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Hiddink's special spirit is too much for Barca party
By Sam Wallace at the Nou Camp
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Barcelona's goalkeeper Victor Valdes saves
a shot from Chelsea's Didier Drogba as Barcelona's Gerard Pique
looks on during their Champions League semi-final, first leg match
at the Nou Camp / REUTERS
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Not the beautiful symphony of attacking football we expected,
instead the jarring clang of Catalan invention on Guus Hiddink's implacable,
unrelenting defence. No one spoils a party like Chelsea and last night
at here they stopped European football's biggest carnival in its tracks.
Their performance was proof that Hiddink can play the Jose Mourinho way
when the situation requires. Chelsea can stifle, defend and frustrate
with the best of them and, come this morning, most of European football
will hate them for the manner in which they stopped Lionel Messi and his
men. But if you looked hard enough at this performance there was much
to admire in Chelsea, chiefly the spirit of a team that refuses to lie
down no matter who the opposition.
His weapon of choice is aggression, he provides 90 minutes of sheer irritation
for the opposition but Didier Drogba is astonishingly effective. He led
the line on his own, isolated from a Chelsea midfield that defended in
their own half. John Terry and Alex were indefatigable and the star of
the show was Petr Cech. Even Florent Malouda put in a shift that severely
curtailed the attacking threat of Daniel Alves.
It will win Chelsea no friends, but it might just win them this Champions
League semi-final when they meet Barcelona in the second leg a week today.
As for Josep Guardiola's team, they were exhilarating to watch at times
but they played far too much of their football in front of Chelsea rather
than behind them. They have the Arsenal syndrome of over-elaboration and
it cost them at times last night.
The other problem that looms for Barcelona is the booking for Carles Puyol
that rules him out of the return leg, compounded by the injury to Rafael
Marquez that looks certain to keep him out too. Without two of their centre-halves
this will be a tall order for Barcelona in west London, where they will
surely be tested in defence rather more than they were last night. In
seven days' time Chelsea will have to demonstrate they can create as efficiently
as they can destroy.
What happened to Messi? He flickered more than once in the first half,
especially when he held off Drogba to play in Alves for a shot that Cech
saved. Then gradually the Argentine was edged to the margins, his partnership
with Alves broken up by Jose Bosingwa and Malouda and he drifted out of
the game. Samuel Eto'o and Thierry Henry, the two other parts of that
lavish attacking force, were both substituted. It was that kind of a night
for Barcelona.
Only on three previous occasions this season have Barcelona failed to
score and yet they so nearly did in five tense minutes of added time.
The substitute Bojan headed over from four yards out when Alves crossed.
Then Cech saved brilliantly when Alexander Hleb, another substitute, was
played onside by the prostrate Michael Ballack. It was the last of four
crucial saves made by the Chelsea goalkeeper.
Henry made some early inroads in the space behind Branislav Ivanovic at
right-back but by the time he was substituted the Frenchman was exhibiting
the familiar signs of frustration that were his trademark at Arsenal.
He, like the largely ineffective Eto'o, found himself chased and harried
in his every move. Hiddink's strategy was that Barcelona should never
be permitted to express the rhythm of their football and that in turn
enraged the Nou Camp.
The home crowd called out for more bookings for the men in yellow shirts,
and wanted a penalty when Henry and Ivanovic clashed in the area on 74
minutes - a request that looked borderline at best. This stadium is not
accustomed, in recent years, to not getting things their own way and they
will have bleak memories of last night. Manchester United eliminated Barcelona
in similar circumstances in last year's semi-final with a goalless draw
in the Nou Camp.
Never has Terry cleared, Peter Kay-style, as far as he could upfield to
no one in particular. Rarely have so many Premier League luminaries, like
Frank Lampard and Ballack, been content to occupy secondary roles as tacklers
and spoilers. When Hiddink claimed that he was minded to go for the throat
of Barcelona on the flight to Spain he was evidently bluffing. That or
he lost his nerve somewhere on the drive from the airport to the hotel.
He dropped Nicolas Anelka and brought in John Obi Mikel to play alongside
Ballack in a holding midfield pair in front of the back four that made
Chelsea's formation look more similar to that favoured by Rafael Benitez
at Liverpool. In the first flurry of attacks that rolled towards Chelsea
you had to wonder if the line of yellow Chelsea shirts - sometimes 11
behind the ball, never less than 10 - would hold. But gradually they wore
down Barcelona's spirit.
Alex took a crafty booking to bring Messi down in mid-run in the first
half. Alves at right-back became preoccupied with a row with Malouda that
spilt over into an argument with Drogba. It all served to distract the
home team from the job in hand. To top it all, Drogba almost scored with
six minutes left of the half which would have been the ultimate indignity
to a Barcelona team who had 70 per cent of the first-half possession.
The chance came from a terrible back pass from Marquez which allowed Drogba
to run at goal through the left channel. He snapped in his shot low and
Victor Valdes saved. Marquez was later carried off in the second half,
his knee giving way with no one around him.
Eto'o slipped the ball through Terry's legs at one point and got away
from Alex but his shot was saved by Cech. Hiddink substituted Lampard
for Juliano Belletti and switched Michael Essien from the right wing to
the centre of midfield for the last few minutes of the game. It was clever
stuff designed to give fresh impetus to Chelsea's defensive action.
It can take a lot of effort to appreciate Chelsea: you have to be a connoisseur
of grim defending and rigid tactical discipline. But you also have to
respect a team that can come to a stadium as intimidating as this one
and stick so unflinchingly to the plan. The first part of their mission
is complete but next week they will have to show us there is also some
beauty in the beast.
Chelsea 0 Barcelona 0
Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdes; Alves, Marquez (Puyol, 52), Pique, Abidal;
Xavi, TourÊ, Iniesta; Messi, Eto'o (Bojan, 82), Henry (Hleb, 87). Substitutes
not used: Jorquera (gk), Gudjohnsen, Keita, Sylvinho.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Terry, Alex, Bosingwa; Mikel, Ballack
(Anelka, 90); Essien, Lampard (Belletti, 71), Malouda; Drogba. Substitutes
not used: Hilario (gk), Di Santo, Kalou, Mancienne, Stoch.
Referee: W Stark (Germany).
Att: 95,000
The
Independent, 29 April 2009
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