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Chelsea 1 - 0 Barcelona

Kieran.

By Kieran.,
in Chelsea Match Chat

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  1. 1. MOTM?


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The Big Drog

The Big Drog 1,110

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Yes! Yes! Yes!

I was sweating buckets, I can only dread to imagine what the Chelsea players must have been feeling, on top of the nerves, the slight problem of Barcelona knocking the ball around you for the best part of 90 minutes. Huge credit to the lads, they never broke ranks, they held their shape, they maintained concentration, they stuck to the carefully orchestrated gameplan of Di Matteo. I was just delighted to once again see this group of players play in a Champions League semi final, to go from where we were towards the end of AVB's reign to where we are now is just incredible. Each and every single player put in a mammoth effort and it was rewarded.

You have to give credit to Barcelona, they do play some lovely football and even despite Chelsea's near superhuman work ethic they still carved out some good (and great) opportunities but luckily for us they failed to take them.

Every single Chelsea player played their part in this result. If you were looking for standouts then Cech was excellent in goal, read the game well, quick off his line and made a dazzling save from Puyol's header. Ivanovic put in a solid shift at right back, Cahill looked a bit shakey first half but rose to the occasion magnificently in the second, John Terry was nothing short of heroic, you see the criticism he constantly gets and I for one never understand it, for me he is, and always has been, one of the best centre backs in the world and undoubtedly is England's finest defender, alongside him Ashley Cole put in something close to a masterclass at left back, still the best in the business. Mikel and Meireles worked hard in midfield to close down space and dispurt Barcelona's passing in front of the back four, Lampard did the same and his tackle to win the ball from Messi and subsequent pass created the goal. Mata worked hard but had little chance to shine on the ball, Ramires was tailor made for this game, with his work ethic, he helped to shackle Dani Alves and with his pace he was a fantastic outlet to have on the counter attack (as we witnessed when he set up Drogba)

But my pick for MOTM is Didier Drogba. Tonight was vintage Drogba, in those 90 minutes everything Drogba has embodied during his 8 year's at Chelsea were captured, tonight's game was a sort of microcosm of his entire Chelsea career. Yes we saw the theatrics, we saw some wild feigning of injury, we saw some of the most anguished looks of pain you are likely to see this side of a WWE wrestling match (though Im not sure if Busquets was the right person to lecture him on that), we saw time wasting, we saw him caught offside a near ridiculous amount of times. We also saw raw power, we saw the odd burst of speed, we saw some breathtaking dribbles, we saw some jawdropping examples of technique on the ball, we saw a formation that could possibly be described as 4-5-Drogba, we saw a tower of strength leading the Chelsea line, we saw the one Chelsea player that Barcelona were actually a bit fearful of, we saw time and time again how after long periods of pressure, a simple ball to Drogba and he relieved the pressure, held it up and gave us a chance to get out of our own half, we saw how, on the big occasion, on a big night, in the greatest club competition in the world, against the greatest team in the world, Didier Drogba proved the difference and I think we saw the greatest Chelsea player there has ever been, I never saw Peter Osgood play but for me he is better than Zola, better than Lampard, better than Terry and when it's all said and done and years from now, I think that fans who saw Didier play will speak of him in the same regard and tone that fans who saw Osgood play speak of him today, tonight we saw another legendary performance from one of our most legendary players.

Can we get to the final? Well we have given ourselves a chance and that is something which some people thought we absolutely didn't have. Stopping Barcelona from scoring at the amp Nou will be one of the toughest tasks imaginable but we did it before (in 2009) and though the circumstances are different this time, we have got something to hold onto and a huge part of the scoreline tonight was Barcelona failing to score the away goal. Barcelona will still be considered favourites, and rightly so, this is, arguably, the greatest team we have ever seen play the game but we have given ourselves a chance, a real chance, of beating Barcelona and getting to the final in Munich. Who would have thought that possible only a few months ago?

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Henrique

Henrique 9,133

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Told you.....They havent beaten us with 11 on 11. We have a better record against them than they have against us even with the Refs on their side.

Another fact:

Chelsea have ALWAYS SCORED AT CAMP NOU

1 goal and they have to score three. I would take a 2-1 loss to be honest. I hope the referee doesnt get bribed and fuck us up at Camp Nou. Barca have struggled to score goals against AC Milan in the two legs and against us. They needed two penalties against Milan. I hope the referee has a good game.

Why use big letters to write a wrong fact? 08/09 season the first leg was 0-0

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BLionheart

BLionheart 516

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The incredible thing about this, is that we played (more or less) full strength teams in both the FA Cup & CL semi-finals, and not a sign of fatigue for the most part. Considering all the talk before the two games was whether or not RDM would prioritise the CL or FA Cup, that is quite remarkable.

Now a bigger question is can Di Mateo do the same against Arsenal and in the Camp nuo ?? and if not who should be rested ??

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BLionheart

BLionheart 516

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Not in the wildest dreams of a Chelsea fan would anyone expect us to thrash Tottenham in the semis 5-1 and then beat Barcelone in the UCL .

Cech-Terry-Cole-Lampard-Drogba where the main men behind this win and those players didn't only stand out in terms of quality on the pitch but more importantly they were the very needed leaders who showed great personality.

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