Chelsea played in undoubtedly their biggest game of this campaign when they came up against European and world champions Barcelona. Nobody expected them to pull of their hard fought 1-0 victory, so what made their performance special and can they emulate it in Catalonia. They’ll head to the Nou Camp again this week facing a similar level of disbelief. Can they really hold Barca off for another 90 minutes? Can hold off the waves of attacks for long enough to score an all important away goal?
The odds may still be against Chelsea’s progression, but that won’t stop the Blues from believing that they can get the job done.
Many will remember that famous night at the Nou Camp in 2010 when Inter Milan stopped Barcelona playing their beautiful game, the Inter manager at the time was of course Barca’s nemesis Jose Mourinho. His team came with a game plan, stuck to it and won the tie and eventually went on to win the Champions League defeating Bayern Munchen 2-0.
The performance of Roberto Di Matteo’s men was reminiscing of Inter’s that night. They played with their hearts, showed no fear. Yes perhaps a bit of luck but that’s what is needed in these games that slice of luck that can ultimately decide your destiny.
They will need to go to the Nou Camp next week with exactly the same mentality, and I’m sure the video of Inter’s performance their will be used to assist Di Matteo in his master plan, but the reality is here that for all the brilliance of the Catalan giants, they will be aware that they have been in this situation before and of course never over turned a first leg defecate, and that night when Mourinho paraded the pitch when Inters guerrilla tactics prevailed Inter’s performance was hailed as the key to defeat Barcelona, this time can Di Matteo follow in his footsteps and do the same?
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