BARCELONA 0-0 CHELSEA
Ok, I’ll hold my hands up – I’m just a right old pessimist and I didn’t give our players anywhere near enough credit going into this game. I think I’d actually forgotten just how bloody stubborn we can be.
Mind you, it didn’t look good for us with Cech looking edgy as early as 2 minutes in and after 5 minutes I was beginning to think we’d be lucky to even see the ball. And I wasn’t far wrong really. 15 minutes it, we’d got just 35% of the possession and I was resorting to counting Petr Cech’s goal kick as a shot on target. Bosingwa looked like he needed a bit of help, the free-kicks were mounting up and the referee didn’t know whether he was coming or going – to put it mildly.
Half hour in and it looked as if the only way to handle Messi was to bring him down and hope the free-kick did less damage than the Argentinean could have done if left to run at full throttle – it worked in the short-term, although overall, Messi didn’t lie up to the hype on the night which was a huge relief. To be honest though, we were more or less camped out in our own half and I’ve already seen it described as an ‘8-1-1’ formation but am I bothered? I couldn’t care bloody less. We’d never gone to the Nou Camp expecting to play ‘entertaining football’ and nor should we because if we’d tried to get involved in that sort of game they’d have punished us. It was clear what we needed to do was frustrate them – and if we got anything out of it then it would be a bonus.
And the frustrating them was paying off. Daniel Alves was swinging handbags in a personal battle with Florent Malouda and while Drogba appeared to be doing a bit of his own brand of mediation, Toure was picking up a yellow card for getting a bit narked in view of the ref. So we were doing something right.
And whilst we weren’t creating chances, Didier Drogba was given a gilt edged opportunity to put us a goal up with a complete cock up in the Barcelona defence in the 39th minute. Victor Valdes made sure we didn’t get the away goal with a couple of pretty sharp reaction saves although Drogba really could – and should – have done better. Another lapse not long after, and another half-chance, but this time the Ivorian lost his footing in the box and our chances had gone begging.
Needless to say Barca had chances themselves – they were bound to with the amount of possession they were enjoying but at least as we got ever closer to half-time they were reduced to shots from distance – and we could more than live with that. So we went in 0-0 at half-time and that was an achievement in itself.
Back from the break then and it was Barca’s turn to resort to fouling with Malouda down. Free-kick in by Drogba although back out again by Ballack – more opportunities going to waste. Then we had a bit of drama courtesy of an Henry/Alex clash of heads but just before the paramedics arrived Henry stumbled to his feet and all seemed right with the former Arsenal man’s world again.
Unfortunately for Barca it was Marquez who hit the deck next, pulling up on the ball and being stretchered off soon after. Of course at the time, being able to bring your captain on as sub might have seemed a luxury at the time but bearing in mind Puyol ended up with a yellow that sees him miss he return leg and early reports suggesting Marquez misses the remainder of the season, it could turn out to be a luxury they can’t afford.
Naturally Alves – who played the drama queen all night – had to have his turn on the floor, and did so as theatrically as ever following a challenge between Lampard and Drogba but it’s little wonder the ref ignored him. Although to be fair, our own little drama queen went down a few times, and whilst we might have noticed him go down in our area, Barca appeared not to as they continued to take shots around him.
A few more scares came courtesy of a Frank Lampard foul in possibly the worst area for him to concede one although thankfully it was the outside of the net Alves rippled with it. And whilst it raised a few eyebrows when Lampard was subbed for Juliano Belletti, Hiddink knew what he was doing pushing Essien more central and sticking Belletti ahead of Ivanovic to add a bit of protection. We’d worked our arses off to get to the hour mark without conceding and Guus had no intention of it happening by this stage.
Petr Cech, who was having one of his better days at the office pulled off a lovely save against Eto’o and he was lucky not to end up facing a penalty minutes later as Bosingwa got away with a tug on Henry.
Barca remained a constant threat and even the departure of Eto’o didn’t quieten the crowd as he was replaced by their latest starlet in the form of 18 year old Bojan. We kept it tight though, covering well with six or seven players in the box a necessity and Cech had grown in confidence all night. Not that that helped the nerves any when Iniesta went down just outside the box with five minutes remaining – and Ballack knew he was lucky not to pick up a second yellow for obstruction.
The fouls were racking up and with four minutes on the clock, so were the free-kicks although again Cech was doing more than enough, which was more than could be said for Drogba who yet again put up very little fight as the ball was nicked off his toe in the box after all Essien’s hard work putting it there in the first place. It was just one of those frustrating night’s for Drogba – although by my reckoning that should mean he’ll want to make amends when it’s back at Stamford Bridge.
Anyway, we weren’t done yet because we had five minutes of time added on to endure – in which time, Bojan should’ve scored, Petr Cech saved our arses yet again and Nicolas Anelka got all of about a minute as he replaced the hobbling Michael Ballack. But at the end of all that, we’d managed 96 minutes without conceding against one of the best (if not the best) Barcelona sides ever – and that’s something that hadn’t happened to them in the competition before we turned up.
Fantastic result. Job done. Well proud.
Blue is the colour
