Argentine footballing ‘god’ Lionel Messi will be seeking to pass through the Chelsea master-class art of defence that prevented him from scoring at the Stamford Bridge a week ago as the two clubs clash tonight at the Camp Nou in their UEFA Champions League second leg encounter.
Barcelona’s sudden invincibility in world club football has been unmasked in just a matter of week by Jose Mourinho’s ‘Chelsea reserves’ and the special one’s Real Madrid over the weekend. The Portuguese as he normally does has started sending goodwill messages to his former team ahead of the game and hoping to meet them in the final on the 19th May, 2012.
Tonight’s decider is not going to be much different from the first leg where Barca chalked 78% of the possession and yet lost by Didier Drogba’s one shot at goal.
Di Mateo is going to put 9-10 men behind the ball to frustrate the fluid Barcelona attack anchored by Xavi Hernandez who had 178 passes complete against Juan Mata’s 11 passes complete in the first leg. Again, the Chelsea stand in coach will instruct his back wall (Branislav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill, John Terry and Ashley Cole) to patch all available holes at the back.
According to Pep Guardiola the La Masia principle is not going to change in this game. “Our first and fundamental principle is based on kids playing the ball around and having fun. That’s not going to change. The ball is the master of everything. I have faith in my players. Whenever you suffer defeat you feel a bit low but afterwards you gain faith from analyzing the facts”, Guardiola said.
Barcelona had 789 passes complete against Chelsea’s 178 passes complete in the 90 minutes of action at the Stamford Bridge and this clearly shows that the Blues have a hidden agenda for Barcelona but Pep Guardiola saids his team cannot be a third time pushovers and they will surely punish the West London club.
Psychologically Barcelona is very sick but losing against Chelsea tonight in front of their own people will be their worst ever bow in a competition and the most unthinkable results football has witnessed since the game followed statistics in 1990.
Possible Line-ups
Barcelona Chelsea
Victor Valdes Peter Cech
Daniel Alves Branislav Ivanovic
Adriano Corea Ashley Cole
Gerrard Pique Gary Cahill
Carles Puyol John Terry
Sergio Busquets Jon Mikel Obi
Andreas Iniesta Ramires
Xavi Hernandez Frank Lampard
Cesc Fabregas Raul Meireles
Alexis Sanchez Juan Mata
Lionel Messi Dedier Drogba
By: El-Amisty Nobo/Freelance Journalist