Champions League: Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea
Match reports
The Times, Matt Dickinson: “If talent prevails ”” and the gods of football are feeling truly mischievous ”” these teams will meet in Athens in May for a Champions League final of such explosive possibility that it might shake the ancient columns of the Parthenon. Uefa would not know whether to fear the mayhem or to welcome the drama.”
The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: “When the action was over, though, it did feel as if the current Chelsea had shown themselves to be a side of greater potential than Mourinho’s previous versions. Even with Andriy Shevchenko absent because of a thigh injury, their attacking had an edge that Barcelona could not dull. The introduction of Joe Cole as a substitute on the left also showed that the manager had the means to hone the threat.”
The Guardian, Richard Williams: “If Jose Mourinho’s pre-match criticisms of Barcelona’s alleged fondness for amateur dramatics were intended to induce an extra vigilance on the part of last night’s Italian officials, then they may indeed have had a psychologically destabilising effect on the referee, Stefano Farina, whose extraordinary decisions in the opening stages indicated a man with a very uncertain grasp of cause and effect.”
Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: “Magic and mayhem reigned in Catalonia last night. For every moment of brilliance conjured up by Lionel Messi and Frank Lampard, an act of duplicity or dissent dragged the emotions down from the heights and into the depths of disgust. At times, this Champions League confrontation resembled a playground scene painted by Hieronymus Bosch.”
The Independent, Sam Wallace: “The great blue machine can be slowed but, as Barcelona found out last night, it can very rarely be stopped. On the turf by the touchline, Jose Mourinho knelt as if in supplication to celebrate Didier Drogba’s 93rd-minute equaliser and another Chelsea renaissance of remarkable power, conviction and courage.”
Daily Mail, Matt Lawton: “Rijkaard reacted to the sound of the final whistle like a sprinter to a starting pistol last night, marching towards the centre circle and berating two Barcelona players who had already expressed their displeasure before tearing into Farina himself.”
The Good
- The performance. To come back from a goal down twice against a team like Barcelona is a truly immense feat. The spirit, determination and character shown by the players was awe-inspiring – the quote (not football related and I can’t remember who said it originally) has been used in terms of football before, but this team doesn’t lose – it simply runs out of time. Destined for greatness? I think so.
- Frank Lampard. He’s back. And of course it wasn’t a cross – he meant it, didn’t he?
- The football. On the occasions when it broke out amidst the drama and the controversy (less than 45 minutes of it, by all accounts), the skill on display from both teams was fantastic to watch. The goals from Deco and Lampard, Ronaldinho’s build-up and assist for Gudjohnsen’s goal – it rarely gets better than this. Which leads me to…
- Terry’s part in Drogba’s goal. I mean, fancy having a centre half wandering around up front in the dying seconds of a game when you need a goal – what’s the point of that?
- The reaction to Drogba’s goal. Had there been a priest on hand to perform an exorcism, he’d have taken one look at John Terry and decided that he was a lost cause. Sheer, eye bulging, cathartic primal screaming type stuff which was probably copied by every Chelsea fan on the planet. And Jose’s celebration could well lead to a splendid opportunity for Mrs. Mourinho to take part in an unreconstructed 1970’s washing powder advert – “when your husband comes home with sweat, grass stains and several other unidentifiable marks on his trousers, do what I do and get out the Daz! But ask him what the f*ck has been going on at work first…”
- The result. Qualification for the knockout phase pretty much in the bag and Barcelona staring down the barrel of the UEFA Cup. Lovely.
The Bad
- Where do you start? To suggest that Chelsea and Barcelona bring out the worst in each other is like saying Adolf Hitler had a bit of a vicious streak.
- The referee. An almost impossible game to officiate, but the card waving and whistle blowing for seemingly nothing while far more serious offences went unchecked hardly helped matters - he looked to be far more concerned with the slightest show of dissent than anything else. The penalty claims for fouls on Lampard and Makelele (what was he doing up there?) looked perfectly valid and were ignored.
- Boulahrouz. Seems harsh to criticise one player, but he looked to be culpable in both of Barcelona’s goals. Hopefully he’ll learn from the experience.
- Our finishing. What was a tremendous draw could have been an even more famous victory. To create more chances than Barcelona at the Nou Camp is the stuff of Champions League winners – but only if you put them away.
- ITV. Clive Tyldesley did actually suggest that Chelsea hadn’t had the best of luck with the decisions (a master of understatement), but Andy Townsend ripping into Mourinho for answering an interviewer’s repeated questioning about the referee was truly pathetic. Crap, crap, crap – we should expect little more from the ‘light’ channel that brings us the Sharon Osborne Show and Love Island.
- The media reaction – some good, some bad but the suggestion made in certain quarters (step forward Rob Smyth in the Guardian) that Chelsea ‘dragged Barcelona down to their level’ is just laughable. The whole episode brings to mind the scrap against Blackburn at Ewood Park in our first title-winning season; if you choose to reduce the game to the level of a pub brawl, don’t be surprised if we give as good as we get.
The Ugly
Barcelona. The most underhand, dirty and unpleasant team in European football?
We can just about tolerate the cynicism, the gamesmanship, the haranguing of the officials – Chelsea are eminently capable of showing the same dislikeable characteristics when pushed – but please, it really is time to end the farcical myth that portrays Barcelona as God’s heavenly missionaries operating under a set of religious and moral footballing imperatives presented to them by Moses on Mount Sinai. They are capable of true brilliance, certainly, but for every one of Ronaldinho’s mesmerising shuffles and shimmies, there are half a dozen cynical dives, kicks, digs and stamps from the likes of Marquez and Motta. Rijkaard’s hysterical schoolgirl reaction at the final whistle (we await the Uefa charge with bated breath) summed them up perfectly; snarling and screaming at the terrible injustice of it all. How very dare they – don’t they know we’re Barcelona?
Man of the Match
Tough call. Essien, Makelele, Terry, Lampard – over to you…
What to remember amidst all the fallout
Over the two games: Chelsea – four points from six, Barcelona – one point. That’ll do very nicely thank you.
And even better…
It’s Spurs on Sunday! Go get ‘em boys.
Related links
- José: Brilliant in Barca
- Mourinho continues Barca row
- Mourinho hails dogged Drogba
- Guardian: Charmless men (Rob Smyth)
- White hot as Jose stokes up camp fire
- Ten-minute highlight video (watch it while you can)
- Posted at 12:17 PM · Permalink · Print · 3556 views · Last indexed by Google on the 16th May 2008
- Tags: Barcelona, Champions League, Ex-players, Jonathan Dyer, Jose Mourinho, Manager, Matches, Players
Nothing to add really. Great stuff. And I really think this team is going to be our best yet. They are getting better and better and better.
Un-farkin-believable !!
What a performance. I’m so chuffed at the dogged resilience the boys showed last night.
It was always going to be tough, and we couldnt have got off to a worse start. But the character that poured out of each and every one of them was astounding. We always prevail when the going gets tough, and when the diving, kicking, pinching, hair pulling et al started it seemed to spur us on more.
On the face of it, its disappointing to admit that there were ‘theatrics’ from one or two Chelsea boys, but playing teams at their own game is what its all about. Mr Dyer’s previous lambasting of the shitholes from Catalan was spot on. Imagine the uproar in the press if it had been Drogba pushing Marquez over, and not the other way round. Or Jose sprinting to the ref like some smacked up Ben Johnson clone at the final whistle. But nothing, hardly a mention.
The ref was nothing short of a joke, seemingly going out of his way to reward anything untoward, but ignoring the stonewall decisions - particularly Makelele being checked by Marquez on the edge of the box.
I’m not convinced we did enough to win it, Robben outdoing Ronaldniho in the shocking miss department aside, we didn’t really have many more chances I can remember. And while their second goal was pretty impressive to watch, I certainly cracked a sarcastic smile when Eidur was stretchered off.
All in all an utterly fantastic performance, one I hope we continue with on Sunday.
KTBFFH.
I thought Ashley Cole had a good game too, definitely his best to date.
Man of the Match must go to Lampard - or Essien. Hmm…
I think Essien’s role in the build-up to our equaliser needs highlighting: Deco did his utmost to hack him down as he powered up the wing; he rode/hurdled the challenge and crossed the ball that Terry headed back across goal for Drogba to slide home - albeit after Marquez had tried his best to take him out with another cynical challenge.
Essien could easily have gone down, but was honest and probably saved the horrid Deco a booking.
A Chelsea legend in the making…
Boulahrouz undid all the brilliance he showed at the Bridge in quite spectacular fashion.
Hilario kept us in the game with a great stop from Xavi, but didn’t seem to have a great deal to do apart from pick the ball out of the net twice.
A great night.
Amazing result; the draw was fully deserved and the moral victory was definitely won, even if the actual one wasn’t due to sloppy finishing, but that can be fixed. We deserve first place in this group, no doubt.
Barcelona are now definitely my most despised team, closely followed by Liverpool. Let’s hope we get them in the final and twat them to hell where the dirty cheats belong. Drogba’s behaviour in the first half was a little embarrassing, but I recognise that in that match, we just had to fight fire with fire and stoop to their pathetic level. United in a couple of weeks should be nothing compared to Barcelona if we stay on this kind of form.
John Terry looked like a true Chelsea lion after Drogs’ goal went in. Emphatic.
I second Peter’s notion that this squad will be our best team yet. At the moment, we are potential world-beaters, now we just have to show the world that we have the bottle and prove it. Maybe then they’ll get off our backs.
Premiership/Champions League double this season? Believe…
Chaps, I have to go for The Magnificent Essien as Frank has enough of these MOTM accolades under his belt. However, Frank was bloody marvellous last night, running with pace, passing, marauding (yeah Frank…mixing it up…of all the things). On reflection my comments from last night still show my feelings. Barcelona are an outright bunch of cheating scumbags who somehow have massaged the press and the almost equally despicable broadcast media into believing they are The Bringers of Light bathed in the Holy Glow of the Archangel Gabriel personally delivering the seal of approval from God herself (that’s enough holy references…Ed) . Reading some bloke called Howard in The Scum today you’d be left believing that Mourinho was Satan himself corrupting all around him to get the result for Seed of The Devil FC (that’s er…Chelsea FC by the way…Ok no more religious references I promise).
One thing that strikes me is that seeing how our performance was so high last night it’s not surprising that the PL was dominated by Airline and Manure for so many years. When you play at such a high level it can only benefit the team to allow you to reach those levels in your own domestic league. I think Sir RedNose of Salford and Professor Arsehole Myopic of Woolwich themselves have known this and JM has at last instilled a similar level of belief into our boys. No-one is unbeatable.
On one more point as well, the Rob Smyth article made my blood boil. It’s simple really we just gave Barscumola some of their own treatment back, but we did it in spades. They set the ground rules, we merely played them at their own game. If you can play unfashionable but hard teams like Blackburn and Bolton in their own ground in the middle of a cold winter’s evening and get a result then you know how to battle. We were equally as good in terms of skill, but where we won it (yes, a draw at the Camp Nou is a win in my view) is with a Tiger Woods like mentality to battle and fight, and not accept you’re going to lose. It doesn’t always work but last night it worked perfectly and was like a well oiled Rolls Royce engine. Last night I would have gladly had all of those Chelsea players by my side in a trench fighting the enemy.
As for GreenySpitter-in-Chief Rijkaard, some truer colours were displayed last night. He is a good coach, one of the best, but he had a definite Dummy-Spitting moment at the end. Will he face any charge…well I for one won’t hold my breath as no doubt UEFA will simply look at his benevolent deified, haloed image they must decking the gold and marbled halls of UEFA Valhalla and believe that it was mere stumble for the righteous one.
Whereas, Jose will probably get a 3 match ban for
a.) gratuitously setting a poor example to schoolboys everywhere on how to annoy your Mum with grass stains on your trousers
b.) Believing he was auditioning for Willem Dafoe’s part in a remake of platoon
Perhaps Jose’s defence should be that he was merely kneeling at the altar of the Catalan Gods of Football.
A great night to equal the 4-2 at Stamford bridge 2 years ago, and one that will send shivers through the collective spines of all the other teams. The only downer? Tubby of the Wirral’s Liverpool reds qualifying….to have seen them and Barscum in the UEFA cup would have probably been almost orgasmical joy inducing.
Grocerjack
Many a thing said in jest…
Uefa chief in Barca-Chelsea hint
Can you fucking believe it? I thought Barscumola were bad, but UEFA really are a parasitic death virus on the game, led by the weaselly little shit William Gaillard. I’m not a violent man but I really do want to remove each of his bollocks with a rusty knife and pliers and swap them with his eyes before ripping his tongue out with a blunt potato peeler.
Really, how long will clubs put up with this bollocks. It absolutley stinks of nothing else but jobsworth lowlife men with no functioning dicks trying to make themselves important in their own amoeba like minds.
I’ll try not to sugar coat my views next time!
Let it out GJ, let it out.
The difference in mood from the first leg had a lot to do with the ref, who was excellent at the Bridge and didn’t let Barca get away with that thing where they decide they’ve been fouled, stop, look goggle-eyed at the ref and wait for a free kick. (It’s called doing an Henry.) We’re not a dirty team, but we’re bloody physical, and in the first leg the ref knew the difference. Last night, Barca weren’t taking any chances - they were going to get those free kicks no matter what.
Also: Messi, Ronaldinho, Deco, Puyol - ugliest team since Liverpool 87-88?
That Smyth article. Hilarious (though Glendenning’s minute-by-minute match report really takes the biscuit). What’s worse is them spitting dummies cos Chelsea fans have pointed out they’re talking kak. Take it like men, you weasels!
I’m a Liverpool fan, so I’m only going to whisper this once:
After reading Matt Dickinson’s words in The Times and pondering the possibility of these two teams meeting in Athens next May, I have to admit the thought is truly scintillating.
As a Liverpool fan, of course I’m hoping Chelsea go out long before Athens. The sooner the better. :)
As a football fan, however … a free-for-all one-off sudden-death final between defending champions Barcelona and perennial challengers Chelsea is so exciting a thought that I shiver just thinking about it.
Boulahrouz vs. Ronaldinho. Eiður vs. Terry. Drogba vs. EVERYBODY. Mourinho vs. Rijkaard. Part seven of football heaven played in front of the gods of Greece? Count me in.
As a Red I’ll be hoping this comes nowhere near to reality. But if … IF … Chelsea are to make it all the way to the finals this year, and my beloved Reds aren’t, then I’ll make any sacrifice needed to ensure it’s Barcelona lining up against them.
Perfect final? Maybe not for football, but for everything else it would be.
i saw the post match interview with morinho and the interviewer kept asking him about the ref. Then andy the idoit goes why does mourinho not give any glory to this team.
I mean how stupid can ITV be seriously. this is national television people can spot these things.
Thing I like about the BBC online story is Frank Lampard’s reaction to bottle throwing by Barca fans. Yeah, there was a bit of banter, so what, we liked it. That’s the spirit.
Hmmmmmm….
Talk about character, class and passion….its all in the blues. I wonder wat the players would feel like when they see a replay of JM’s reaction to the second goal…..i’m sure they’ll be dying to create much more of those SPECIAL MOMENTS….
A bold statement has been made over both legs of the barca tie…..”that chelsea is the best team in europe, and we are not shy of proving that to any team that ‘doubts/contests’ our status”
Over here, critics are being silenced and new ‘believers’ are sprouting by the day….even the timid blue supporters are getting more vociferous…..it feels sooooooooooooo good
Always blue!!!
What a game. Mourhino is a genius. when Bulharouz was subbed by cole, i had my doubts on who will marrk ronaldinho!!!! but guess what John Terry was moved upward again and what a way to supply the pass, the killer heade pass to drogba, and it was nice hearing drogba dedicating the goal to Terry. Tactically, we were superb.
I must confess we are becoming a ‘Blue machine’ reminiscent to the ‘german machine’ of some few years ago that won the world cup and we kept pushing on and on and on. kept the balance and worked effortlessly and focused. The attitude of the team is phenomenal and its improving day by day. The energy was awesome!
Lets not get carried away, we should have WON the match. Frankly speaking, we wasted glaring open goal chances and i presume that would have hurt us had we not equalised. we need to demonstrate more of the composure Terry and Drogba showed for the equaliser.
Common ya’ll blue, bring em on, for the BLUE MACHINE to devour.
Chaps
Great to be back on home territory. You guys have been a bit slow at uploading content recently (this isn’t a criticism by the way - I appreciate we all have proper jobs!) and for my sins have been on the Guardian blogs recently.
Spent quite a lot of the last 24 hours on and off the Smyth article. Was exhausting. What an ar$ehole. Have to say though was quite a lot of Chelsea and even non-Chelsea on their slating Smyth, to such an extent that the editor of Guardian Unlimited came on. I thought the debate was quite lively and fair even though the comments got maxed out.
Anywaaaaaay. What a fantastic result. Can’t be bothered to write about it at length as you boys have covered everything but needless to say have been living off the reflected glory all day. Despite the general tone in the media, and especially the nonsense promulgated by Smythe and co, a lot of people I have spoken to were very impressed by our resilience and conviction last night.
Most hilarious part of the evening for me was receiving a call from my brother in the 93rd minute, that went something along the lines of:
“Ant, just got out the stadium as didn’t want to be locked in, heard a muffled roar, what’s going on - has a Barca player been sent off?”
“Err no mate, essien just ran fifty yards, hurdled a late challenge from Deco, provided a peach of a cross despite my screams to lay it off to Cole on the right, JT cushioned the ball back to Drogba, and we just fvcking equalised!”.
“Sh1t”.
Excuse my French.
Up the Chels. Bring on Tottenham.
Nice work Anthony. I’ve been on the Guardian blog too. Get ticked off for threatening to ‘tear Glendenning a new arsehole’ - metaphorically speaking, of course.
Quite interesting to read this article on the official club site from The Spy (Neil Barnett). It’s not dressed as an official line but one can hardly believe it isn’t ratifed by the club as it is on their web site
Spy on Thursday
Whilst there may be some romantic/poetic licence surrounding Frank’s training on shots, I think the comments about ITV and the press are very well written and probably sum up the views of most sentient Chelsea fans! I think the comparative poor shows by Manure and Airline last night also show the true level of achievement gained by mugging Barscumola.
Jack
In the immortal words of Cilla Black….. Surprise Surprise!
Blues ’sure’ to be punished
Excellent piece mate. I’ve cut and pasted the ‘Ugly’ section to my mate in Granada. He is married to a Real Madrid supporting Spanish woman and their household have never quite been able to put their finger on quite what it is about this Barceona team that gets their hackles up. This does it perfectly. It’s fake ‘purity’ spin they try to sell to everyone. In England we have their brethen in the appalling Arsenal - the team with the most consistently dirty record in the Premiership. And the worst losers by far.
Chaps
The “former” GrocerJack here, now under my real name because I suddenly feel all grown up! My hatred of the media, both press and broadcast is rapidly overtaking my collective hatred of Liverpool Reds and Barscumola. They were all to happy to report that UEFA were going to throw the book at us for the teams behaviour etc on Tuesday, and revelling in the fact that we were the bad boys up against angelic barscum. So how many of them will publish this little nugget from the official Chelsea site?
UEFA President denies Chelsea attack
I’d take a stab at there being 2 chances of them reporting this….slim and none, and slim just rode out of town.
Cheers, Tony