Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea: Mountains Conquered (agg 2-3)
One Di Matteo.....
By Since66
April 25 2012
Three long long years in the making, three long long years waiting, waiting for the opportunity to avenge the travesty and diabolical decisions meted out by a certain Mr Ovebro at The Bridge on that infamous night in May 2009.
Chelsea climbed the UEFA and Barcelona mountains in the Nou Camp last night and Chelsea firmly planted the Blue Flag to fly as high and proud for all eternity.
Chelsea didn’t just win on the away goal, Chelsea scored twice (still rubbing eyes in disbelief) and knocked out the reigning champions 3-2 on aggregate.
Last night’s draw was the 4th successive game that Chelsea came away on par and more and most importantly the result puts Chelsea into the Champions League FINAL on Saturday 19th May 2012.
Two nil down with seconds to go before half-time, Super Frank (inspirational, playing on the 4th anniversary of his Mother’s death), fed in a charging Ramires racing towards Valdes’ goal, as Valdes approached and in true Brazilian samba style, Ramires chipped the ball over Valdes outstretched arm and he gleefully watched the ball nestle into the far corner of Barca’s net.
Minutes after the break, Drogba was harshly judged to have fouled the diving Fabregas in the area, then Messi stepped up to blast the penalty kick against the bar – thank you Ruud Gullit’s Blue Angel – for the second game in succession.
AND MESSI STILL CANNOT SCORE AGAINST CHELSEA!
With the clock ticking down and the likelihood of Chelsea progressing through the away goal rule, an almighty clearance from Chelsea’s area found Fernando Torres unmarked upfield. Torres controlled the ball and galloped off with not one Barcelona player in sight.
Torres rounded Valdes and slotted home into an empty net.
Cue Gary Neville……. UNBELIEVEABLE!
Cue mass hysteria!!
Cue mass celebration!!
Against the odds. Chelsea in the spirit of St George, conquered the dragon in their own back yard no doubt leaving a ‘shell-shocked’ Platini shaking his head in his hands in total disbelief!
CHELSEA’S REVENGE AND BARCELONA’S REDEMPTION IS NOW COMPLETE!
Ramires, Meireles and Branislav Ivanovic will miss the final due to the yellow card totting up procedure and JT (Captain, Leader and Legend) will also miss the final after being showed a red card for inexplicably kneeing Sanchez in the back of his thigh, minutes after Busquets had given the hosts a 1-0 lead.
Only JT will know why he did it, but I doubt we will ever find out the real reasons for his uncontrollable ‘red-mist’ attack!
Sanchez’s reaction didn’t help JT’s cause as it took Sanchez a full ten seconds to act ‘platooned’ once he hit the ground with his arm raised!
As Martin Samuel wrote in his column:
STUFF PURISM, THIS WAS A TRIUMPH OF SHEER WILL
Barcelona: Valdes, Mascherano, Pique (Alves 25), Puyol (c), Busquets, Cuenca (Tello 67), Xavi, Fabregas (Keita 73), Iniesta, Sanchez, Messi.
Goals: Busquets 34, Iniesta 43
Booked: Iniesta 49, Messi 70
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill (Bosingwa 12), Terry (c), Cole, Lampard, Mikel, Meireles, Mata (Kalou 57), Drogba (Torres 79), Ramires.
Goals: Ramires 45, Torres 90
Sent Off: Terry 36
Booked: Mikel 31, Ramires 44, Ivanovic 47, Cech 58, Lampard 71, Meireles 88
NEXT UP: QPR (h), Sunday 29th April 2012, kick-off 13.30pm.
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Typical of us, at our weakest in years, to pull off a performance of such sheer will and bloody mindedness and actually reach the final.
My reaction after the final whistle? "Take that UEFA and Platini you ****s!"
A night that wont be forgotten for me.
"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they dont like it." P Kenyon.
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“They know nothing about character and personality. They know nothing about the effort or what it is to resist physically, emotionally and technically, with 10 men. They know nothing about organisation. They know nothing.
“That’s why my heroes at Chelsea are in my mind and why Chelsea deserve to be in the final. One of the great things about football is that it is unpredictable. Chelsea have fantastic fans and so do Bayern Munich so I hope they enjoy the final. And I hope Chelsea win.”
Jose Mourinho
,
"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they dont like it." P Kenyon.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:04:28:07:19:34 by dixon9.