John O'Shea is 30? Fuck that must mean I'm about 50. Or at least nearly 30. Surely not

Most impressed tonight, there's a lesson out there for Real Madrid too when you see that even a fantastic coach like Mourinho can take more than a season to start to make a real impression at this sort of level.

And what an impression it was. You knew he would know what needed done, after all he was one of the main men in establishing the English hegemony through relentless power, pace and concentration. It was whether a generation of neglect in the Italian game could allow him to catch up the considerable ground he had to make up in just a couple of seasons.

He has and it is a testament to his players and to his tactics. The sheer pace of the English game is English football's greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Truly great teams can shift pace up and down to suit the circumstances and its something that really wrong foots opponents. Chelsea are like an F1 car, only really any use once it gets to 100mph. Stick it behind a safety car and it toils, the revs are too low, it gets irritable and cranky and is much more prone to breakdown.

Mourinho knew that he couldn't play Chelsea in an up and at them typical Premiership game tonight so he didn't, he took much of the pace out of the game and made it very stop start, whether through Inter holding possession in non threatening areas or going to ground to break up the play with most of the physical challenges. It was a very non-Premiership game in as much as it did not flow at all well. Chelsea were tetchy and irritable and became more and more careless as the game went on. They were rattled basically. Inter revelled in it, the Italian game is more naturally stop start anyway so they were much more at home this way.

I sort of suggested at half time that the main threat was Malouda. Cambiasso and Motta were comfortably neutralising Lampard and Ballack but Malouda has a trick or two and can beat men, he looked the only real way that Chelsea could break the shackles. He came central in the opening 10 minutes of the second half looking for other options and had a couple of efforts well blocked, but after that he faded and Inter did not look threatened.

The Milan v Man United game was telling for me in the way the teams handled the periods they were under the cosh. At this level the game swings like a pendulum, you know that despite your best efforts you will not always be on the front foot and it is as vital to your fate how you handle opposition periods of dominance. Man United weathered Milan's pretty well, Milan folded like a pack of cards when the game swung in United's favour.

So tonight Inter were incredibly resilient in those periods when they were toiling, the last 7 or 8 mins of the first half and the opening 10 minutes of the second half, but they dug in and ground through it. Chelsea did not have a shot on goal tonight that I remember, though I may be missing one or two. On the rare occasions that they got into threatening positions Samuel and Lucio were fantastic at blocking efforts.

Not impressed with Ancelotti tactically tonight. Joe Cole has played so little that it was no surprise he looked rusty, all he did was give away free kicks. After that it was flinging on strikers in the style of Steve McLaren in that Middlesbrough UEFA Cup run, except Inter were more like Seville relishing all that free space in midfield than any of the other teams they beat this way who just folded under pressure.

I must agree with the poster earlier who remarked about the ex-Real Madrid players in that team tonight who played with distinction. Any canny club should hang around the Bernebau and happily pick up scraps from their table, these are often players who have not failed, they are simply players who have been superseded by brighter, shinier baubles. I said a couple of months back, why on earth did Benitez not get Schneider as part of the Alonso deal instead of the lame duck Aquilani.

Another interesting point arose from tonight, one that flies in the face of what Inter have traditionally represented. That team tonight was not an especially expensive one to put together. Indeed, after the £ 40m they received from Barcelona for Ibrahimovic they covered their costs even after signing Lucio, Schneider, Motta, Milito, Eto'o and subsequently Pandev. None of the rest of the team cost more than £7 or 8m each now that Quaresma and Mancini are well out of the equation.

Do I think Inter can win the European Cup. Yes. Do I think that Inter will win the European Cup. No. Am I pleased that I can finally answer yes to at least one of these questions. Absolutely.

I suppose I was just intrigued at knowing why John O'Shea being 30 made Chelsea's midfield any less old and immobile tonight.

Chelsea's midfield being outmanoeuvred tonight was not down to any sort of age or immobility issue.

Listening on the radio, it sounded like Lampard had a terrible game.

dalliance wrote:
I suppose I was just intrigued at knowing why John O'Shea being 30 made Chelsea's midfield any less old and immobile tonight.

Chelsea's midfield being outmanoeuvred tonight was not down to any sort of age or immobility issue.

I'll take your word for it. I don't have Sky and was busy listening to FC United lose.

dalliance: You forgot to mention that Huntelaar is shit.

Didn't notice this at the time but Lucio's yellow means he will miss the quarter final match. I guess that means the Matrix will play.

Motta is also suspended. It is certainly less than ideal, but better than them sitting out the first match in next year's group stages.

Your lot now have a real shot at the scudetto.

According to Wikipedia, the 29 year old Owen Hargreaves:

...is the only player to have played for England without having previously lived in the United Kingdom, and only the second to have done so without having previously played in the English football league system.

Alright, who was the first one?

Only the second, since what date? Going back to the 19th century, there must be well over a hundred, given that there was an England 16 years before the Football League was founded.

Ok, I admit it, I have no idea either.

After dalliance's fulsome eulogy, Mourinho can die a happy a man.

Might Inter's victory not be so much a case of tactical genius than Chelsea being psyched out by their former manager, looming over them as Herr Mozart did over Wolfgang Amadeus?

That's the worst I've seen us play in a big game for years. Absolutely hopeless.

My first post…

In response to Statto99’s question, Joe Baker - born in Liverpool, grew up in Scotland - got his first cap for England having only previously played for Hibernian.

Excellent summary from Dalliance there. I think that pretty much nails the number that Inter did on Chelsea. Ballack had an early shot that just flashed past the post and had that gone in, it would have been intriguing to see how the dynamic of the game had shifted subsequently. But yes. It was ugly and niggly and times, and reminiscent of a boxer who deals with his opponent by getting in lots of clinches, not allowing him to unload or develop momentum. They got directly to Drogba in particular from the get-go and his eventual sending off was tribute to that tactic.

Having said of all that, Chelsea's utter lack of response was quite extraordinary. Was it that they were somehow mesmerised by Mourinho as G.Man suggests? Perhaps. But maybe this is one of the key differences between Chelsea and Man U. I simply don't see Man Utd capitulating in quite the same way - that sheer hunger of theirs would have driven them on. With Chelsea, it was as if once the spanner was in among their works, they went into a collective subdued sulk, with only their sense of entitlement to fall back on, epitomised by John Terry's whining at the officials at the conclusion of the game. As for Ancelotti, his blank expression throughout the game seemed to be an effective indicator of his lack of ideas.

Fucking Inter fans. Turn up for one big game in London and will bring about 100 fans to Rome at the weekend. Fascist Wankers.

But how can this be? I read on here yesterday that Serie A was only the 5th strongest league in Europe. How can a team who have only won one of their last six Serie A games possibly turn over one of the best two teams in the best league in the world?

There was a good piece by Sid Lowe for the Guardian this week which pointed out that Perez had offloaded most of the Real Madrid "star" players signed by Calderon, regardless of whether they were any good, to bring in his own galacticos. Hence the departure of Sneijder and Robben amongst others & Higuain getting the blame for the CL exit. But I'm sure Perez would say he's merely doing his best for Real, not just trying to make himself look good.

Anybody emlighten me as to why Terry was berating the ref this year?

I watched it in the local pub, 1st time I've been for a while but I had a good feeling about this game.

And by the end the drunken football experts at the bar (who predictably were barely watching the match, but nevertheless convinced Chelsea were the better team) were regaling me with anedcdotes about Wallsend Boys Club, so I looked up to see Terry and whoever else hassling the ref with no ability to hear the commentary.

The penalty John Terry missed in Moscow must prey on his mind a little more every year. Good.

What could be less important or interesting than why Terry was haggling the referee. Because the ref didn't call some foul, or did call some other foul. Terry should instead be asking why his side lost both legs.