UCL: Chelsea 1 Barcelona 1

Published by djmick on May 7th, 2009

andres iniesta

Andres Iniesta’s injury-time stunner sent 10-man Barcelona into the Champions League final after a dramatic, and controversial, 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last night.

Following last weeks ‘11-man-Chelsea-behind-the-ball’ scoreless bore it was pretty much a repeat outing last night from the home team. Only it was a little more daring from Guus Hiddink with only the ten men behind the ball to kill the game.

The Blues got off to a flyer with a ninth minute Michael Essien wonder goal, a volley struck from 22 yards which flew
past Victor Valdes and crashed into the net off the underside of the bar.

The night was full of controversy with Chelsea claiming penalties time and again, all of which the Norwegian ref refused to give.

The Chelsea fans, players and management, not to mention the Sky Sports commentary team and studio guests were incensed at the referee’s decisions.

Oh how they have short memories and blue tinted Chelsea specs.

There was very little said about the incident on the hour mark when Barca had Eric Abidal dismissed for tripping Nicolas Anelka – even though TV replays showed Abidal was about a foot away from Anelka when he went down.

Nor was there much to say by the Sky Sports team when an after match interview when Barca defender Gerard Piquet pointed out the clear cut penalty decision that went against his team the week before.

If the truth be told Chelsea should have had the game wrapped up long before the 92nd minute. Drogba had missed two great opportunities to seal the win and a trip to Rome for the final.

The game was in the final 90 seconds when a sliced clearance from Essien led to Barcelona’s first shot on target. Iniesta’s effort was brilliant, and brutal.

Game, set and Champions League Final for Barcelona – but the night wasn’t over just yet.

After the final whistle substituted Didier Drogba clashed with the Barcelona bench before turning his attention to referee Tom Henning Ovrebo.

didier drogba

In front of a huge worldwide television audience, Drogba then called the referee a “f***ing disgrace” on several occasions, while he also appeared to abuse Guus Hiddink.

Drogba will no doubt be handed a ban of some sort for his aggressive manner towards the match officials.

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