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Chelsea and Barcelona have a lot of recent history. The blues knocked them out of the Champions League in the quarter finals two seasons ago, and in return Barcelona knocked Chelsea out in the Round of 16 last season, both matches containing a handful of controversial decisions.
Jose Mourinho is always in the headlines, and more often than not, for the wrong reasons. Making unprofessional claims is a habit of his, and lot of these have been aimed at Barcelona over the past couple of years. When Barcelona beat Chelsea at the Nou Camp in 2005, Jose Mourinho claimed he had seen the referee talking to Barcelona manager Rijkaard in his office at half time, he later admitted this wasn’t true. Last season, when Del Horno got sent off for 
a foul on Messi, Jose accused him of cheating, displacing any blame from his own player. His constant complaining was met with a lot of criticism, the BBC asking “Does Jose Mourinho believe it is impossible for Chelsea to lose without it being down to a mistake from an official or an act of cheating?”
When the two teams met a few weeks ago, Jose then laid in to Gudjohnsen, who had left the blues for Barcelona in the summer. Gudjohnsen dived in that game, and Jose claimed nothing like that goes on at his club, and that Eidur must have learnt it from his time at Barca.
Yesterday, the two teams met again, and although both Jose and Messi had asked for a calm game, it seems both teams knew they were going to match each other, cheat for cheat, from the moment the whistle blew. The first culprits of the evening were Ashley Cole and Michael Essien, hopelessly diving forward, arms and legs sprawled, within the first few minutes of the game. From this point onwards, it spiralled out of control. Cynical fouls, shirt pulling, shameless diving, and wincing in “agony”. Marquez brought his studs down, seemingly intentionally, on Essien’s groin, which was later returned by Carvalho’s studs on Deco’s groin. Drogba, who once claimed he dived and said it was a part of the game, has been praised for turning his game around so far this season. Last night, he reverted back to his old tactics in a shocking manor. He looked close to tears on several occasions when contact was minimal, if there at all. He shoved Motta down by the neck, then jogged on casually, which was met by a two handed shove from Marquez. Both teams were incensed on several occasions that no red cards were handed out, however, ten yellow cards did get shown amongst the players, and if these had been dealt out to every blatant dive, the game would have had to have been called off. At one time, Deco, who should have been remembered for his great goal in the opening minutes, will be remembered for his countless dives. He was rolling around on the ground on one occasion, until England captain John Terry booted the ball at his chest, which caused Deco to instantly get to his feet and complain to the ref. However, it makes you wonder if Wayne Rooney had been guilty of a similar crime, would he have seen red? And would he have been branded immature, temperamental and of having an attitude problem?
All in all, it was an extremely disappointing game. When you consider the, at times, beautifully skilful players on that field, from Ronaldinho to Robben, Deco to Ballack, Messi to Drogba, it is hard to believe they could produce such an appalling game of football. After trawling through all the post match drivel, I did come across one comment that rang true. “The worst thing about playing against Chelsea is having to listen to the stupid things that Mourinho says,” Edmilson told reporters.
Both teams, instead of blaming the other and claiming innocence for themselves, need to watch the replay of that game, and hold their heads in shame. I thought the World Cup was intolerable for cheating, but this has to be one of the worst matches I have ever been unfortunate to watch. Neither team deserved any points from that disgraceful showing, although both seem blissfully unaware of their own dire short comings.
Sorry but the lasting memory should be that of a thrilling game by two of the worlds outstanding teams.
So what if some players got booked (there where no serious incidents)? So what if the managers get a bit excited? So what if players are pumped up also before and after the game?
A disgrace? Come on! This political correctness must stop. Emotions are curbed in a dangerous way in football these days.
I copied and pasted quotes from the broadsheet in response to being called amateur. Just making the point if I’m amateur, then so are all the writers at all the main papers in this country. Maybe if you’d read any of the papers the following day, you wouldn’t have been so surprised to read my damning report. Do you lot not read newspapers? I figured because you were so quick to judge my writing skills, it would be safe to assume you were all professionals yourself. Maybe you should consider it, seeing as though all the broadsheet sport journalists and I aren’t up to scratch. You should think about giving The Guardian, The Times and The Mail a ring, clearly you can do a better job than all the amateurs writing for them, right? Stop deluding yourself, and maybe think that you as Chelsea fans were just too overwhelmed, like your manager and players, with just a point at the Nou Camp, to see what really went on in that game.
I do write for a living. I’m a Battersea boy and have been a Chelsea fan since 1974.
It was a great match. It had me on the edge of my seat the whole way through and then I watched it again.
Fantastic.
> You should think about giving The Guardian, The Times and The Mail a ring,
> clearly you can do a better job than all the amateurs writing for them, right?
Why? They ask for writing that chimes in with the average thicko and they get it – as such, there’s no vacancy.
The more reasonable writers, though, back-tracked on their gut reaction the very next day when they realised how badly misjudged they were on the night.
Chelsea juggernaut is well down road to glory in Athens – Henry Winter
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2006/11/02/sfnwin02.xml
Barca v Chelsea: A terrible beauty – Sam Wallace
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/story.jsp?story=712641
Chelsea stamp their fearsome authority on Europe- Kevin McCarra
http://football.guardian.co.uk/championsleague200607/story/0,,1937134,00.html
Do you reckon they all felt guilty or they just watched the game again and realised just how flat wrong they were in all their first attempts.
Against the team said to be the best attacking side in the world, Chelsea had more shots on target both home and away, more shots off target home and away, more corners home and away, more one-on-ones home and away.
The thing about a professional is they may change their mind when they realise thy’re wrong. That’s why you’re both an anateur and amateurish. Look at all the good football you’re missing while you’re trying to find some reason to hate and whine.
Pity you.
The most attacking football side in the World, who haven’t put on such a poor show in the CL for years. It’s quite clear to anyone that presently, Barca aren’t playing the kindof football that football fans like ourselves can get excited about.
To be honest, I don’t care what the papers said about the game, as I’ve already stated, the only reason why I mentioned them was because somebody rudely called me amateur. I was proving a point.
I wrote an article based on how I felt about the game. I was left frustrated and annoyed throughout, and explained the reason for this. What I don’t understand is why it is so hard for you lot to accept that differences of opinions occur? You thought it was a great game of football, I didn’t. Simple as that. The aggression and poor manners is completely unnecessary, and I don’t see how being rude to someone is a way to prove your point. The average thicko writes for The Guardian… does the average thicko find it hard to comprehend that football is a subject that is going to cause conflict and differing opinions? No big deal. If you know it was a great game of football, why do you care what I think?
The stench of hypocrisy and sour grapes runs through your, I hesitate to call it an article so let’s say words; not to mention the usual smattering of factual inaccuracy. Last night’s match was what top-class European football is all about. Two sides bursting with talent, two coaches at the peak of their powers, four fantastic goal and a pulsating and enthralling match with the added spice of mutual loathing and a referee barely in control. Just what do you want from a game of football? Barca v Chelsea was about as good as any Group stage I have seen in the tournament’s history, especialy given the result did not mean an exit for one of the sides.
What a hilariously inaccurate article from start to finish, and what a bizarre attempt to distort last night’s match 180 degrees. If that is the “manor” of coverage Chelsea can expect, then why bother watching the match when the script is pre-written? A sad excuse for journalism.
Absolutley amateur journalism. This site should be ashamed for posting such garbage.
Maybe you boys should write a letter of complaint to all the broadsheets in the country as well then, if you don’t like what I write. Whilst you’re at it, take off your blue tinted specs.
The Guardian:
“It would take an archaeologist to get to the very bottom of all the grubby layers of misconduct that made up too much of this match.”
“Other questionable episodes went unpunished despite the profusion of cautions. There had to be doubts if the harm was wholly unavoidable when Márquez brought his studs down on Essien’s groin. Equally, a challenge by Ricardo Carvalho on Deco in the final moments was reckless at best.
Too much was open to dispute and incidents such as a possible tug by Xavi on Lampard that could have merited a penalty were almost lost in the blizzard of hostility. There had been a pre-match wrangle about diving, but the players were primarily at risk of falling flat on their faces when they kept forgetting that they should be too good to descend into tawdry feuding.”
“Drogba, barging into Thiago Motta and then being shoved over by Márquez, was at the heart of the rancour. The referee, Stefano Farina, was barely in control, but there had to be a trace of sympathy for an official caught up in a whirl of skulduggery. The relationship between these clubs has become so tortured that they are in need of counselling.”
The Times:
“With both sides diving and conniving amid claim and counter-claim, the match should have taken place in a gymnasium or a court of law, rather than Barcelona’s theatre of dreams. On Hallowe’en it was not so much a case of trick or treat as nip and cheat.”
“Such cynicism should come as no surprise in what has become European football’s greatest grudge match, particularly where Mourinho is concerned. The locals will no doubt blame the former servant they have christened El Diablo — in Barcelona at least, The Devil Wears Armani — but both managers should share equal responsibility for this sordid encounter. The first of countless fouls was committed by Deco in the opening minute, a late tackle on Claude Makelele, which unfortunately set the tone for much of what followed, rather than his magnificent third-minute goal.
Mourinho claimed on Monday that this was the match the world wanted to watch, though those watching on television could surely have had no appetite for much of this squalid spectacle. Indeed, any old- timers who stayed with the coverage would have been left muttering that if both sides wanted to kick each other, they could at least have had the courtesy to kick each other properly.
As well as demonstrating the damage that such high- pressure encounters can do to what remains a simple game, this face-off revealed the lie behind one of Mourinho’s other specious claims, that diving is a curse of Spanish football.
Michael Essien, an African who began his career in Corsica, was the first but by no means the last to take a tumble, collapsing under the faintest of touches from Lionel Messi in the tenth minute, as implausible a prospect as a bison being felled by an antelope. The Ghana midfield player had caused the referee, Stefano Farina, to lose his footing in a collision moments earlier, but not even Mourinho would accuse a match official of deliberately going to ground. Would he?
The trouble began in earnest in the fifteenth minute and was started by Barcelona, with Thiago Motta deliberately leaving his foot in after a challenge on Didier Drogba, starting a bitter personal feud that raged for much of the match. The Ivory Coast striker rolled around in agony, but soon regained his feet to push the Brazilian to the floor off the ball a minute later.
Rafael Márquez reacted to this foul on his team-mate within a matter of seconds, running 30 yards to push Drogba to the ground, causing consternation on the Chelsea bench. Baltemar Brito, the club’s assistant coach, and Carlo Cudicini squared up to the unfortunate fourth official with the venom usually associated with their master, who no doubt made his own feelings known to Farina at half-time. Without going anywhere near his dressing-room, of course.
Stefano Farina, the referee, missed two stamps that arguably should have earned red cards — Ricardo Carvalho, the Chelsea defender, and Rafael Márquez, of Barcelona, escaped — but he still issued ten bookings, the highest number in the 56 Champions League group matches this season.”
The Daily Mail:
Given what he said during his pre-match press conference, Mourinho should have been far too embarrassed to display such naked emotion as his goal celebration.
He said Spanish football was blighted by cheating. He dared suggest Barcelona receive regular protection from referees and called on Farina to perform to his very best and beware of Barcelona’s cynical side.
As it turned out, it was Chelsea who were most guilty of indulging in football’s dark arts and who tried to dive and kick their way to victory.
Chelsea, amid widespread chaos and confusion, collected six yellow cards to Barcelona’s four. There might well have been a red for Ricardo Carvalho’s disgraceful challenge on Deco, but Farina had clearly been intimidated by Chelsea’s manager and seemed reluctant to leave the English champions again facing Europe’s best team with only 10 men.
Chelsea were not alone in ruining what should have been a wonderful spectacle. Barcelona also have a tendency to cheat and when Rafael Marquez stamped on Michael Essien’s groin, he too should have been dismissed. Surprise, surprise. Farina completely missed it.
From the start, it was as if somebody had forgotten to tell these two sides it was only the first round. While Barcelona could not afford to lose and even now might yet find it difficult to qualify, there was not the pressure of their previous two meetings in this competition.”
So “amateur” journalist me is wrong, as are all the journalists writing for the top papers in the country… and you four are right? What a laugh. Thanks for the entertainment. Maybe you should try reading a few newspapers before you come on here trying to act tough and making fools out of yourself.
A writer so inarticulate he can resort only to cutting and pasting other writers’ (selected) words in response to criticism of his own efforts. Back to journalism school, me thinks. Must try harder!
Scott’s article is more than balanced. His views arn’t isolated.
Being a world class team is not excuse for groin crushing or sly cheating. An excessive need to win and fowl behavior will only bring the beautiful game to ruin. Just ask the Italians…
By quoting those sheaves of bile, all you do is confirm that newspaper hacks are obsessed with the befores and afters and nothing about the game. The obsession is with the words outside of the game, not the sublime skills on show.
A pity, because your bitterness made you miss a classic encounter, just as all the previous games were. Matches in which, over the two legs, Barcelona had as many booked as Chelsea, in which Chelsea scored more goals than them, had more shots on target than them, more shots off target too.
And if we count the one-on-one chances, both home and away or corners, there isn’t a statistic in which Chelsea didn’t outplay the Spanish and European champions in front of 95,000 of their own fans, coming back from behind twice on their patch.
It’s 4 games ago that Barcelona last beat Chelsea – 4 games that were all classics of drama and goals one way or another, with Chelsea even having the temerity to take the lead against the eventual champions with only ten men on the pitch. That’s not to even the 9 goals of the classic first confrontation.
Chelsea did the Premier League proud in this round yet again, while Man Utd were losing or Arsenal failing to even score for the second round running against virtual nobodies.
None of that requires glasses tinted with any hue. It’s just the honest truth. Pity you missed it while you were desperately seeking things to whine about.
“Scott the Red”? Yup. It figures…
Do me a favour. The match was one of the best yet in the champions league this season – passion, guile, intrigue, guts, some beatuful skill – from both teams.
How did it compare to Man U playing a second team and losing or Arse drawing quite boringly against a team they should have beaten easily? How about the headbutt in the Liverpool match (set off by unsporting behaviour on Liverpools part)?
The tabloids are just doing their usual pantomime routine of “it should’t be allowed / was better in my day”. The reality is that this is the modern game – or are you telling me fouling didn’t happen in the golden years of the ’80′s? I for one remember some viscious matches – on and off the field.
Yes I’m a Chelsea fan – but that also means I remember how I used to hate ManU/Liverpool/Arse when we were mid-table under acheivers – I can imagine what it’s like now the tables are turned (and yes I am looking forward to us knocking ManU off top spot in a few weeks time
lol – strong comeback scott to those posters who (presumably only in the last 3 years or so) have become chelsea fans
the barca match confirmed what gallas said – no class (and no history either)