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Never in my whole entire life as a Chelsea supporter, have I been able to witness such an amazing 2 weeks of European football. Not only have we been able to reach the Champions League final, but we were able to do it, by overthrowing the darlings of European Football, Barcelona! At the very beginning, I thought we could never do it, but here I am, sitting here, writing a blog on this site, telling you how enthusiastic I am with my Chelsea heroes!

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Chelsea 1-0 Barcelona – UEFA Champions League – 18/4/12

Didier Drogba’s goal on the stroke of half time was the only goal scored here, amid a constant early threat from Barcelona at Stamford Bridge! The Catalans had hit the woodwork twice during the game.. once when Alexis Sanchez lobbed the ball over Petr Cech only for it to bounce off the crossbar, and secondly, in the last few seconds of the game when Pedro’s effort went through everyone and bounced off the post! We were so lucky, but in the end, we were able to get a very precious victory to take to the Nou Camp!

“One Shot, One Goal”, that’s all it took! Barcelona could have had all the possession, all the passing, and all the shots.. but what mattered the most, is that the number of goals were more for us than them on the night, and we went away thinking, that only half the job was done, but that part of the job was a hard one in itself, as it meant that Barcelona had failed to score against us away from home, which meant the away goals rule was firmly on our side going into the second leg the following week!
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Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea (Agg: 2-3) – UEFA Champions League – 24/4/12

This is a night, that I will never, EVER forget!

The night we defied all the odds, the night where 10 men wearing Chelsea badges on their shirts became warriors and heroes, the night that we over-threw the darlings of European football, rubbed it in their fans’ faces, and starting singing songs about going to Munich! This was the night when I had been reminded what it was like to be a hardcore Chelsea fan! It felt like we had won ugly because of our constant sitting back and defending, but it was worth it because our defence worked so hard in keeping Barca out for a whole second half, and for it to be rounded off by a goal scored by Fernando Torres, it was just a beautiful sight!

It was difficult to begin with however, as goals from Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta had put the tie in their favour with goals that you had expected to see at some point in the game. Sandwich those goals with a stupid dismissal of John Terry after he had jousted a knee into the back of Alexis Sanchez which was just…. uncalled for! At 2-0 down, and with JT sent off, it seemed like we had lost the plot, and JT was to be blamed for everything……

….not on our watch!!

Ramires, linking up well with Frank Lampard puts us back in it with a tremendous lob over Victor Valdes, and puts us right back into the tie, scoring a huge and vital away goal… half time whistle goes, and we all start to believe again!

The beginning of the second half started very sourly though, as Barcelona got a penalty after Cesc Fabregas played for a foul following Drogba’s tackle on him, but Lionel Messi, whom despite his world class fame, had never scored a goal against Chelsea in his career, and has his penalty pinged off the bar and came out.. you could say, that the blue angel that had watched over us in the game at Stamford Bridge, was certainly on our side at the Nou Camp as well!

The Barcelona wave was not done there however! Alexis Sanchez almost beat the offside trap to nod the ball in only for it to be waved off. Javier Mascherano tested Petr Cech from some way out, and Messi tested Cech from the same distance, only for it to be palmed lightly onto the post! In between these efforts though, endured more than just blood, sweat and tears, as we constantly defended for our lives.. a squad that had no Terry or Cahill, Jose Bosingwa playing at “LEFT centre back” and a man light!

…. and then …. it happened!

Ashley Cole deep in the penalty box hoofed the ball up the pitch, and on the end of it, the lone substitute, Fernando Torres who sprinted up the pitch all alone in the Barcelona half, up came Valdes to meet him, but Torres was able to sneak round him and roll the ball into the net, levelling the score up at 2-2 and sending us to Munich for our second European Final in 4 years!

Now if THAT GOAL, is not worth £50 million, then I could probably sell my tatty old sofa for the same amount at a car boot sale if I wanted to! And if that goal doesn’t bring back his old self again, you might as well sign me up and put me up front and sell Drogba!

To this day, I still can’t believe how we did it, with 10 footballers on the pitch, no recognised centrebacks and no captain, we beat Barcelona at the Nou Camp.. it just goes to show, that no matter how well-recognised a football club is for their beautiful football, it doesn’t mean they’re the best and that they’re not beatable! Football is a funny game!

I will never forget this night, and I hope to the heavens that we can beat Bayern Munich in the final. The odds are stacked against us because Munich will be playing on familiar grounds, but to me, that’s bullshit! If we can beat one of the greatest football clubs, who play the greatest football ever seen.. in their own back yard, we can dispose of the Germans, and we will finally win what Roman Abramovich has been dreaming of having for a whole decade… the European Trophy! ….. and we will be the first London club to do so as well!!

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First of all, I would like to make an apology to anyone who reads my entries for not updating my blog immediately after this game had finished! I was a little busy at the time, and as a result, I never got round to writing it.

And now, onto the game…

In Lisbon, we were able to take home with us, a 1-0 victory thanks to Salomon Kalou’s late strike, assisted by Fernando Torres.. and in the home meeting at Stamford Bridge, there was no excuse not to finish the job. Thankfully, albeit a wobbly end to the game, we got the job done, and may I say, the goal from Raul Meireles at the end was an absolute gem!

Things started off so well for us, when Ashley Cole was bundled down into the penalty area by Benfica’s Javi Garcia, and Frank Lampard had no problem converting the penalty to make it 1-0 to us at the Bridge, and a very comfortable 2-0 lead on aggregate.

What really bugged me throughout the game, were all the massive chances we had of sealing the tie, giving us an easy passage through to the semi-final tie against Barcelona. Torres, Kalou and Juan Mata all had big chances to score the second goal, and at a time where Benfica only needed 2 goals to go through, it was very crucial, just so the nerves would be put to rest.

Come the end of the game though, us fans were living on the tips of our nerves. We put our foot off the gas for one second, and Benfica levelled up the score with 5 minutes left to go. Javi Garcia nodding in a header from a corner, which meant another goal for them would take them through. The scores would be level, but Benfica would have scored more away goals, thus sealing our fate.

But later we had to thank a man, a former Porto superstar that Benfica supporters love to hate, Raul Meireles, with a quite breathtaking bit of solo display to waltz up the field with the ball following a failed Benfica attack, and place a sweet strike into the near top corner of the net and seal our semi-final showdown with Barcelona.

It was a very nervous end to the game, which does worry me to some extent. If we are going to beat a club like Barcelona, we need to show none of that. We all know how the Catalans can punish teams who show a lot of nerves. Thankfully, from what I’ve been reading, people like Roberto Di Matteo and John Terry show none of that fear, but instead reveal unfinished business with the Spanish giants, like when they knocked us out in 2009 through Iniesta’s last gasp strike.

But no team is invincible. We have beaten them at Stamford Bridge before, and we have faced them as many times as any of these other big teams. I’ve watched matches where Jose Bosingwa actually had a good game at the Nou Camp, and Dutchmen like Khalid Boulahrouz had Ronaldinho in his pocket for a whole 90 minutes, and who could forget the quick 3 goals at the beginning of…. yeah you should know the rest of that game!

As a Chelsea supporter, I don’t fear Barcelona.. in fact I pity them.. they play amazing football, but they don’t have warriors like John Terry, who would want nothing more than bringing a Champions League trophy to the King’s Road for the first time.

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With every game we win, I’m really starting to trust Roberto Di Matteo’s philosophy because judging from the results we’re getting under his leadership, albeit an interim one, it’s giving us all the confidence we need to turn our season around, and hopefully end the season, either with a Champions League place, or even winning the Champions League.

And our great form under Di Matteo continued today with a very well-deserved 4-2 away win over Aston Villa. Considering that this was only our 2nd win at Villa Park in 12 meetings, I’d say this was a key win today.. and Arsenal lost 2-1 away to QPR, so it’s smiles all round for us blues. If Swansea can defeat Spurs tomorrow, then that would just be the icing on the cake!

Daniel Sturridge got us off the mark with a tap in on 9 minutes, and then it stayed 1-0 until Branislav Ivanovic popped up to nod in our second goal. Villa fought back however through goals by James Collins and Eric Lichaj to make it level at 2-2, and suddenly, all hope looked bleak.. another game at Villa park without a win was looming… until Ivanovic smashed in our third, and then Fernando Torres, after 6 months without a league goal, ended his drought with a last minute strike.

Speaking of Torres, I think he deserves all the recent plaudits given to him by the Chelsea fans. It wasn’t very long ago that he was playing second fiddle to Didier Drogba because he was on the decline under Andre Villas-Boas, and there were question marks on his future at the club.. now under Roberto, he has found the sparkle in his form, and is now linking up well with Juan Mata and Daniel Sturridge in attack, and it looks like we’re finally seeing the Torres of old.

Another player I want to talk a little briefly about is Mata. When I first saw the team sheet before the game, I said to myself, “oh goodness me, why is he starting again for Chelsea? He NEEDS to rest!” .. but to tell you the truth, Mata certainly plays well for someone who’s played 4 straight matches without being able to rest.. he was one of our star performers until he had to come off for Florent Malouda.. definitely deserved the plaudits, and should have definitely scored a goal for himself.

And just a little more here about David Luiz coming off at half time? What was wrong with him. Some people say that he came off with an injury to his ankle. Well, when he walked off the pitch to be replaced by Gary Cahill, he was walking perfectly fine to me. Maybe it was a slight injury to his ankle, and nothing more than that. I reckon he will be fit for the home leg against Benfica next week.

In conclusion, great win! Especially at a venue where we don’t win very often, and Roberto Di Matteo is certainly getting it right in terms of rotating the squad, and letting players work in the way that they want. It was never like that under AVB.. players emotions and feelings were all over the place back then, and hence the barrage of defeats.. but under RDM, players play because they care about the club, and the turnaround of results in all competitions we’re in really proves that. Can we snatch 4th place from Tottenham… I say YES… we can!