BlueChampions - The Blog of the Champions of England!

We did it!

We just beat the Champions! I have to say that this is Chelsea’s best game of the season so far. Petr Cech wanted to get a television set in his hospital room so that he can watch this match. He must have been thoroughly treated with some brilliant Chelsea football. like we all have been. Barcelona should feel lucky not to have been humiliated with a 3-0 or 4-0 defeat. Chelsea was just superior to Barca tonight in all aspects of the game. Especially, our defence was just a treat to watch. We are yet to show this kind of performance in the Premiership yet.

Drogba, Makalele and Ashley Cole were reported as doubtful starters but all of them did start. I dont know if they were really unfit or it was one of Jose’s tactical mind games. Jose went for the safe bet in the team selection and he was spot on. But I would have loved to see Joe Cole and more of Robben, especially in the second half were we had so many counter-attacking chances. The whole team played very well but we should expect some improvements in Hilario, Ashley Cole and Sheva.

From the very start, you could see that Chelsea had the upper hand and were dictating the game. Barca were their usual self but the difference was Eto’o. But in fact, Chelsea’s loss of Cech is more impacting than Barca losing Eto’o to injury. Henrique Hilario had anight to remember. To keep a clean sheet against Barca is no joke. He made a good impression with his saves but for some unwarranted clearances under pressure. But I can see that he is nowhere near world class but he did a good job and was well assisted by top-class defence. That aside, I dont think Barca ever tried to take advantage of the rookie in the goal. Hilario was hardly tested and he didnt have to stretch his limits. One more good thing about Hilario playing this match is that there is a whole lot of his pictures on the web now.

Drogba – what to say? He is a different man this season. Frankly, how many would have predicted Drogba to have scored 9 goals by mid-October especially after Sheva has arrived here. He is not only scoring goals but also scoring in style. Currently he is the top scorer in the Premiership as well as the UEFA Champions league. I heard that his contract extension is still under discussion. Let’s put pen on paper right away.

We should have definitely scored atleast two more goals. We squandered some easy chances in the second half. The one that comes to my mind is the miss by magnificent Essien, when he could have passed to his right to Sheva or to his left to unmarked Carvalho. That should have been certainly buried. And also the super-shoot by Robben. And there was this two-footed tackle by Marquez on Sheva, one metre from the goal. That looked like a penalty to me while watching live and even in replays. The refreeing, on the whole, was quite good but for the Sheva penalty. No red cards! This now means that Barca are yet beat Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea when it is 11 vs 11.
In the post match conference, Boss said

It is a great victory, not just the three points but the way we got the three points. I just feel sorry we could not kill the game before, because we had many, many chances to score the second goal. For the difference between the two sides, I think 1-0 is short. Now we have to think about finishing top.

Jose also dedicated the win to Vicky Buchanan, a member of the Chelsea backroom staff, who died in a road accident on Tuesday.

It’s not just for injured goalkeepers Carlo Cudicini and Petr Cech, it’s much more sad than that. A lovely girl worked for the club and shared moments with us at the training ground. I think we have to think about Victoria and her family and this victory is for them.

Frank Rijkaard said:

It was a tight, close game until Drogba changed all that. I think I was right to take some risks by going three at the back and try and get something out of the game. But Chelsea are a great side and tough when they go ahead.

Tight game? Was he watching some other football match? Ok, it was tight, after all, Chelsea and Barca are playing but Chelsea was definitely in the driver’s seat. Barca was under constant threat from Chelsea while Hilario was wondering “you were scaring me all these days for this?”.

Khalid marked the World Footballer of the year, out of the match!

The most important thing that let down Barca tonight was the ineffectiveness of Ronaldinho and Messi. You have to give complete credit to Boulahrouz for keeping Ronaldinho quiet and frustrated. I’m becoming a fan of Boulahrouz and his street-smart defence. May be, he made the difference between a win and a draw/loss. I’m also very happy that the Chelsea defenders cut Messi to size. After his initial bursts of runs, he was largely invisible in the rest of the match.

The key statistic that made all the difference was the number of tackles. Chelsea made 42 and Barca made 28. A team like Barca that plays this build-up style of game, is surely going to be frustrated by frequent disruptions in the form of tackles. And Chelsea did this superbly well.

For some damn reason, the press is undermining this brilliant win by Chelsea. Read this article on the official website of FC Barcelona on this match. I’m very impressed at their unbiased review of the match. Some excerpts from the article:

FC Barcelona are certainly strong contenders to retain their European title, but tonight’s game at Stamford Bridge served as a reminder that there are others too. And one of those is Chelsea, deserved 1-0 winners tonight thanks to an early second half goal from Didier Drogba.

After a fairly well matched first half, the Blues dominated proceedings in the second half, squandering several chances to stretch their lead even further.

The goal stunned Barça, and Chelsea took the opportunity to push forward in search of more, having three clear chances to add to the tally in the next fifteen minutes.

If Barca are the best team in Europe, we have one hand on the cup already.

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