LA LIGA & REAL MADRID

[Von!-x]

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Barcelona 2-1 Chelsea: FT Report

PA

Two second-half goals from Maxi Lopez and Samuel Eto'o condemned Chelsea to a 2-1 first leg defeat against Barcelona in the Nou Camp stadium.

An own goal by Juliano Belletti had gifted the Barclays Premiership side a first-half lead but they failed to hold on to their advantage after the break and the game turned when striker Didier Drogba was cruelly sent off by Swedish referee Anders Frisk for a second bookable offence.

Substitute Maxi Lopez equalised with a right-foot drive in the 66th minute and then his shot was diverted in by Eto'o seven minutes later.

Mourinho had insisted it was "almost impossible" for Damien Duff to have taken any part in the game because he was in so much pain from the knee injury he collected in Sunday's FA Cup fifth round defeat by Newcastle that he could hardly walk.

But the winger made a mockery of Mourinho's claim as he sped on to Frank Lampard's 40-yard pass and sent over the low cross that Barcelona defender Belletti turned into his own net in the 33rd minute.

The goal arrived totally against the run of play with the Primera Liga leaders in full control in the opening half.

But Chelsea could have finished the opening 45 minutes two goals to the good had Drogba realised he had more time and space to finish off another wonderful through ball from Claude Makelele.

Predictably, against a team rated as favourites to lift the Champions League crown and seven points clear at the top of their domestic league, Chelsea began the first leg in a somewhat nervous fashion.

And it was hardly a surprise to anyone in the vast bowl that is the Nou Camp, that Barcelona contrived an opening after only three minutes.

Frank Lampard's distribution is normally unquestionable but his lack of accuracy allowed Samuel Eto'o to intercept the ball and slip Ronaldinho in the clear on the left flank.

But the Brazilian's shot whistled past Petr Cech's left-hand post as did another effort from Eto'o himself moments later as the hosts took full advantage of an edgy Chelsea defence.

The Londoners were further exposed in the 10th minute when their defence failed to deal adequately with a cross from Ludovic Giuly and Ronaldinho sent another right-foot shot wide of the target. Chelsea's midfield, with the exception of the hardworking Claude Makelele, displayed limited ambition to attack.

Instead, their tactical preference was to close down the space and time for the playmaking Deco and Giuly, along with Ronaldinho and Eto'o in attack.

The plan worked for much of the opening half with Barca restricted to few clear cut opportunities to open the scoring.

Two minutes after Belletti's error, Drogba could have put Chelsea two in front when Makelele's admirable through ball left the Ivory Coast striker in the clear.

But, with only goalkeeper Victor Valdes to beat, Drogba sent his shot wide of the right-hand post for a costly miss.

In the 38th minute, Chelsea began to take full advantage of a Barcelona side clearly reeling from Belleti's blunder and Joe Cole sent a 20-yard effort just too high as, for once, the Nou Camp fell silent.

The game erupted into controversy in the 55th minute when Anders Frisk red-carded Didier Drogba for what appeared to be nothing more than a 50-50 challenge for the ball with goalkeeper Victor Valdes.

Drogba had been booked in the first half for a foul on Rafael Marquez and, when the Chelsea striker and the goalkeeper went down as a result of the collision, the Swedish official produced a second yellow for the Ivory Coast man.

For the second time in as many games, the Londoners now found themselves down to 10 men, only this time they had 35 minutes to cope with a Barcelona attack given fresh hope by Chelsea's numerical handicap.

The Barca fans were also guilty of racist abuse towards Drogba with 'monkey' chants filling the air as he trudged slowly towards the visiting dugout.

In the 65th minute, Chelsea's luck held as substitute Andres Iniesta sent a left-foot shot inches wide of the post after Ricardo Carvalho had managed to block the first effort from Eto'o.

But a minute later the hosts were level when substitute Maxi Lopez finished off a three-man move involving Ronaldinho and Eto'o.

Lopez managed to squirm his way clear of William Gallas to fire an angled right-foot beyond Petr Cech in the Chelsea goal.

Worse was to come in the 73rd minute when Chelsea failed to cut out Maxi Lopez's drive from the right and Eto'o hit the matchwinner with a crisp drive from eight yards to give them a slender advantage to take to Stamford Bridge.

[Von!-x]

I woke up 430 am just to watch Chelsea play against Barcelona. It was all Barcelona goals, even they gifted one for Chelsea.

I think Barca held the ball 65%-70% of the time. Their attacks are deadly and in span of less than 10 minutes, they produced two goals.

Chelsea did a superb effort in defending the goal but what can they do with ten men against a very cunning opponent. The refs should not have sent off Drogba. But I think Drogba wasted two very important goal opportunities.

Ahhh, there will always be next time for Chelsea but they're on a very dangeorus position.

[fingolfin]

.saw the game. As expected English teams can't "play" in spanish grounds.

[K|D]

Im pretty neutral on the subject of spanish vs english FCs, but i like the french players.... henry, trezeguet, zidane, viera, pires, silvestre, makelele, saha to name a few and barthez as well at goalie... Man what a national team!!

[Von!-x]

The french national team is a disappointment lately. Both Spain and England and not achieving much on the international scene.

But between the La Liga and the EPL, I dont know which is better, but they're both better than the other leagues. I saw more of the EPL in the cable, but saw some La liga games too.

Btw, Valencia is out of the EUFA cup, and Ranieri was shown the door out. What is happening to Valencia?

[fingolfin]

the French national squad is very good on paper, but when they are on the pitch they suck big time. In their hay-day, they won the WC in 98 and Euro 2000, but have they defended their titles with style?? Nope, WC 2002 one of the biggest upsets in sports history in which the defending champions failed to reach the knockout phase, same goes for their perfomance in last year's Euro in Portugal.

in terms of national teams, BRAZIL is still top of everybody. They are so good that they can fill up 3 first class squads. When you're brazilian and you are playing for the national team then you are really really good. The underachievers for me is Spain and England. Plenty of talent and no trophies. and Netherlands; Ruud, Makaay, Seedorf, Davids, shit.

back to ECC, Arsenal is out of contention. Real can still slip and so does AC Milan. Inter should not rest cause Porto is still dangerous. Chelsea has no chance against Barca. The other games, i don't really care.heheheh

[ichiro]

i don't consider myself a chelsea fanatic but i started to have a high respect with the blues when coach mourinho took over the perennial EPL underachieving team and steer them into an elite squad they are right now. basically this team doesn't have big-time marque players who have a lot of exposure on the big stage but i could say they really work together as a team and that's more than enough to turn the tide in their favor.

with that display of mediocre performance during their first clash with barca, it seemed they still can't get away with the FA cup hangover and knocked them down on their plays. they lose the ball cheaply and were not aggressive to tackle and regain the ball's possesion. thanks to drogba being sent off by the controversial referee himself, anders frisk, they cannot hold off the assault of the home team from virtually any direction. replay showed that drogba could be forgiven from that collision and besides mr. frisk seemed didn't have clear view of the incident as he's just 20 or 30 yards away. but being in control of the situation, he booked the striker as he saw fitting with the environment. lest, he'll be in the ideal position to provoke the wrath of the catalans and could be in the receiving end once again with those missiles from the crowds just as what happened in as roma last december.

the damage has been done and the chance of the londoners to proceed to the quarter finals is now hanging by the thread. i think the big factor why my gut feel won't betray me and rule them out of the contention is due to the precious away-goal they stole on the 1st leg. okay, that was a gift via special delivery off beletti's foot from duff's cross, but it manifested how agile the counter-attack of chelsea really is. they're a team boasting a solid defensive stoppers from the midfied down to the centerback yet they're awfully quick to deliver the package to their surging strikers on the frontlines in the likes of gudjohnsen, kezman or drogba.

im eager to see the rematch between these two league leaders in their respective premier division. once again it's gonna be a classic match between epl's best vs primera liga's finest. as i've tend to develop an affinity with the english side, i'm tempted to say 1-0 victory by the home team. (note: upset is not the appropriate word here as statistics does not always predict the outcome of the game. this is a world of futbol and anything could happen. see france vs senegal or korea vs italy - wc2k2 if u know what i mean.)

however, barca is such a very dynamic team this season that opponents seem to stop playing and caught off-guard by the fluidity of their attack. it's undeniable this is mainly due to the cunning ability of the attacking midfielder ronaldinho orchestrating the assault and provide infinite crosses and precise passes to those finishers on the box. eto'o is such a solid scorer with decent support from deco, xavi and just recently from their newly discovered firepower maxi lopez.

but being one-sided that i am just for this match-up, my 2nd leg prediction: same 2-1 result and this time it's the blues taking the honor. imperative that a 1-0 score for the home side on the extra period is just but necessary to go for the kill.

just my 2 cents if u don't mind...

[fingolfin]

nice of you ichiro to drop by, welcome in istorya.net.....................

Madrid's hope of winning the La Liga title has flown out the window. Loss to Depor 2-0 means Barca is 9 points ahead. Oh well, the only trophy they can feasibly win is the ECC.

[Von!-x]

Even though Barca drew with a squad at the bottom of the La Liga, REal is not making any potent threat for the trophy. Now they lost again.

As for Chelsea winning against Barca, it is still possible. I hope they win against Liverpool today in the League Cup final.

[ichiro]

indeed, real's chance to catch up with barca at the top of the table starts to getting bleaker with their back-2-back loss to even slacker opponents.

though it's a relief that real is back to their form lately after their considerable run this year, but it's still not convincing enough that while they're spectacular in slaying other european giants in ECC, they could not dominate the local games on night in-night out basis.

man, i missed the invincible real madrid of 2000/01!