Barcelona 2 Chelsea 2
Busquets 35, Iniesta 43, Ramires 45+1, Torres 90+1
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What did I tell you?
Controversy!
Drama !
Alexis Sanchez and Petr Cech, top men.
Chelsea parked the bus and got to the final.
The game-plan worked again.
The Blues defended their way to the Champions League Final.
The Barcelona attack was one-dimensional and their defence was garbage.
First drama : the skill of Alexis wrong-footed Gary Cahill, who slipped and did his hamstring.
Cahill played on for two minutes, then had to go off, Bosingwa replacing him
Victor Valdes came out to punch a ball away from Drogba but flattened Pique, who had to the leave the action, just like Cahill, after playing on for a while. Dani Alves came on.
Then Messi missed a great chance, shooting against the left leg of Cech.
Guardiola, often so cool, was stressing on the touchline already.
Mikel was booked for a wicked late hack on Sanchez in centrefield.
Every Barcelona player looked below par.
But then Cuenca crossed low from the left and the unmarked Busquets tapped in from six yards.
John Terry reacted with a thuggish knee into Alex;’s rear, a vicious foul off the ball, spotted by the linesman.
RED CARD !
Terry disgraced English football with that assault
Then Messi played in Iniesta,who scored after dazzling footwork for 2-0. A fine goal!
But a very slick Chelsea move ended with the coolest finish of the season by Ramires, who started the move deep in his own half, passed to Lampard and kept running.
Lampard held off Xavi’s challenge and played a killer through pass to the Brazilian, who scored with sublime nonchalance to grab a lifeline for the 10 men.
His scoring shot was his first touch. That’s how good Lampard’s pass was. Ramires lifted the ball sweetly over the head of Victor Valdes.
A goal of sublime skill by a Brazilian warrior who has just been booked out of the final, if his team got there.
Sometimes a pulsating sporting drama throws up a moment of preposterous beauty and the Ramires goal was one of those.
“I can’t tell you how good that finish is,” said co-commentator Gary Neville.
I’m gonna have to tell Gary Neville how good that finish was.
Gary, it’s the best finish you’ll ever see in a Champions League semi-final from a team of 10 men who are losing 2-0.
At half-time, motormouth Sky pundit Jamie Redknapp was disgusted by John Terry’s thuggery.
“At this level of football, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as stupid as that.”
After 48, Fabregas dived over a Drogba lunge and a penalty was given.
I knew Barcelona would get one of those. But Messi took the penalty and hit the bar!
Alves crossed and Alexis sent a bouncing header past the post. Drogba had a decent shot from 50 yards.
Kalou replaced Mata but proved to be utterly kalueless. Cech got a yellow card for time-wasting.
It was weird and wobbly at 2-1: Barcelona were winning, but losing on the away goal.
Ivanovic got in a header from a corner but mistimed it when he should have scored.
Messi was reduced to pulling Lampard back and got a yellow card. A mean two-footed tackle by Lampard on Fabregas earned yet another yellow card. Keita then replaced Fabregas.
It was one-way traffic with 21 players in the Chelsea half.
Jan said, “I feel sorry for people who’ve got their seats at the other end.”
TORRES came on for Drogba in 80.
Dani Alves crosed low to Alexis and his lethal sidefoot stab flew into the bottom corner but the flag went up. Alves had been half a yard offside.
Messi seemed to be lost in melacholia but revived to fire a fierce shot which hit the base of the post.
By now Chelsea were looking so good with 10 men that I was wondering whether they should play the final with 10 men.
Terry, Ivanovic, Ramires and Mereiles were already banned from the final, if they got there, from cards in this game.
Cech made a save from Mascherano and then SAshleu Cole lashed a long ball down the field and Torres broke away and went round the keeper to slot a super-dramatic breakaway goal for 2-2.
An amazing end to a rocking, compelling battle.
Skill 2 Bottle 3.
Catalonia 2 Oligarch 3
CFB 2 CFC’s ten men 3.
Frank Lampard made two goals with two passes in two games.
Minimalism. Less is more, sometimes.
Sky’s pundits were good after the game.
Graeme Souness praised the discipline of the much-derided “old guard”
Souness said: “You can never ever have a good football team, or a good football club, unless you’ve got good senior players.”
Glenn Hoddle said, “Fantastic performance defensively, over the two games, but I’ve got to say – taking nothing away from Chelsea – I’m so disappointed with Barcelona. They found it hard a few years ago against Inter Milan against ten men.
“You need overlaps in a game, you need blind side runs, you need a diagonal pass that gets the ball switched quicker. They’ve got to find another way of playing, you know, Barca. Because it was all little short passes again. You get it out wide, you get an overlap, you get an extra man. Chelsea were fantastic and just kept playing inside the 18-yard box.
“I’m very disappointed with Barcelona. For me, they’ve got to find a different way of playing sometimes.”
Hoddle added : “An amazing night of football. Incredible!”
Jamie Redknapp laughed and said, “We got paid to be here? Can you believe it?”
My Gooner pal Mitch phoned and said, “It reminded me of Parma.”
“When Lee Dixon famously asked :’How the hell did we win that?’ “, I replied.
Drogba played in midffield in both legs but still scored a goal in the first one.
Maybe he should play centreback in Munich.