Chelsea dig deep as Drogba downs Barca
Reuters - Wednesday 18 April 2012, 20:37
Didier Drogba scored late in
the first half and Chelsea mixed luck with resolute defence to
keep free-scoring Lionel Messi in check and defeat holders
Barcelona 1-0 in their Champions League semi-final first leg on
Wednesday.
Barcelona dominated possession, hit the bar and the post and
had what looked like a certain goal cleared off the line at a
rain-lashed Stamford Bridge.
The Spaniards had 24 attempts on target compared to one by
the hosts but Ivorian Drogba made the most of his sight of goal
when he fired low and hard past Barca goalkeeper Victor Valdes
two minutes into stoppage time at the end of the first half.
"We created so many chances, I had no idea we were going to
do that, but we failed to score against a very good side who
were very strong," Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola told a news
conference.
"You have to be a strong side to be in the semi-finals of
the Champions League. We knew it was going to be a tough
challenge and it was."
Frank Lampard, who like Drogba, John Terry and Ashley Cole,
have all been rejuvenated since Roberto Di Matteo took control
of the side from the sacked Andre Villas-Boas in early March,
began the move after winning the ball from a hesitant Messi
close to halfway.
Lampard's raking pass found Brazilian Ramires whose low
cross from the left eluded the Barca defenders with Drogba
pouncing at the far post to score.
Di Matteo was full of praise for Chelsea's "old guard", who
followed up last weekend's 5-1 thrashing of Tottenham Hotspur in
the FA Cup semi-finals.
"In the past a lot public opinion said that these boys, the
old guard, are over the line and too old to play two games; they
have played two games in a short period of time, and I think
they gave the answer on the pitch tonight."
However, before and after the goal, Barca were the dominant
force with Messi orchestrating most of their attacking moves,
but for all his inspired brilliance, he was unable to conjure up
a goal either for his team-mates or himself.
The Argentine
forward, who has scored 63 goals for Barca this season, has now
failed to score in seven matches against Chelsea.
Although this match was about far more than records and
statistics, some telling numbers did emerge after a rainswept
night in West London.
The defeat was only Barcelona's third loss in 63 games this
season and they have now failed to beat Chelsea in the last six
matches against them and the Londoners are now unbeaten in 14
matches, home and away against Spanish opposition.
Those figures could all have been very different if
Barcelona had scored just once from the many chances they
created.
Back in London almost 11 months after beating Manchester
United at Wembley last May to lift the European Cup, Barca began
as if they had no intention of letting Chelsea into the match at
all.
Barcelona, bidding to become the first club since AC Milan
22 years ago to lift the European Cup in successive seasons,
took a grip of the game almost from the kickoff and went close
to taking the lead after 10 minutes when Andres Iniesta's ball
over the top found Alexis Sanchez onside and in space 15 metres
from goal.
His well-executed chip beat goalkeeper Petr Cech but Chelsea
escaped when the ball bounced back off the bar and was cleared.
Chelsea made their intentions known early on, trying to
exploit a perceived weakness in the Barca defence by playing
quick balls through the middle to Drogba. He twice ran on to
them but was let down by a poor first touch both times.
But that tactic did pay dividends for the goal - just after
Barcelona had fluffed another good scoring chance four minutes
earlier when Messi went on a jinking run through the Chelsea
defence before teeing up Cesc Fabregas with a shot that looked
goalbound until Fabregas's former Arsenal team-mate Ashley Cole
cleared the ball off the line.
Barcelona played a longer ball game in the second half, but
still totally dominated the action with Adriano forcing Cech
into a good diving save early in the half.
They almost made all their pressure tell in stoppage time
when an angled drive from substitute Pedro hit the base of
Cech's post, and rebounded to Sergio Busquets who blasted it
over the bar.
With the tie still evenly balanced ahead of next week's
second leg in Barcelona, Guardiola added: "Obviously we are
going to try and score and maybe we will have another 24
chances. But it is difficult against a side that defends as deep
as Chelsea do."