I watched the 2nd leg of the Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Chelsea in the Elehouse, the school's version of a pub. It was filled to the brim, with me being the only Asian in there but I didn't care. It was actually quite intimidating because everyone was drinking and rowdy. But I figured that we were all fellow football fans, and if anybody wanted to do anything funny I'd just shout "Come on Chelsea!" and I'd be spared, or even better, treated to a beer.
The match started in a pulsating fasion, fast and furious from end to end, with Barcelona enjoying the lion's share of the possession early in the game. But slowly, Chelsea's muscular midfield wrested control of the match. The midfield trio of Essien, Lampard and Ballack was quickly proving to be too much to handle for the likes of Xavi and Iniesta. With Iniesta and Messi often drifting wide, and with a rookie Busquets alongside Xavi, it was obvious that Barcelona was going to lose the battle in the middle of the park. Chelsea made the more powerful runs, the better interceptions, the better forays at goal, and Barcelona was reduced to passing the ball around in frustration trying to find an opening. The attack, often lauded for its creativity, was beginning to look like a one trick pony - midfield gets ball, punts a long ball to the left or right winger far upfield, who tries to cross into the box only to see it headed clear.
I have no bloody idea why Barcelona likes to play the ball out wide before crossing. In the first place, they don't have a single player in the box who heads the ball well. Secondly, by doing that they allow the opponent's defence time to pack the box, which only serves to make it impossible to score. For all their fancy passing and dribbling and shit, they have virtually no incisiveness. Reminds me of Arsenal, but at least Arsenal attacks faster. And really, is there anyone in the Barcelona front line who can beat Terry at headers? Messi is short, Eto'o is too busy being invisible, Iniesta never does headers, and Henry wasn't playing. If that's the case, why bother?
Chelsea were so dominant that Barcelona never looked like they were in the match. On Chelsea's first foray into Barcelona's final third, Lampard attempted to drive the ball square across the box, but it deflected off a defender, looping overhead, and Essien took it in mid air, striking a thunderous left-footed volley which dipped just below the crossbar of the top left corner into goal, right past the despairing dive of Victor Valdes. The Barcelona players were stunned to find themselves behind on just 9 minutes, but they had only themselves to blame for not pressing their attacks better.
Throughout the rest of the match, Barcelona were reduced to passing the ball around aimlessly and shooting wayward shots into the stands. Chelsea had 4 penalty appeals turned down, at least 2 of them legitimate for fouls and handball. This pissed off the people seated on my right, who were Chelsea fans. They kept shouting "Ref! Hey ref!", and "Come on Chels!", "Come on Lamps!"
The only bright spark for the Catalans was Messi, whose mesmerising dribbles often astonished me. He could run past 3 or 4 Chelsea players like they weren't there and still squeeze off a shot. It was amazing because no matter how hard the Blues tried to stop him, they couldn't trip or get the ball off him. It was almost as though he had it glued to his feet. It was unfortunate though that nobody could read his runs or provide support when needed, and it often felt like it was Messi vs. Chelsea, and one man doesn't make a team, no matter how good he is.
Barcelona eventually got Abidal sent off for tripping Anelka, although it wasn't deserved as it was more of a case of the other way round, but it looked bad because they were a goal down, a man down, devoid of inspiration and with 30 minutes remaining, quickly being forced out of contention.
At 90 minutes, the score read Chelsea 1, Barcelona 0, and four minutes of stoppage time were added. At this point, Chelsea had 8 shots, 4 on goal. Barcelona had 13, and a big fat ZERO on goal. Petr Cech had not made a single save from a goalbound effort up to this point. Barcelona has a dream attack force? Bullshit. They were so pathetic, even Newcastle would have done better, and they are about to be relegated from the Premier League.
And then it happened. In the 3rd minute of stoppage time, off a cross on the right, Messi took the ball and squared it right to Iniesta, who struck a fierce rising shot past Petr Cech into goal. Nobody in the pub could believe what they had just witnessed. There was a stunned silence, before the whole pub exploded with cheers and people jumping in jubilation. It was only then that I realised the only Chelsea fans in the pub were the two guys seated on my right. The rest were there to see Barcelona. And this goal was it, because at this point, Chelsea had no time to come back into the game. The Chelsea players were absolutely shellshocked and horrified. Even their captain Terry, normally resolute, looked lost, even as he tried to rally his players into pressing for another goal.
At the final whistle, guess what, Captain Terry bawled like a crybaby again. But this time, you really felt for him because it wouldn't be wrong to say that he had been robbed of a place in the final right at the death, like how he was robbed of the trophy right on the last penalty kick of the game last year.
The faces of jubilation and despair, the eventual outcome of every game where there must be a winner, and a loser.The final score read Barcelona 1, Chelsea 1, with Barcelona proceeding on the away goals rule. Barcelona didn't deserve to win. But Chelsea couldn't kill off the game, and Barcelona, with their only shot on goal, steered it true, and booked their passage into the final. But based on this performance, Man Utd is going to pwn their butts.