Champions League Shocker

Despite yesterday's match between Chelsea and Barcelona being played in England, the 1-0 Chelsea victory still stands out as a  shocking result. Chelsea has had some rough patches in the Premier League, currently occupying the sixth spot, but has enjoyed success in the Champions League where they now head into the second leg against Barcelona with a goal advantage. This is a good position for Chelsea, but do not forget who they are playing, Barcelona, a team that blows away sliced bread. Barcelona might be trailing Real Madrid in La Liga, but this is only by a deficit of four points, and the end result of the first leg requires attention far beyond the final 1-0 score line.

Chelsea did score the lone goal, which is the most important stat in the game, but they capitalized on one golden opportunity. Throughout the course of the game, Chelsea managed only two shots, one of which was  on target and happened to be the only goal scored, nice job Valdes. Actually , no one can blame Valdes, the guy may as well bring a pillow to every game and take a nap. Barcelona would allow roughly the same amount of goals throughout the course of a season if he did take naps. This game was no different with Barcelona controlling 74% of the possession and probably completing around 1,000 passes. Barcelona managed six shots on target and hit the post twice, generating a total of 23 attempts. By no means were the Spanish Powerhouse slacking or under-performing. In fact, the statistics to this game look very similar to many games Barcelona plays, the goals were the only stat that did not reflect how much they dominated this game. The finishing of Barcelona just wasn't there and when Fabregas directed the ball toward the net, a great defensive play was made to prevent the goal from being scored.

Passing Machine

Going home in a one goal hole is nothing for Barcelona to worry about. Defeating Barcelona at home is extremely difficult, even coming in with an advantage in the aggregate score. Inter Milan knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League in 2010, but that was following a 3-1 win for Inter in their home leg. I'm predicting a 4-0 win for Barcelona in the second leg with Messi scoring two goals and reaping the praise of countless people as the greatest player now and of all eternity. For Chelsea to win this game, Abramovich would need to pay out some serious cash to the referees, which he could probably afford, but that probably still would not be enough to beat Barcelona at home, especially in such an important game. Instead, Abramovich will most likely use that money to purchase another repulsive player so John Terry can mess around with his wife/girlfriend. That's beside the point, though. What deserves recognition in respect to the upcoming second leg between Barcelona and Chelsea is that Barcelona controlled the first game regardless of the score. It is also very doubtful that Chelsea will be able to hold Barcelona to fewer than two goals at the Camp Nou. That would mean that Chelsea would need to score again to hold on to any hope of advancing to the final, which would be very difficult if they generate the same attack as in the first game.

As mentioned earlier, Inter was able to dispose of Barcelona in the Champions League, but that was in the midst of a truly wonderful season in which Jose "The Special One" Mourinho guided his team to the coveted Treble. That Inter team had a spectacular year whether you would like to admit it or not and Jose Mourinho is a master mind coach, again, whether you would like to admit it or not. Chelsea already fired Andre Villas Boas and are under the control of Roberto Di Matteo. Only the most optimistic of Chelsea fans would believe that Di Matteo can find a way to stop the Barcelona onslaught in the second leg.

I think you can expect Barcelona to come out in the second leg doing nothing different than usual. Barcelona will hold possession, thus controlling the game, and harass Chelsea's defense like John Terry does to his teammates wives. Okay, I'll stop with the John Terry jokes, but I still don't like what he does. Barcelona will also accomplish it's most usual result, a victory. Barcelona is a winning team and they do that very well. While the type of soccer Barcelona plays does not cater to everyone, no one can deny that it is a recipe for victory that the club has nearly perfected (because if it was perfected they would never lose, perfect is perfect, no excuses) over the last few years. Without hesitation I'm taking Barcelona to win the second leg decisively and claim a spot in the Champions League final.