Chelsea star and Newtonian ROSS TURNBULL continues his exclusive blog on Aycliffe Today…
It’s certainly been a rollercoaster of emotions over the last few weeks since my last blog, but there’s been more highs than lows.
The Champions League semi-final, second leg in Barcelona was something else. It really was special. I talked in my last blog about the Tottenham FA Cup semi-final being special, but this was something else.
Barca are just a pleasure to watch and they played their usual possession football. But the big turning point was the Ramires goal, then it was a case of holding out.
Sat watching from the bench was a surreal experience. You’re sat in the Nou Camp, playing Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final with 45 minutes to play, and it’s backs to the walls. You’re just thinking, ‘at any minute they’re going to score, and it’s all over’.
But then Fernando goes and scores a dramatic late winner, and the feeling is truly indescribable.
The scenes after the game were memorable although, later, there was a subdued feeling in the dressing room. Almost straight away, the lads were thinking about the four lads who will miss the final – Ramires, Raul Meireles, Branislav Ivanovic and, of course, the skipper John Terry.
It’s harsh punishment for picking up a couple of bookings over so many games, to miss out on such a huge game when they’ve played such a major part in getting the club there.
But they’ll be in Munich a week on Saturday, rallying the lads who’ll be going out on to the pitch at Bayern’s magnificent Allianz Arena, and willing them on to win like everyone at the club.
As I said earlier, there’s been more ups than downs this season – you don’t get much higher than winning the FA Cup! It was another tremendous experience. Even just to be involved in the squad, winning such an historical trophy, is something I’ll never forget.
But this is one of those rare years when the FA Cup Final isn’t the last game of the season, we still had some very important games to play.
There was a small celebration, but we were back down to reality pretty quickly. I’m sure all the lads will savour the FA Cup victory when the time is right after the season is finished.
Football does have a habit of kicking you in the teeth, but we can’t be too harsh on ourselves after Tuesday night’s defeat at Liverpool. We’ve been playing a succession of games – a hectic schedule of fixtures – for three or four months now, and Liverpool undoubtedly had an added motivation after the FA Cup win. Everything that could go wrong on the night did, and it was one of those games you just have to put down to experience and move on from.
From my point of view, I have to take the positives. It was my first game in five or six months – the last one was against Liverpool in the Carling Cup – and despite the scoreline I made a couple of decent saves, so it was good for me to have that buzz of being involved again.
We go into our final league game of the season at home to Blackburn on Sunday and the lads will be doing everything they can to make sure we go into the Champions League Final in high spirits, by winning at the Bridge. There may be nothing to play for mathmetically, but there’s everything to play for psychologically.
That’s it from me, thanks for reading, and I’ll bring you another blog, hopefully with some pictures of us celebrating in Munich, in my next one very soon!
Ross