As long as we turn up and put in a good performance, the result will take care of itself. Win, lose or draw UTB

C'mon Boro!

18 minutes ago, Barnaby said:

He's right...Whatever happens tonight the lads can be proud of getting this far...far better sides than us have come unstuck at the bridge...ive enjoyed the ride so far

 I was referring to not criticizing any of the players on an individual basis

No nerves. No excitement. Looking forward to watching the game though. As I said before the first leg, we are really up against it. To still be in with a shout at this stage is a remarkable achievement in itself.

I mentioned it on Twitter, but the excitement around this game makes me a little sad. It’s testament that our ‘golden period’ is well and truly buried in our past. The odds are stacked against us even getting to the final let alone winning the trophy yet it’s the most important game in some supporters lives. A shot to nothing.

This excitement is similar to the semi against United in the 90’s. We’d not had much to shout about but we were on the big stage and just grateful to be there.

I hate the notion that just being there and competing is a success despite that being the case for us at this stage of our history. Football is cyclical and hopefully we get our chance to be truly successfully again soon.

Carrick doesn't need to give a team talk tonight. He should just show edited highlights of the Steaua game. Even if we go 1-0, 2-0, 3-0 down, with restless Boro fans fearing the worst, don't give up. There's hope until the final whistle.

The only thing that gives me any hope, to be honest, is that Chelsea's injury woes are as bad as ours, if not even worse.

Their players might still be better quality than ours, overall, but a lot of them won't have much "big game" experience. The pressure will be on them to win at home against lesser opposition. Lets see how they cope with that.

As others have said, Boro don't really have anything to lose, despite our 1-0 advantage. Everyone will expect them to do the business against us.

Hopefully that will allow our lads to play with a bit more freedom and get at Chelsea.

If we play with the right attitude (i.e. don't try to sit on a 1-0 lead) and with a fair bit of luck, we could do this.

 

But we probably won't... 😉 Be interested to know what odds the bookies are giving us.

11 minutes ago, AnglianRed said:

The only thing that gives me any hope, to be honest, is that Chelsea's injury woes are as bad as ours, if not even worse.

Their players might still be better quality than ours, overall, but a lot of them won't have much "big game" experience. The pressure will be on them to win at home against lesser opposition. Lets see how they cope with that.

As others have said, Boro don't really have anything to lose, despite our 1-0 advantage. Everyone will expect them to do the business against us.

Hopefully that will allow our lads to play with a bit more freedom and get at Chelsea.

If we play with the right attitude (i.e. don't try to sit on a 1-0 lead) and with a fair bit of luck, we could do this.

 

But we probably won't... 😉 Be interested to know what odds the bookies are giving us.

Sky Bet have Chelsea 2/9 and Boro 10/1

Remember our team at home to Stockport in the league cup semi final, leading 2-0 & us been OTT favourites to win on the night, especially, the lineup we had against 2nd division Stockport, yet we lost the game on the night, that gap between us & Stockport, is similar to tonights game. It happened then & can happen again

Last time we won at the bridge 

4 minutes ago, Erimus74 said:

Last time we won at the bridge 

Are you telling me its been nearly 50 years since we won at Chelsea?!?!?! 😯😬

If nothing else I suppose it means we're due a win...

Please football gods...

15 minutes ago, AnglianRed said:

Are you telling me its been nearly 50 years since we won at Chelsea?!?!?! 😯😬

If nothing else I suppose it means we're due a win...

at the moment they are the most boro team i've seen that are not us lol, so chances are stats like that are what bite them in the @ss like they do for us again and again lol 

30 minutes ago, AnglianRed said:

Are you telling me its been nearly 50 years since we won at Chelsea?!?!?! 😯😬

If nothing else I suppose it means we're due a win...

We don't need to win.. only draw..

We last drew there 20 years ago, which is a much nicer number considering the amount of time we've been out of the Premier league 

Edited January 23, 20242 yr by BearSmog

31 minutes ago, AnglianRed said:

Are you telling me its been nearly 50 years since we won at Chelsea?!?!?! 😯😬

If nothing else I suppose it means we're due a win...

I’ll take a 0-0 draw tonight 😂

Believe 100% the key tonight is turning that Chelsea crowd against their manager and players as they expect to blow us away, they'll keep supporting them up until we score first or 30-40 mins goes by and its still 0-0 on the night, if they score within 30 mins they'll be right with them.

Our top priority has to be to kill the crowd by not conceding early if we can score a goal first I believe we do it with some help from volatile Chelsea crowd who will boo every bad touch give them stick at half time and show general frustration.