So here goes nothing on the first
analysis on this sight. Chelsea and
Barcelona lived up to the excitement and expectations of a clash of two soccer
giants vying to go to a Champs League final.
For the first 15 minutes it looked to be Barca’s game. Unfortunately for them it wouldn’t end up in
their favor.
Chelsea almost gave up the first
goal in the 9th minute to Alexis Sanchez but, as happened too often
in this game, the Catalans couldn’t finish.
Maybe saying he couldn’t finish isn’t fair. It’s probably truer in this
instance to say that they were unlucky. The shot was a beautiful chip that got over
Cech’s head but not under the cross bar.
Chelsea’s back line got caught looking for an offside call that wasn’t
there and almost paid a dear price for it.
Was it me or were there ALLOT of
offside calls, especially in the first half of play? Not to say they were bad
calls but good grief! Barca’s back line is a thing of beauty to watch at times
and their offside trap was a textbook showing that all soccer coaches should
show young (and maybe even some pro) players.
Really both back lines have to be commended in this game. Terry and Cahill both had an amazing showing
shutting down Messi up the middle, which is NOT an easy thing to do. And Ashley Cole was one of the hardest
working men on the field for Chelsea the entire match both defensively and a
few times on offense. In fact his kick off the line of an unreal chip was
arguably the play of the game. It was most certainly the defensive play of the
game.
I don’t know however that anyone
worked as hard on the field as Drogba did at times. What can be said about his
finishing that hasn’t already. With the
only goal coming off a great steal by Terry (stolen from Messi no less)
combined with a smart and unselfish cross from Ramires, Drogba buried the ball
quickly and concisely. He also had some very nice defensive work in the final
15 minutes. OK…. With that said can we please address how many time’s he was
laying on the ground grabbing some “injured” body part and screaming in anguish.
I understand that drawing a foul and playing things up a bit are part of the
game…..but COME ON! Did anyone else
think that maybe he should have drawn a card for diving at some point?? The
only injury he actually had was a nut shot towards the last 10 minutes. (ouch…)
The only player that had almost
zero influence on this game for Chelsea was Juan Mata. I really like Mata and
think he’s been a great addition for Chelsea but whether he was tired from the
previous FA Cup match or just off his game he was persona non grata. He was subbed in the 75th minute
for Kalou but I think that was about 15 minutes to late.
The exact opposite of Mata’s
performance was the play of Ramires for Chelsea. He seemed to be everywhere at
all times and was an integral part of both Chelsea’s linking play AND shutting
down the Catalan attack in the final 20 minutes, not to mention the beautiful
assist on Drogba’s goal. He’s not a player I’ve noticed much before but he’s
one I’ll be paying much more attention to.
It just seemed that Barcelona
couldn’t get properly organized all the way through the run of play. And when
they did the finishing let them down. Kudos does have to be given with the way
Chelsea shut them down especially in the final 20 minutes by gang tackling and
playing 8 stacked back on defense once they had the lead. Credit has to go to Chelsea for taking their
chances when given and making sure Barcelona had as few as possible.
Barcelona did have a few nice
chances in the final half of play but just couldn’t finish. In the 57th Sanchez missed from
about 6 feet out when he received and amazing chip over the top from Cesc Fabregas. To be fair though it was a very tight shot
and his first touch wasn’t 100%. One of Barcelona’s biggest problems was set
pieces. The only decent one they had
wasn’t until the 87th minute and Petr Cech made a great save off of
Puyol’s header. The last 5 minutes of
this game were a heart breaker for Barcelona as they just couldn’t get the ball
in the back of the net no matter how many chances they had.
Of course it could be argued that
this game may as well have been a 0-0 draw for Chelsea as going to the Nou Camp
is NEVER an easy thing. I’m interested
to hear people’s opinions on whether or not Robert Di Matteo should be the full
time coach at Chelsea. It seems to me that he’s woken this team up and whatever
he’s doing the team is responding. Whether it’s Di Matteo or that it’s NOT
Villas-Boas I’m not sure but I believe he’s earned an appointment as the
skipper.
Well I guess that’s all for me for
now! Please tell your friends and fellow soccer fiends about the new blog and
please give me some feedback on what you think. Also please follow me on
Twitter @SoccerNutBlog.
Thanks!
Jay N
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