Are we a lucky team?

[DannyMan2006]

Exactly.

You could watch football for the next 100 years and never see such a lucky save in a major final again.

It was an outrageous slice of luck.

That was not luck, that was Shevchenko being tired and not being able to stick it either side of Dudek.

The only luck you get in football is when a good or bad refereing decision goes for or against you. In which case the fact that Dudek was allowed to come off his line in the penaltys was lucky.

Even a deflected goal is not luck. If you dont buy a ticket you dont win the lottery.

Luck of the draw is also a well known saying.

The rest is down to the teams ability and effort.

[wavydavy]

Never argue with an idiot. They get you down to their level then beat you with experience.

This tale totally demonstrates perfectly the difference between us and them(chelsea) They simply can't accept that we've beat them three times far and square in a calendar year(should've been 4 as well) despite having spent a ****ing fraction of the money they have. They don't know how to lose gracefully. THAT is something that takes DECADES of success to learn!!
I've had lots of conversations with manc friends over the years regarding their CL win in 1999. The game is 90 minutes long (or 98 in their case) the mancs are experienced and know this that's why they never let a game go till the last whistle. That's not luck, not in my book.

[Morph]

How lucky was it gettin bought out by a Russian Billionaire, if that hadn't happened they wouldn't even be in the champs league

[FowlerLeftFoot]

Its pointless arguing with your boss. You will never win.

[Abro100]

Exactly.

You could watch football for the next 100 years and never see such a lucky save in a major final again.

It was an outrageous slice of luck.

[simey85]

to be fair we got a favourable draw with psv but i think the scum are far luckier than us!

[friedk]

Exactly.

You could watch football for the next 100 years and never see such a lucky save in a major final again.

It was an outrageous slice of luck.

everytime the ball hits the post or deflects off a player into the goal or a bad offside decision is made or countless other examples, one team has good luck and the other bad.

it happens countless times in a game. Dudek's save, lucky. Cole takes a shot, it goes like a pinball through a group of players and ends up in the net, unlucky. that season we won, we had (I think) 10 players who were injured for 2 or more months, including Gerrard and Alonso, unlucky. United when the beat us were lucky to come away with anything from that game. A few years back I was at the Bolton game where Igor scored the winner at the death, and we were lucky to get anything out that game.

every team will go through lucky and unlucky moments, it's the nature of the game.

[friedk]

to be fair we got a favourable draw with psv but i think the scum are far luckier than us!

but we got a rather unfavourable draw the previous round.

[Shaggy]

but we got a rather unfavourable draw the previous round.

Just a bit.

I'd say we more than earned a "favourable draw".

[friedk]

I was chatting my boss on Tuesday, he's a chelsea fan (been one for years) and remarked to him that I love the champions league nights. he said "yeah so do I, but you've got a lucky draw" he then went to say that we are luckiest team at the moment, that we were lucky to get PSV now as "Alex, best defendar, and their best striker Kone, are injured"
Stunned, I listened on as he said, we were lucky to beat them in Jan as we came up agains them when their defenders were injured! lucky to beat barca as "they were not the same team that they lost to last year or beat the year before that " (!!!)

That at the moment we are getting all the lucky breaks and that we only play teams when everyone is injured and against strong teams we wilt!

fcuking couldnt believe it! When I pointed out to him that injuries and suspensions are not lucky, he said they were (!)
it wasnt luck when they get a lst min goal against watford or lampard gets a goal with 28 deflections? (no that was our play)
That we were unlucky to have utd on the ropes and then get suckered with a last min winner (rafa is a **** tactician)
That they were playing a Valencia team shorn of 7 first teamers (oh well have of them were subs anyway-ever heard of rotation!)
He just wouldnt accept that we are not a lucky team! it was the most bizarre conversation we've had.
That we dont control their transfer policy and they shouldnt have sold Gallas and Huth and should have bought a defender or 2 in!


I dont consider injuries and suspensions as luck.

any thoughts?

You should tell him unlucky is having a ****ing Chelsea fan for a boss

[Los Rojos]

How lucky was it gettin bought out by a Russian Billionaire, if that hadn't happened they wouldn't even be in the champs league

They were facing administration before Abramovich came in, so they might possibly have gone to the wall.

[Neil Young]

True luck must, by definition, balance itself out in the long term. Other things that pass as luck don't though. Good teams score goals late on in matches because they're good - they find a way to win or equalise or whatever. If one team is fitter than another then they'll play better than them towards the end of the game. If, as we saw on New Year's Day, Bolton try to play two games in two days with two central midfielders with a combined age of 72 then they're going to get steamrollered by a team playing its second game with a midfiield aged only 52.

Referees also favour big clubs, all the stats prove that and because it doesn't even out it can't be pure luck. It seems to me there are three factors: the crowd; what the officials expect to see; and influence by managers, etc. Obviously crowds can influence officials and the bigger the crowd then surely the greater the influence. Another factor is the officials' expectations. When your defence is held to be poor, 50/50 decisions go against the defender; when you've got the best defence in the League, you get the benefit of the doubt (e.g. Henchoz's constant handballing). The final factor is intimidation by club management and it is here that Ferguson in particular excels. (It does him no credit as a human being of course but in his wine and whisky-addled haze he can probably live my disapproval.)

The point is that these things are not really luck at all.

[Roboklopp]

Henchman's handballing- that brought a smile to my face!

Was it that constant- surely just the FA cup final. He was awesome against Roma that year.

I kinda miss his rosy cheek-blowing presence. Christ, even Carra gets further up the park then him nowadays!!

[Kopite_Colin]

We recieved more than our fair share of luck in Istanbul.

And in the 2001 FA Cup Final, League Cup Final and UEFA Cup Final.

[anfieldanfield]

And in the 2001 FA Cup Final, League Cup Final and UEFA Cup Final.

Yep, there's no shame in admitting it...

We've been very lucky in our finals since the turn of the Century.