Barcelona drew with Chelsea 1-1 in the second leg of the Champions League pre quarter finals to advance on aggregate (3-2) having won the first leg 2-1.

Revenge is sweet. Last year was heart breaking for the fans of Barcelona including yours truly. The exit after losing to Chelsea in the two leg Champions League pre quarters was very hard to digest. After all Barcelona was playing excellent football. Being excellent is not good enough though. The game is so uncertain that it can change within minutes. You have to fight against the unpredictable nature of the game itself. That is when a team keeps winning which translates to real greatness.

Coming to the game. Chelsea started off controversially arriving late in the tunnel. Jose Mourinho was already there but the team wasn’t. It meant that the start was delayed by three minutes. The early game saw some excellent passes between Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho. A great and a possible future great combining to create magic. Messi limped off in the 25th minute, which may explain why he missed the weekend La Liga match, to be replaced by Henrik Larsson.

The first half was tight with Barcelona having more possession. They had a lot more chances as well. Chelsea managed a few chances which were more dangerous but without result. Crespo replaced Drogba in the 58th minute while Mourinho theatricals were showing no signs of reducing in the back ground. Crespo soon had a real chance of scoring but strike was wide to the anguish of Chelsea.

Ronaldinho kept up his skill and as the clock ticked on, the task at hand kept becoming tougher. It became near impossible when Ronaldinho scored the first goal of the match in the 78th minute. John Terry’s defense had no answer to the Ronaldinho brilliance. All Chelsea could do was hope to score two goals to force an over time. Had the shot of Eto’o gone in instead of hitting the pole for a 2-0 score line, the victory would have been more convincing.

It didn’t matter. Neither did the penalty scored by Frank Lampard in the 90th minute when John Terry was fouled in the box. The 1-1 score line was enough for Barcelona to advance into the quarters of the Champions League, having already won the first leg 2-1. Mourinho can lay no charges on Messi for play acting. He cannot lay charges on Rijkaard. He may well have some thing to say. I don’t care if he appreciates Barcelona or lays more allegations on it actually.

I know what the score line says. To state I am happy would be to say there has been death when there was man slaughter. Moments like these when the feelings are so over whelming reiterates the beauty of sport. There are wins, there are lessons. There aren’t any losses.

Barcelona: Valdes, Oleguer, Puyol, Marquez, Van Bronckhorst, Deco, Edmilson, Motta, Messi (Larsson 25), Ronaldinho, Eto’o.

Subs Not Used: Jorquera, Belletti, Giuly, Sylvinho, Van Bommel, Iniesta.

Booked: Motta, Puyol.

Goals: Ronaldinho 78.

Chelsea: Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho, Terry, Gallas, Joe Cole (Huth 83), Makelele, Lampard, Duff (Gudjohnsen 58), Robben, Drogba (Crespo 58).

Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Maniche, Geremi, Wright-Phillips.

Booked: Joe Cole.

Goals: Lampard 90 pen.

Att: 98,000

Ref: Markus Merk (Germany).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 7th, 2006 at 10:54 pm and is filed under Football, FC Barcelona. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.