Barcelona vs. Chelsea Review: Stranger than Fiction

Whilst football has never been a sport to stick to the script, at times the second leg of Chelsea vs. Barcelona was beggared belief. The West Londoners secured a 3-2 aggregate win in the semi-final with a 2-2 draw at the Nou Camp on Tuesday, sealing their progression to the Champions League final. The scoreline does not even begin to tell the full story. Chelsea were the victims of statistical annihilation at the hands of their Catalan opponents – Barcelona shared just 17.5% possession with Chelsea in the second leg, eclipsing even the 70% possession they achieved at Stamford Bridge. Individually, the figures are even more dizzying. Xavi completed 169 passes over the course of 90 minutes – Raul Meireles managed just 22. Barcelona's passing 'carousel' famously left Sir Alex Ferguson's head in a spin after the 2009 Champions League Final, as the genius of Xavi and Iniesta bewitched the Manchester United midfield. On Tuesday, it seems, the spell was broken.

 A notoriously unforgiving Spanish press spared the salt from Barcelona’s wounds as they turned instead to bemoan an “unjust, cruel, horrible, unmerited” result –one that denied the Catalans their third Champions League final in four years. Chelsea themselves reacted furiously in the aftermath of the 2009 semi-final (hold your hand up, Didier Drogba), and in truth the Barcelona staff handled themselves with a resigned dignity that belied any sense of injustice they may have felt. Perhaps an unsettling realisation that they have only themselves to blame had already started to sink in – for this was a performance in which Chelsea at times did everything possible to forfeit a victory. The misfortune of Cahill’s eleventh minute injury was swiftly followed by the gross misconduct of John Terry, who received his marching orders for raising his knee into the back of Alexis Sanchez off the ball. The South American’s fall may have been theatrical, but John Terry’s accumulated stupidity over the last few years has now accrued to subhuman levels. 

Chelsea had been undone by Sergio Busquet’s opener minutes before, and Terry’s decision to ‘make himself known’ could not have been more poorly timed. Love him or loathe him, the club captain’s rash actions unarguably rendered a hard task practically Herculean – a reality that made the following fifty-four minutes of football all the more extraordinary. Chelsea had fallen further behind to an  Iniesta goal before Ramires turned the match on its head. The Brazilian midfielder’s exquisite chip just before half time galvanised the ten-men of Chelsea, who began the second half with a renewed sense of pride and purpose. The Blues’ defended impeccably, as a make shift back-four comprised of an out of position Bosingwa, Ramires, Drogba and the centre back Ivanovic mounted an unforgettable rear-guard action, snatching a late goal through Fernando Torres to seal the tie. 

If Chelsea were ruthless, Barcelona were toothless. The Spanish side lacked bite in the final third, refusing to test Cech from outside the area as they persisted with a surgical examination of the Chelsea box. Pushing and probing to pass their way inside, their efforts were resisted tirelessly by the Chelsea defence. It would be a disservice to the efforts of the Londoners to label this ‘winning ugly’. The game had little of the ill-tempered that has marked affairs such as the Spain vs. Holland 2010 World Cup Final – even Frank Lampard’s momentary flair ups with Fabregas offered little in the way of real hostility.  That said, luck was certainly with Chelsea once more. Messi’s penalty could have killed the tie early in the second half, and few would have bet against the Argentinian before his spot kick came back off the bar. Messi’s personal tally of 63 goals this season falls just two behind the total return of the combined Chelsea squad. The final whistle saw Di Matteo race the length of the touchline, with shades of Mourinho gathering in his wake. The former Chelsea manager’s old squad are still going strong, as they prepare for their Champions League final in Munich. His successor just be about to take them one step beyond.