Positionally, Petr Cech is more reliable goalkeeper than Victor Valdes.
But this game will be nothing like last week’s 1-0 win for Chelsea.
Pique, Fabregas and Alexis will start.
Barcelona will have more zip on the flanks because Chelsea will be defending narrow with at least eight men.
Barcelona v Chelsea with the visitors 1-0 up from the first leg?
What a prospect !!
I still love football, still love big games, tight games, dramatic games.
Let\’s hope the best team wins.
But let\’s be realistic as well. Tonight will be controversial.
I’ll be amazed if it\’s not controversial.
The appointment of 35-year old Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir for his first Champions League knock-out game is surprising in itself.
He reffed Manchester United v Benfica in November.
Cakir will be one of the 12 referees in Euro 2012.
Barcelona looked very tired in the Clasico.
Khedira scored, Alexis equalised, Ronaldo got the winner.
Burn-out was inevitable. It’s not easy to go out twice a week every week for three years and be the best team in the world every time – and win 13 trophies.
Fatigue has been visible for many weeks now.
Fabregas hasn’t been sharp recently, so he was on the bench against Real Madrid.
Alexis Sanchez is too brave for his own good. I reckon that’s why he was on the bench on Saturday. Against Mourinho’s hatchet-men, hungry for the title, Alexis was likely to get hurt. Best to save him for tonight because this is a bigger game. Pique was on the bench as well.
Pep started Alexis at Stamford Bridge and I’m convinced he\’ll start him again tonight.
Alexis Sanchez is a warrior who has never won La Liga and he won\’t win it this year. But he could still win the Champions League.
If a striker is good enough to be the Italian Player of the Year at a small club like Udinese, he\’s good enough to turn Chelsea upside down while playing with Messi, Iniesta and Xavi for Barcelona.
Big night for Alexis. Guardiola signed him for situations like this. If Alexis fails tonight, Barcelona could fail. He could get crunched out of the game by heavy fouls. We shall see.
Like Chelsea, Real Madrid often score from set-pieces and that’s how their first goal came on Saturday.
Corner on the right, big Pepe got above Dani Alves, Victor Valdes saved the header, Puyol tried to protect the ball for Valdes to dive on, Khedira poked it in.
Barcelona 0 Real Madrid 1
For the second time in four days, Barcelona were struggling in the rain.
The Sky studio pundits both called it at half-time.
Michael Laudrup and Rafa Benitez said: Barcelona had nobody making runs beyond Messi, since Fabregas and Alexis were on the bench.
When Xavi did make a cute run into the box for Messi, the pass was perfect and Xavi’s shot clipped Casillas and went for a corner that wasn\’t given.
But Casillas\’s position was perfect. Almost any shot was going to hit the keeper. And I thought that any shot that went past the keeper\’s leg would go just past the post.
In the first half, Barcelona had 78% possession but no shots on target. Because their off-the-ball play had no thrust or surprise.
Alexis replaced Xavi in 68 and scored in 70, knocking the ball in at the second attempt.
In 73, Ozil, the German master of angles, played a killer pass forward into the onside run of Ronaldo, who fired fiercely past Victor Valdes to wrap up the league title.
Time between the goals?
2 minutes and 19 seconds.
Barcelona 1 Real Madrid 2.
Ozil is valuable because of the way he combines with Ronaldo, just as Alexis is valuable because of the many ways in which he can play with Messi.
Football, as we all know, is a game of partnerships.
Just as Mesut Ozil makes Cristiano Ronaldo better, so Alexis Sanchez makes Messi better. Because Alexis is very fast and strong and two-footed. He can play two-yard passes with Messi, if required to do so.
Chelsea won 1-0 last week because they suffocated Messi and blocked his shots.
Chelsea have a good chance of going through. A draw will be enough. A 2-1 defeat will be enough.
While Chelsea play power football, like Real Madrid, they lack the athleticism of the current Real side.
It\’s a big game.
Anything can happen.
Lampard could be playing deeper than Makelele ever did.
Bring it on!