelsea collapsed.

Fernando Morientes fired home after 78 minutes, then substitute Shabani Nonda added a third four minutes later.


And Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri must take much of the blame, turning the course of the match Monaco's way with a series of inexplicable substitutions.

Monaco crowned an impressive opening spell with a deserved opener after 15 minutes.

Mario Melchiot was booked for a wild tackle on Jerome Rothen - and it proved an expensive challenge.

Rothen's free-kick evaded the diving Crespo and Prso took advantage of a favourable bounce to direct a powerful header past Marco Ambrosio into the top corner.

Chelsea needed an instant response, and Crespo provided it with the crucial away goal six minutes later.

Scott Parker set up Eidur Gudjohnsen, who slipped but managed to find the lurking Crespo, who turned and scored from eight yards.

It was the signal for a transformed Chelsea display, with the show being controlled by a majestic first-half performance from Frank Lampard.

The midfielder fired a long-range drive narrowly wide, then delivered a dangerous cross which the stretching Crespo diverted over the bar.

Ranieri made an interval change, removing Jesper Gronkjaer for Juan Sebastian Veron.

The move handed the initiative back to Monaco, who almost regained their lead in a hectic opening to the second half.

Ambrosio saved brilliantly from Prso after 50 minutes, and seconds later Marcel Desailly cleared Fernando Morientes' bicycle kick off the line.

Monaco were then reduced to ten men after Zikos was shown the red card.

I wanted Chelsea to win but only through fair play. Makelele has disgraced himself with his antics

From King GoldenBoot
Have your say on 606

Makelele raised a hand to the Greek, and when he responded the Chelsea midfield man collapsed to the floor in shamefully melodramatic fashion.

As Zikos walked off, Makelele was booked, which will keep him out of the second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea almost took advantage of their numerical advantage, with Gudjohnsen heading just wide, and Monaco goalkeeper Flavio Roma denying Melchiot in a desperate goalmouth scramble.

Ranieri then made two more unpredictable changes, replacing Melchiot with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, then removing Parker for Robert Huth.

Chelsea were suddenly unbalanced, and resurgent Monaco were in front after 78 minutes when Morientes thrashed a stunning finish past Ambrosio.

The goalkeeper was then badly at fault four minutes later, letting a tame effort from substitute Nonda, with his first touch, through his hands for the third.



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Citation : L’UEFA a ouvert mercredi une procédure disciplinaire à l’encontre du capitaine international français de Chelsea Marcel Desailly suite à son comportement anti-sportif lors de la demi-finale aller de Ligue des Champions contre Monaco, mardi à Louis II.

Citation : Fernando Morientes Red Rhubarb - 2141st post - 21 Apr 2004 12:07
Surely the offloading of Fernando Morientes by Real Madrid has to go down as one of the doziest pieces of business ever by a major european club.
Yes, I know Morientes had been edged out by the signing of Ronaldo last season, and Ronaldo and Raul were superb together last year. But it pays to have a squad and to me this is a classic example of the Spaniard/underrated low key player being pushed out by the exotic Galactico.

Morientes was superb last night and has been for most of this season.

Florentino Perez has talked about giving chances to the homegrown Pavons but he should have protected the Morientes'. Real Madrid have suffered from a lack of strength in depth as well as the lack of quality defensively.

Do these Presidents have too much power and can anything be done to check their meddling influence? A club pulling in several different directions goes nowhere.

Citation : Makalele Martin Henderson - 221st post - 21 Apr 2004 10:43
Am I the only one who thinks he is incredibly overated? I wouldn't put him in the same class as Viera for example or Petit at his best or Keane or Gerard [reply] [Complain about this post]

re: Makalele Rajarshi Ray II - 204th post - 21 Apr 2004 10:50
He does his job well, which is mainly protecting the defence. Why do you think Madrid are so hopeless defensively now? [reply] [Complain about this post]

re: Makalele Ballon d'or - 22nd post - 21 Apr 2004 11:01
I've always thought that he was a key player for Madrid. He had found his place within this squad and did his job well. Now i haven't seen him play for chelsea much this year, maybe this is not his kind of team. He was outrageous yesterday, but i still want him in the national squad just like Desailly. Players make mistakes, those were two huges ones but i don't forget what they've done for us before. [reply] [Complain about this post]

re: Makalele froggy ogbull - 17th post - 21 Apr 2004 11:00
i agree in part. he does do a job in front of the back 4 but he aint that good. any player told to sit in that position in the Real team is gonna look special. he cant be rated that highly as when taken out of that team and put elswhere, ie chelsea, he has been massively outshone by players rated much lower than him, lampard, parker etc. [reply] [Complain about this post]

re: Makalele Rajarshi Ray II - 203rd post - 21 Apr 2004 11:10
<<any player told to sit in that position in the Real team is gonna look special>>
Um no, neither Beckham nor Guti look very special there! [reply] [Complain about this post]


re: Makalele A Brazilian Ferret Called Roberto Carlos - 518th post - 21 Apr 2004 11:33
I've always thought Makelele was over-rated. Froggy is right Ray, he did look better than he was because of who he was surrounded by.
And I know I'm right because you disagree with me.

I also think that both Becks and Guti have had good seasons. After all they do play different footy to Makelele.

So quit you constant Madrid bashing and get an understanding of the game beyond which team you are going to support this season.

Any thoughts for who you will follow next year? Maybe you ar waiting to see who wins the CL. [reply] [Complain about this post]


re: Makalele Dave McBride - 1st post - 21 Apr 2004 12:05
It's simplistic but his physical size has to be a handicap for a player of his type. Viera completely dominated him in the numerous aresenal-chelsea games this season. It was like watching an over-exuberant drunken uncle playing with the kids at a family reunion. [reply] [Complain about this post]

Citation : well done Monaco !!! Monaco Fan - 10th post - 21 Apr 2004 10:42
I was so delighted yesterday to see Monaco win against Chelski, this archetype of football business team !
A good football team are based on commitment, fighting spirit, team spirit, freshness and talent : all these qualities where on the Monaco side yesterday evening, not on the Chelski one...

AS for the next leg, Chelski will prbably have to goal 4 times as it's more than probable Monaco score at least another one at Chelsea. [reply] [Complain about this post]


re: well done Monaco !!! Club Sandwich - 55th post - 21 Apr 2004 12:02
'archetype of football business team'
Dont Monaco have many of thier players on loan from other clubs? Mr Morientes for one? [reply] [Complain about this post]

Citation : ça n'honore pas son parcours sportif

Citation : Tu peux rajouter hugo leal, andre luis, aloiso, alex, paulo cesar, alioune touré et laurent leroy.

pour laurent leroy, c'est zarb, c'etait un des chouchous du parc, et il s'est fait vidé comme un crevard

Citation : je peux vous dire que le coude, il part des fois sans qu'on le veuille vraiment...

Citation : un aptate

Citation : merci marcel pour cette lecon de football que tu nous a donné hier avec ton mak'il est laid!d'1 certains coté je te comprends t t tellement a la rue hier avec morientes au markage qu'il te resté plus que ce geste de grande classe a faire!
j'espere juste que tu te blessera avant l'euro pour pas pénalisé l'ekipe de france!
je viens aussi de comprendre quand 2002 c t pas la faute a lemerre mais plutot a t grosse tete et a tes chevilles enormes!(en meme temps avec le cerveau que t'as il fallait biencompenser ailleurs!)
mais bon il me reste plus qu'as te souhaiter de nous quitter bientot et que ce vilain geste sera puni a sa juste valeur par l'uefa gros PD enculé batard va vendre des portables et va enculé makékélélé au lieu de nous pouurrir la vie saloperie grosse merde!!!!!!!!

Citation : fuyu c'est toi qui as écrit ça sur le forum que tu nous indique ?