Barcelona Vs. Chelsea: 10-Man Blues Top Cules For Final Spot

This piece is written in complete and deliberate ignorance of John Terry’s self-defence. If you’re into that, don’t bother reading this.

Chelsea were brilliant. They had a plan. Whether this was it or not, something worked and they are, deservedly, in the final. Or, at least, most of them are. John Terry, captain, inspiration, etc., won’t be there. But that’s OK. He doesn’t deserve to be. On the evidence of tonight, when Branislav Ivanovic and (AMAZINGLY) Jose Bosingwa were magnificent in keeping Lionel Messi and Barcelona at arm’s length, Chelsea seem to be fine without him.

Then, this happened: He scored a goal. He did it for Chelsea. He did it for a 10-man team. He did it at the Camp Nou. He did it to book a spot in the Champions League final. The world broke.

Just to be sure, we checked to confirm that really happened. Scientists have confirmed that it really did. Torres scored the £50 million goal. Science.

Related: Video of Fernando Torres’ £50 million goal

Just after halftime, Barcelona appeared to have the tie locked up when they were granted a 48th-minute penalty. Once again, they found a way to throw away their massive advantage. Messi stepped up to the spot and hit the crossbar with his penalty effort, keeping Chelsea in front. Barcelona would have all of the possession and some decent chances before the end of the game, but that would be the team’s last truly great opportunity. Or at least, their last one that counted.

UPDATE: Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea, Final Score

With the tie even on aggregate at 2-2 but Chelsea set to go through on away goals, Barcelona were pressing for a goal. Because all of their men were forward, when the ball was cleared Torres was able to latch onto it with no defenders near him. He rounded Victor Valdés and Chelsea were through.

We’ll have live coverage throughout the game in our Barcelona vs. Chelsea, 2012 UEFA Champions League StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History and FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes.

We’ll have live coverage throughout the game in our Barcelona vs. Chelsea, 2012 UEFA Champions League StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History and FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes.

On a corner kick (10-man Chelsea won a corner!), Chelsea put just three men in the box. The ball still somehow fell to the head of Ivanovic, who had a wide-open header, but missed it so badly that he hit his own shoulder. Victor Valdés was way out of position, so anything on target probably would have been a goal.

Sidenote: How bad is Victor Valdés right now? Unbelievable.

Surely there is some kind of hex on the goal that prevents Messi from scoring ... okay, probably not. But if that is the case, we’ll have compelling evidence at the end of this game. He’ll have a few more shots before it ends, and Barcelona are likely to finish this game with something like 85 percent possession,

We’ll have live coverage throughout the game in our Barcelona vs. Chelsea, 2012 UEFA Champions League StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History and FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes.

UPDATE: Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea, Final Score

For the first 30 minutes, everything was normal at the Camp Nou. Chelsea were playing with 10 men behind the ball and Barcelona were trying to break them down. The Blaugrana had some solid chances, but the Blues had their defense organized and didn’t look terribly bothered. The last 15 minutes of the first half were absolutely nothing like the first 30.

UPDATE: Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea, Final Score

Terry’s knee to Sanchez wasn’t the most violent of plays and it probably didn’t hurt Alexis too much, but it doesn’t matter. It was a dirty play that has no place in the game and could not even possibly be imagine as a “football play.” He most definitely deserved to be sent off and considering it was an intentional shot to a player away from the ball, it was predictably awful that Terry would even argue it.

We’ll have live coverage throughout the game in our Barcelona vs. Chelsea, 2012 UEFA Champions League StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History and FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes.

Pique picked up the injury during this collision, but tried to run it off. That didn’t go so well. There’s a decent chance that he played a few minutes with a concussion before deciding that was a really, really stupid idea.

We’ll have live coverage throughout the game in our Barcelona vs. Chelsea, 2012 UEFA Champions League StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History and FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes.

We’ll have live coverage throughout the game in our Barcelona vs. Chelsea, 2012 UEFA Champions League StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History and FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t play through the hamstring problem, and Jose Bosignwa has entered the game for him in the 12th minute. It’s easy to see why he couldn’t continue, this looks like it hurt quite a bit.

We’ll have live coverage throughout the game in our Barcelona vs. Chelsea, 2012 UEFA Champions League StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History and FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes.

We’ll have live coverage throughout the game in our Barcelona vs. Chelsea, 2012 UEFA Champions League StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History and FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes.

“He played a f****** good game. I mean most of the dangerous chances were created by him,” Guardiola said.

Besides actually getting angry and swearing, thus endangering his title as “World’s Classiest Man,” Guardiola has plenty more to say, especially with regards to injuries, or non-injuries, and what that means to his squad selection. He’ll have more decisions to make for the second leg, as more and more players are battling injuries and the critics are circling, ready to pound with two times the ferocity than they did after the weekend.