Hi folks
Only stopped in at the EasyInternet to check my email but couldn't resist a quick visit to the Spotlight.
I, like BBS, was at the game. It was a great night of football. From Chelsea's side, great individual performances by Makalele (how many times did he steal the ball from under people's feet?!). Lampard and Gudjohnsson showed technical skills running at defenders that even I didn't think they had... I think Robben ran around defenders twice as much as Ronaldinho did! Terry, Carvalho, Ferreira (does he think he's a stiker after scoring last week?!
) ... good performances all around. For the first part of the 2nd half, it almost didn't look like they were playing with only 10 men.
But in the end, when teams this evenly matched (yes, I think they are nearly perfectly evenly matched), 10 vs 11 is going to show and Barca should and very easily could have padded the score. It was a bad idea not to do so, and it looked like Barca relaxed a bit in the last 10 minutes when they could have left 3-1 or 4-1. Solid performance from the Catalans and some quite decent defending alongside their always strong attack.
For Barca, Messi was certainly the best player on the pitch last night. Great performance, amazing talent and speed. But so sad to see him fake injury after clashing with del Horno. No room for that in the game, I say. (and no, I won't defend Robben in the Liverpool incident either). I don't think del Horno faked it because you could see by his face he was in pain (and halfway limped off the field after the card). The red card was harsh.
I'll remain optimistic about the second leg. It's a bit of history repeating so far... 2-1 in the first leg, red card, own goal. The question is, can you win 4-2 at the Nou Camp? Not if Drogba plays like that!
