Chelsea 1 Barcelona 1
Essien 8 Iniesta 93
One goal is never enough.
Guus Hiddink knows that and so does everyone.
When Andreas Iniesta smashed in that killer goal in the 92nd minute, Chelsea complained that they had been robbed by the Norwegian ref. And they were robbed.
Tom Henning Ovrebo is the worst referee we will ever see in a European semi-final.
Dermott Gallagher, reviewing the four decisions on Sky Sports News, said two of the four penalty shouts should have been penalties.
1. 25 min : Malouda was fouled,
2. 27 min : Drogba was fouled twice.
3. 82 min : Pique handballed
4. 94 min : Eto’o handballed
Dani Alves first fouled Malouda outside the box, then fouled him inside, Malouda was looking to be eighteen inches inside the box and then go down. I didn’t think the any ref would give that so early in the game. He gave a free-kick outside the box. All refs fudge those.
(That was Malouda’s best game for Chelsea. He did 90 minutes work in the first hour.)
Drogba’s shirt was pulled by Abidal in the box, and then the left back threw his left leg across the striker, bringing him down. A clear penalty. Gallagher said it should have been a penalty AND a red card !
On Pique, I dislike penalties being awarded where a player flicks a ball when he is very close to a defender and the ball hits his arm, since many forwards do that deliberately. But Pique’s arm was up and Gallagher said that should have been a penalty. Having seen 15 replays, I can see why he says that. In real time, I would not have given it because it was ball to arm. His arm did not move
On the fourth one, Eto turned his back as Ballack hit a left-foot volley. Being very agile player with electric reflexes, Eto’o knew exactly where that ball was going. He put his left arm up deliberately to block the shot. I thought it was a penalty. Gallagher didn’t.
The Chelsea goal came from a Route 1 goal clearance by Cech which then became a good move. Cech always launches it. They don’t play out from the back like Arsenal and Barcelona. Theirs is a safety-first game, a method game, a percentage game of diagonals, flick-ons and knock-downs.
Drogba to Malouda, then Lampard lifted the ball across and back towards Essien, who volleyed in off the underside from 25 yards. A spectacular goal with his left foot and a perfect start for Chelsea against re-jigged, injury-hit opponents.
But Chelsea have to blame themselves as well as the referee. They sat back too much, looking for another breakaway goal. That did not work, mainly because four of their six chances became penalty shouts and each of the four penalties was turned down by Ovrebo.
Bottom line, Chelsea needed to score again. Against ten men, they should have risked more to score again. If they could not score against eleven men, they should have scored against ten men, after Abidal was wrongly red carded in 67. Anelka tripped himself.
If Chelsea could not score again against ten men, they should have kept the ball better.
Didier Drogba gives you the best of modern football and also the worst. A gladiator but also a diver, Drogba is a 31-year old lion who moans more than he roars. He did so much play-acting that he fooled Hiddink, who took him off (72) thinking he was crocked ! Drogba looked amazed when he was subbed. His face said, “Did I fool you, boss?”
Chelsea were scared, Hiddink was scared. They lost the tie because of fear. That’s all it was. Belletti for Drogba in 72 against 10 men was fear. They all do it. Martin O’Neill does it every week. Takes off Milner, puts on a defensive midfielder, concedes a late goal. You can set your clock by him.
In the last ten minutes of a semi like that, players get tired, marking becomes ragged, spaces open up, and one lapse of positional discipline can cost you.
In 93, Dani Alves crossed with pace, Terry’s header glanced the ball away to his right, Essien mickicked his clearance, Eto’o laid it back to Messi in the box, and Messi’s super-precise pass set up Iniesta in the D and he smashed in a Paul Scholes goal to take his team to Rome.
Messi had five good runs and the pass that made the winner.
By contrast, a couple of key Chelsea passes were a yard short. One by Anelka to Drogba, which gave him a one-on-one where he hit the keeper’s legs (53), and late on when Lampard’s pass rolled just behind Essien (87) when they had a chance for 2-0. In football, destiny rests on such tiny details.
This Chelsea team will never play again.
It will be broken up. While too gifted to ever be wholly terrible, Anelka is the most lackadaisical footballer I have ever seen. He does not care. He has no hunger. He is the laziest world class player since WW2. In every game he is outsprinted by opponents who are slower than he is. His pace is a myth. He is not fast. Pace has to be driven by desire and he lacks desire. But Anelka never disappoints me : I expect zero and I get zero.
Clearly, you can prove anything with stats. So I never quote stats.
But Chelsea, playing at home, did not control this game. Barcelona won 77.8% of their tackles, more than the home team’s 69.6.
Chelsea gave Barcelona 70% possession and only made 244 passes. Barcelona made 595 passes in the game.
Barcelona showed enormous skill, resourcefulness and guts. Their 4-3-3 style is very technical and rarified and sometimes a bit fragile. With Henry out and Keita in, it was not a like-for-like change, since Keita is a ball-winning up-and-downer. It was a total reshuffle. Pep Guardiola moved Iniesta forward and he was on the right a lot, not the left, while Messi was in the middle, and Eto’o was wide, as he was in the first leg.
When you play Barcelona your biggest problem is that you cannot close down such nimble, two-footed players. You want to get amongst them but you find that you can’t, so you drop off and defend the box. And Xavi is the hub, the mobile playmaker who spins an ever-changing web of accurate short passes.
With Puyol and Marquez out, Yaya Toure, a big midfield power player, was at centreback, where he did very well despite the positional lapses you would expect. He knows Drogba very well, having trained and played with him many times for the Ivory Coast.
The way Iniesta scored that goal demonstrated a high degree of technical command and bottle. To score with your team’s only shot on target is amazing. It was lucky but it was amazing. In 94 minutes. Petr Cech never made a save. One shot on target, one goal. (Motto at Quantico: One shot, one kill.)
Pep Guardiola, 38, has put backbone in that team. The last 12 days brought the toughest schedule in their history. Valencia away was 2-2, Chelsea at the Nou Camp was 0-0, at Real Madrid they won 6-2, and at Chelsea they won in the 103rd minute. They got kicked in every game. But Iniesta said after Stamford Bridge,”The more they kick me, the more determined I am.”
Iniesta came from Albicete in the south aged 12.
In the end, Hiddink kept what had worked in the first leg and it worked for 92 minutes and then undid him.
The game was compelling and I enjoyed it hugely. Close, dramatic and satisfying, it sets up a final between two attacking teams. I hope all coaches will look at that and learn from it. When at home, don’t play the game in your half. If you’re 1-0 up, don’t give them 70% possession.
This was the week when two semi-finals were decided and both London clubs failed.
At the Emirates, men beat boys 3-1.
At Stamford Bridge, possession beat flick-on football on away goals.
Arsenal lost an 8-minute farce and Chelsea lost a 94-minute draw.
Overall, Chelsea drew with Barcelona twice and lost on an away goals rule that was intended to make away teams attack more. Barcelona attacked and won luckily.
The pro-Chelsea bias of Sky’s coverage was rabid. It was way over the top. It was way, way over the top.
The three pundits were embarrassing. Graeme Souness loves aggressive play, we know that. Ruud Gullit is a friend of Hiddink and a former Chelsea player and manager. And Jamie Redknapp is Frank Lampard’s cousin and golf parter. How unbiased can Jamie be?
The losing semi-finalists now meet at the Emirates. Make sure you tune in for the Sky Losers Sunday Special at 4pm. It’s the biggest game since last week. Honest.