Game in a sentence
In one of the greatest games of football you will ever see magnificent Chelsea defied all of the odds to knock out holders Barcelona and book their spot in the final on May 19th.
Observations
- United States beat Russia on the ice in 1980, Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson in 1990 and Chelsea knocked out Barcelona in 2012 with ten men at the Nou Camp. This was more than just a football game, folks. If you see the scoreline you may not understand the magnitude of what happened in Barcelona on this night but this was a defining moment in this tournament and in the history of these two football clubs.
- This was one of the most astonishing games of football you will ever wish to see and arguably the greatest night in the history of Chelsea Football Club. The world’s best player missed a penalty, the Chelsea captain was sent off for violent conduct after 37 minutes and the 10-men of Chelsea not only came back from 2-0 down, they actually drew the match and beat 11-men Barcelona 1-0 in the second half, without really having the ball. And to top it all off it was Fernando Torres, of all people, who put the final nail in Barca’s coffin.
- Barcelona were slaughtered by their press after the weekend loss to Real Madrid but that will seem like nothing to the reaction this result will get in Spain.
- Pep Guardiola’s team were up 2-0, ahead in the leg 2-1, against a side with 10 men, who had lost their best defenders, and couldn’t score. Yes, Chelsea were great but the holders were average at best in the second half and such a performance could have a dramatic affect on how they play in the next few years. For all of their brilliance, there was no flexibility from the way they attacked, they had far too few overlaps, crosses into the box and were once again too narrow. It took the 10 men of Inter to defeat them in 2010 and now the 10 men of Chelsea have defeated them as well.
- But credit must go to Chelsea. Only a team united both on and off the field can get through a game like this. It’s incredible to imagine this is the same team that two months ago were battered in Naples. Except, it’s not the same team.
- Roberto Di Matteo deserves all the credit in the world for getting his team to be so disciplined and organised and empowering his senior players. That is where Andre Villas-Boas failed but the Italian’s relationship with his older players showed today.
- Chelsea lost both centre-backs, one injured and one sent off. They played the second half with a back six with three central midfielders in front of them and invited all the pressure Barcelona gave them and barely buckled.
- For the majority of the second half Salomon Kalou played right back, Ramires, Brainslav Ivanovic, Jose Bosingwa & Ashley Cole played a squeezed back four and Didier Drogba played left back. Drogba made their only error of the second half, giving away a penalty but incredibly Lionel Messi blasted the spot kick off the bar.
- Ramires, one of four players who will not get to play in the final on May 19th due to suspension, was the pick of the bunch for me, scoring a brilliant goal at a crucial time that sent the team into the dressing room at half time with belief. At the moment, Barcelona had scored two goals in eight minutes and in between captain John Terry had been sent off for violent conduct.
- Terry’s knee into the back of Alexis Sanchez off the ball was moronic as he let the entire club down at a crucial moment. Chelsea’s remarkable comeback means his punishment now fits the crime as he will be forced to sit out the final in Munich.
- However, as Di Matteo said so rightly after this match, this is not a day to talk about who will be missing for that game. Chelsea’s performance on April 24th, 2012 in Barcelona will be talked about and written about for decades. It was that good. It was the kind of performance fans of all football teams can only dream about seeing. After all, they put an end to’ the greatest team of all time’ debate in one monumental half of football. The Miracle on Ice had Al Michaels and this one had Gary Neville. Take it away Nev.
Three Stars
- Ramires
- Frank Lampard
- Petr Cech
Six Super Stats
- Chelsea reached their second ever CL final, after losing on penalties to Manchester United in 2008. They won their other three European finals, the 1971 and 1998 Cup Winners’ Cup and the 1998 European Super Cup.
- When Chelsea reached the CL final in 2008, they also sacked their Portuguese coach during the season (José Mourinho and André Villas-Boas).
- Chelsea can become the first London club to win the CL. The only other club to win the competition in the same year in which their city hosted the Summer Olympics was FC Barcelona in 1992.
- When Munich hosts the CL final, there has always been a first time winner of the competition. This happened in 1979 (Nottingham Forest), 1993 (Olympique Marseille) and 1997 (Borussia Dortmund). This also bodes well for Chelsea’s chances.
- Lionel Messi has now missed eight of the 33 penalties he has taken for Barcelona.
- Chelsea are without the suspended John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, Raul Meireles and Ramires in the final. The previous record for most suspension in a CL final was three in 2009 – Dani Alves and Eric Abidal for Barça and Darren Fletcher for Manchester United.
Absolutely not a Chelsea fan, but God blessed this team tonight. You cannot script this stuff.
UNBELIEVABLE. I LOVE YOU CHELSEA. This is an amazing example of what hard work and determination can get you. A HISTORIC win against the best team in the world, against all odds, 1 man down and only 1 recognizable centre back playing in Ivanovic.
KTTBFH CHELSEA CHELSEA CHELSEA
As ManU fan, I just have to tip my hat to Chelsea. Well done boys. It seems Barca only know how to walk the ball into the 6 yard box then score, no one even tried to take a shot from distance. I guess Pep would be angry if they did..
Utd fan here as well and i couldn’t help myself but cheer on he boys in blue. I fully disagree with some that Barca fully outplayed the Chelsea squad. Chelsea defended their asses off all night, in the second half you have to admit the best chances came from Chelsea (not including missed pk). Good for Chelsea and their fans, they fully deserve it.
I think this game showed it is time for Chelsea to let JT go. As we have seen the captain of chelsea fc has handled himself poorly on and off the field countless times and when it really counted THE CAPTAIN let his teammates down. The real leaders on that team played their hearts out in the second half.
Barcelona; who would have thought that the addition of Alexis Sanchez and Fabregas would result in a worse team than the past year. Messi was absolutely terrible over both legs while cute passing failed them miserably when they needed it most. Barcelona were nowhere near a goal in the second half.
I felt like i was watching a Toronto Maple Leaf powerplay while i was yelling at my tv for the team to SHOOT!
“The Greatest Team Ever” surely knows how to win in different ways when Plan A fails….Barca does not!!!!!!!!!!!
Great recap KJ. One of the greatest CL matches I’ve ever seen. Chelsea well deserved to be in the final. Chelsea will be massive underdogs again in Munich especially without 4 key players. Hope they can make a game out of whoever they play and make it a good final.
well done alan perry and gary neville GREAT COMMENTARY ALL GAME. Especially the torres goal!! :D
Are you serious?
Alan Perry and Gary Neville are extremely bias homers. I find Neville to be douche bag of the highest order. He was on the field and now in the press box.
Why are we exposed to those idiots? I rather listen to american broadcasters than those two homers.
Homers? They were complimenting chelsea on a brilliant defensive performance. Also, they complimented barca MANY times. Or would you rather commentators drooling over the passes of barcelona and the way messi plays?
I’m predicting the final right now to be Munich vs. Chelsea, with Bayern winning just barely. I think that Chelsea will give it their all, but it won’t be enough. They’re missing too many players now to win it, but I don’t know how much they’ll actually care. This was their final and they gave everything they had. Great, amazing game. I love how after the second barca goal the commentators have basically written Chelsea off, and then, well what do you know, barcelona are not invincible.
of course they will care. Its about the trophy, if they lose its all for nothing.
What do you mean if they’ll actually care? The passion,work ethic and determination is higher than what it was when mourihno was coaching here. They want this, cech hasn’t been great this season but he was wonderful today, same with lamps and cole after everyone said they were too old to play. They will give their all in the final, even without JT/Ivanovic/Ramires/Meireles.
And to be fair, i was distraught when iniesta scored(felt like a dagger to teh heart), but went crazy when ramires scored. Great Determination by Chelsea, well deserved win
KJ I disagree with one statement where you say Chelsea put an end to the best team of all time debate. This Barca team still has years left in them. I think they missed David Villa hugely, he will be back next year, and Barca will be right back in the UCL semis I’m almost certain. I think you have to give Chelsea a great deal of credit, but also realize that they didnt outplay Barcelona, and played a tactic that will only work about one in 5 times IMO. I think Guardiola needs to start resting Messi also, that would have made a big difference IMO. Barca could easily come back and win the treble next season and the debate will be right back on. You cant let one bad week wipe out the past 3 years of complete dominance of the football world..
Agreed, but if pep does leave, puyol is getting older, same with xavi, and who knows how villa will play after he comes back from the injury, they won’t be as dominant as they were predicted to be like this year. Fabregas has been woeful as well, I’m actually happy he won’t win any titles
Real Madrid won 5 straight European Cups. Of course Barcelona are in the discussion but you can no longer say they are the best team ever. No one can. They have yet to win back to back European Cups. AC Milan were the last team do that.
couldn’t have said it better.
But what if Barca win the UCL next season? then its right back open. I dont think the debate can truly end until this Barcelona era (Guardiola, Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Valdes, Alves, Puyol, Pique core etc) ends, then you can add up the trophies and see who comes up trumps.
If Tom Henning Ovrebo wasn’t incompetent, Chelsea would have beaten Barca in 2009.
So Barca are very very good, but not the best ever. And I obviously don’t know more about soccer than Pep Guardiola, but maybe next season he shouldn”t play Messi for a full 90 minutes against BS Spanish minnows so he can be well rested for important games at the end of the season.
It’s unfair to judge teams in one-off games, but these games are important and the best measuring stick there is. It’s going to be an interesting off-season and an exhilarating end of the season. Go Bayern!
They’re going to get slaughtered in Munich, regardless of who they play. But they did everything absolutely right today. Bosingwa was great off the bench once Cahill got hurt. Torres loves scoring against Barca.
More than anything, Guardiola is getting outcoached. Bad. Mourinho took him to school Saturday, and Di Matteo made it so that even down to ten men, Guardiola couldn’t find a way to get his guys to find the space they needed. Anyone who thinks he’s even top 5 in the world got a wake up call today.
If Chelsea wins the CL and finishes 5th or 6th in the Premier League, does this change who goes to the CL next year? Would England send 5 teams or do Spurs or Newcastle get punted to the Europa League?
If they win it the team who finishes 4th – unless it is them – will not qualify, the rule was changed that way after Liverpool won it and Everton still got in.
When Liverpool won I believe they ousted Everton who finished 4th.
Nope. They ousted some team from a smaller country and Liverpool had to qualify from the earliest stage. Everton lost to Udinese I think in the final qualifying round.
It was Villarreal who beat them, not Udinese.
Everton lost to Villereal in the qualifying and as noted both they and Liverpool had to enter in the qualifying round.
As for tonight was just one of those games and all the credit goes to Chelsea they defended with everything and rode their luck at times but sometrimes you need that and its the beauty of football. Far as Barca goes I think a bit like when Inter beat them in the semi’s that a long season caught up with them recalling they had the extra distraction of the World Club cup this year to. They;ll be back perhaps a bit of rebuilding via the transfer market is needed a certin area’s mostly a second striker to ease the workload of Messi til Villa returns and another centre back .Anyways again credit to Chelsea .
chelsea absolutely did not deserve to go through. im not saying barcelona did, but chelsea certainly didnt. barcelona paid for the fact that they had a decisive league game against madrid , and by tryin to do too much they paid for it, unlike di matteo who rested his players. Now that chelsea is missing half their starting lineup, what kind of cl final will this be? im disappointed in cl this year, i hate wen underdogs playing defensively get far like chelsea. inter did it in 2010 but they only played defensively when they were in the same situation as chelsea was today. madrid vs chelsea will be a joke quite honestly, madrid’s gonna ride over chelseas parked bus with even a bigger bus, thanks to the guy who invented that phrase in the first place and is in my opinion the best manager of all time along with hereiro.
P.S. there should be two weeks break after semifinals. they give 3 weeks between first round of knockout, but one week when teams are at more crucial stages in their respective domestic leagues and cl.
Shut your bloody mouth up. I dont care what anyone says we saw a master class of two classical styles of football. You dont get to decide who deserves it or not. What is wrong with an underdog. You yourself are a joke, what the hell is wrong with you. If Madrid ride over that parked bus, let them do it. FFS you are just an a,b,c,d fan.
So the game Chelsea played against Arsenal on Saturday where both teams are fighting for CCL qualification next year had no bearing yet poor Barca should have had more days to recoup after their game?? Your post sounds like sour grapes.
“chelsea absolutely did not deserve to go through. im not saying barcelona did, but chelsea certainly didnt.”
So, I guess you want Real Madrid and Bayern to both qualify, regardless of tomorrow’s outcome?
Umm, Chelsea played a derby match on the weekend if you didn’t notice. A game we NEEDED to win. And don’t blame fatigue on the loss, we’ve had spurs on a sunday, barca on wednesday, arsenal saturday an barca tuesday. That’s one hell of a schedule, and we come out of it with a CL FInal,an FA cup final and still a chance for 4th.
GREAT GAME .THIS CHELSEA TEAM KEEP PULLING OFF MIRACLES.THANKS KJ FOR THE STORY,
people need to stop being such band-wagoners. every time a team loses they all go straight to conclusions. a few weeks ago chelsea were losers, now theyre gods. barcelona is apperantly no longer the best team in the world. people just need to stop, i know its fun to jump on every new thing after every game but calm down. barca is and will always be the best team in history no doubt. if messis penalty went down 5 cm more, chelsea would be out. thats how close football games are. cruyff said its a game of mistakes the one who makes the least wins, that does not mean the best team always goes through
Technically, all things being the same apart from the missed penalty, Chelsea would have still gone through.
That being said, as a Chelsea fan, I can tell you it’s very rare that football fans of all different allegiance rally behind Chelsea, so they must have done something right on the night.
What a great game and kudos to the manager as well as the players. First Chelsea should all line up to kick Terry in the balls for getting sent off for his stupidity. After that applaud the defensive effort the twat left his team to do to kill off the game. They were splendid. Barca should have won this game with ease after that but they wouldn’t take any chances outside their regular formation to do so. Great advert for the Premier League to keep a stiff upper lip under incredible adversity. If Chelsea, and I’m not a fan, do not win the Cup, Billion Dollar Baby owner should still give Di Matteo the job for real because he has them playing the way Chelsea always have played with guts, determination and never say die attitude. Some of the old guard may have to go but new blood will come in and continue the practice. Wow.
I hope Di Matteo has the interim tag removed. I think he has instilled the what it means to be a Chelsea attitude being a former great for them. Even though he’s not the sexy name Abramovich is looking for I think he’s earned the job.
Did Avram? And he took them to within a game of all 3 trophies.
I was hoping someone would make that point.
CONGRATS TO CHELSEA,
Outstanding performance!!!
From a gunner
Thank you so much.
from: TRUE BLUE
What a game.
I’ve always had a dislike for the Yellow Card accumulator system in tournaments. They need more resets along the way.
I can’t remember, did they reset after the group stages? If not, they should…
If it took the general public until this game and maybe the El Clasico over the weekend to finally come to their senses and realize this Barcelona side is not the best in the history of the sport, then I am eternally grateful to Chelsea and a little bit to Madrid too. Though it is long overdue..
They’re still the best team in the world but regardless, I think Barcelona need to find another way to win games to carry out alongside with what they’ve been doing the past 3 years. They seem to be too obsessed with passing. I don’t know how many times I have to say it but having 80% possession and 600 passes completed means nothing if you don’t score when it’s necessary.
Sucks for Chelsea that Ronaldo won’t wait until he’s inside the 6 yard box to have shot. Neither would Gomez, to be honest. The other upside to this match is that John Terry will miss out on the chance to play in the final and if Chelsea manage to win, he won’t lift the trophy. But credit to Chelsea..compared to the team that went away to Napoli and this team today, Di Mattao needs to keep the job for the rest of time.
One week of poor results doesnt destroy Barcelona’s claim to greatest team ever. It makes it more of a contest yes, but you have to remember what Barca have achieved over the past 4 years. In the end Barca had a few poor matches, it happens to even the best. But no one would argue that they were outplayed vs Chelsea, and the Real match could have gone either way. Wait a few more years before dismissing this Barca team, they still have the talent and class to go on and win multiple UCL’s over the next several years.
They dominated at a time when most major teams in the world were going through a slowdown of sorts.
The Italian teams are all weak, generally speaking. Juve disappeared for half a decade. AC are good, but their teams of the 2000′s were far superior. Inter beat Barca, then aged overnight.
The English are also all in transition. Arsenal’s problems are no secret. Man U hasn’t spent big money in years while their core has aged, they don’t have a single world-class mid, and they sold one of the best players ever. Liverpool is an afterthought, Spurs aren’t deep, City hastily assembled and in need of fine-tuning, and Chelsea’s on its last legs.
And of course, Real Madrid bought a whole new team and needed the right coach and some time to fit it all together, which Jose did in a much shorter timeframe than most would’ve thought. Barca had a LOT go their way the past few years, and even then they’ve stumbled along the way. They deserve credit, but to compare to 50′s Madrid, 60′s Benfica, 70′s Bayern & Ajax, 80′s Milan, 90′s Milan, turn-of-the-century Real? In the convo, for sure, but the crown may be a stretch.
Barca Annihilated some INCREDIBLE teams along the way. They destroyed Man United (Im talking about Ronaldo Era, which was considered one of Fergies best teams). They also beat a VERY good Arsenal team. Bayern Munich, Inter, AC Milan, Chelsea have all been prominent during that time. I just dont think the argument holds up that it was a weaker era. You could say the same thing about Nadal and Federer (is it a weak field or are they just THAT good?). The FACTS are this. Barca has been to 5 straight UCL semis, Won 14/17 trophies, 3 UCL’s, and all while playing the most attractive, fluent, beautiful football that has ever been seen (few pundits will dispute that).
They are a team that were and still are a revolution, total football brought to a new level. People are getting too carried away about one poor week out of 200 brilliant weeks. Need to look at the big picture and not be so short sighted and forgetful.
Of course Barcelona was the better team. Not only this match. Also the previous match. Of course Chelsea was lucky. Of course having Barcelona in the final would have been more interesting.
BUT
This was great entertainment and this is what sports makes so great. This is one for the history books :)
well at least it was a clean game his time around and no controversy about refs,bad calls etc.. no questioning the result because of a Ref
Despite the partisan commentary it was still a great game. I’m a fan of Barca and given that they virtually have no depth in their squad and losing players like Villa, Affelay and Abidal over the course of the season I would still consider it to be a successful year. They’ve been dominant all season but they hit a bad run of form at a bad time-it tends to happen. But I think we should still wait till the end Club World Cup before we declare the best team in the world right? XD
ronaldo would have never missed that penalty kick, and victor valdes is the most overrated goalie in the world…
couldn’t agree more on Valdes, he is not world class and him being in the score’s top 100 players in the world is beyond comprehension.
No he just missed one in the shoot out against real instead lol serves him right for been an arrogant t****r
Forget Di Matteo; the big man, England’s Lion, Captain fantastic John Terry deserves credit for being the best player/manager of all time!
I think some of the reporters (Not you K.J) are over analyzing this Barca defeat. It’s clearing an upset and I’m proud an EPL team made it to the finals but lets be real here. Messi hits the penalty we have an entire different match. This was more about missed chances by Barcelona then anything else. I wish Barca missed that many chances last year playing United. :o)
Don’t think you can play that what if card in that game. What if JT never got sent off? What if chelsea didn’t come into this game up one goal. We can talk about Barcelona’s missed chances, or we can talk about Chelsea taking theirs. Ramires and Ashley Cole took what could have been another black spot on Chelsea’s season, and gave it a day my club will never forget.
Head hurts this morning and with good reason…40 years supporting and never been prouder. Drogba playing full back sums up the way they battled, called the Torres goal before the game (but in a 2-1 loss)…….Praying Cahill and Luiz get fit for the final …if not Drogba at center half and Torres up top anyone ;-)
CAREFREE !!!!!!!!!
Ah ah, beautiful…Messi kills two “birds” with one stone, the myth that he always shows up for big games while Ronaldo doesn’t, and the myth that Ronaldo scores a big portion of his goals from the spot and it’s easy to do so…if Real win La Liga and CL…Ballon D’or is coming back to the present best player in the World :)
LOL, I was going through reading well constructed arguments about the game and tactics etc and then saw this BS. the whole Messi/Ronaldo thing makes me laugh and nothing more so than the twats on both sides of the argument. you mam/sir fit perfectly. Thanks for the laugh
Lighten up man :), no need to over analyze anything about this game…had Messi done what he was supposed to do…nobody would even be talking about this game by now…except Chelsea fans about the dive that won the penalty…have a good day sir.
why did you put birds in quotations?
Lol, I just noticed that…have no clue why, you are very observant.
I love how when an Italian team plays defensive it’s seen as dirty and boring, but when an English team does it, it’s heroic!! Keep up the bias, English and North American media.
All is not lost for the final, here’s why:
1. Back four: Cole-Cahill-David Luiz-Bosingwa
That is hoping both central defenders will be fit in time for the game, which is reasonably likely. As for Bosingwa, he has been quite useful of late, under RDM.
2. The belief that if we beat Barca we can beat anyone.
3. Last chance for a lot of these players.
4. A sense of redemption for 2008
5. A feeling that that this Chelsea team is the team of destiny for this year, since they have come through a lot to get where they are, against all odds.
This year is our year! KTBFFH
rebutle:
1. Bayern’s back 4
2. The beleif that if they can beat Real MAdrid (and ACTUALLY outplay them) they can beat Chelsea
3. Also probably last chance for Munich senior players
4. A sense of redemption from losing to Inter 2 yrs ago in Final
5. Feeling of destiny that the Final is in Munich and that it was just meant to be.