Harvey Elliott, how calm was he, for such a young lad under pressure.
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Loved the way he got stuck in, as well. A feisty little character, without doubt.
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Kepa might well be a better penalty saverā¦ But the change from mendy (who they could not beat after 120 min) only serves to relieve some of the pressure.
One time where stats do not workā¦ The liverpool lads would have been relieved it wasnt the monster mendy in goal whose confidence would have been skyhigh after his heroics in normal plus extra time
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I noticed during that melee, in the 2nd half, the bully Rudiger, targeted Elliott. Milner saw what was happening and told Rudiger to fuck off.
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The chelsea defender knew he couldnt get to the ballā¦ He made a meal of acting as if he got impededā¦
You see that all the time in football and cricketā¦ People play acting even when they know theyve fucked up
Also Rudiger slunked off to the shed when virgil approached him laterā¦
Virgil and Konate must look so imposing to the opponentsā¦ Matip is taller i guess than both too and Gomez isnt a short guy by any stretch but if you want people who intimidate the opponents by size , virgil and konate be up there with the best ā¦
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Still daresay that chelsea still has a slightly better bench than oursā¦ The strategy of tuchel in extra time was to get the combo of Timo and Lukaku and nearly paid off for himā¦ Timo with his pace against a tiring defense and lukaku with his strength.
We countered that by bringing Konate. But Virgil endurance is immense.
Konate did keep Lukaku to the floor on one occasion though. Would love to see a gif of that. Gentle anime loving laughing giant but dont mess with him on the pitch. And its no mean feat that to get lukaku eating dirt in a challenge.
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Also fuck James and Jorginho for the shushing gesture to our fans after their spot kicks
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Well, except when he got involved in Trentās altercation and was lucky not to get booked. But he doesnāt seem to get phased by the pressure and looks incredibly confident for such a young player.
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As always the voice of reason.
Fair dues.
Was VVD stopping James getting to the ball or was James holding off VVD? 50/50 at bestā¦ergo the goal should stand.
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Sorry, I was referring to his calmness when taking the penalty.
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Konate must have a few kgs on Virgil.
First Fred fucked around and found out and now Lukaku. Wonder who will be next
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I guess so. Ill need to check up though to confirm. Matip would weigh roughly the same but he doesnt have the same intimidation factor.
That was where I at least had some questions, and the replays were fixated on the offside, not the actual interaction. It gets into a real gray area if James is just holding off VVD though, because that is still being involved in the play. But it looked to me like James may have initiated that contact.
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Virgil - 92
Konate - 95
Matip - 90.
To have this much height and weight and still be so quick (esp for virgil and matip) , thats A class there
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I am 3 kgs heavier than Konate, but 2 cm shorter. I donāt think I want to have a footraceā¦
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To me itās pretty simple, VVD is in an off-side position, if you hypothetically remove him from the pitch does it change the outcome. The answer is very probable, James would have either got the ball or put Mane under pressure and prevented the cross.
Fucking harsh, but probably correct.
And Konate would be pure muscle. As a physical specimen , he is immense.
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Konate:
Height 1.94 m, Weight 95 kg
Mountain of a man. There was a retired boxer that lived at the back of my mothers house who wasnāt quite that tall but had what you would describe as an āintimidating presenceā. Fortunately he was a lovely guy, as I am sure Konate is, but it must be daunting for forwards coming up against that.
As Shankly once said about Ron Yates, āThe man is a mountain, go into the dressing room and walk around himā.
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