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Barcelona exact revenge on Mourinho's Chelsea
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-08 08:55
BARCELONA, March 7 (Reuters) - A magical goal from Ronaldinho helped
Barcelona draw 1-1 with Chelsea on Tuesday to reach the Champions League
quarter-finals and avenge their elimination by the same side a year ago.
The World Player of the Year lived up to his billing when he bamboozled three
Chelsea defenders on the edge of the area and fired a low shot past keeper Petr
Cech 12 minutes from time.
Chelsea were given brief hope of a dramatic comeback when Frank Lampard
converted an injury-time penalty after John Terry went down but the game ended
immediately after to give Barca a deserved 3-2 victory on aggregate.
Barca, who were knocked out by Chelsea over two acrimonious legs at the same
stage last season, were in charge throughout, depriving their opponents of the
ball and gaving Jose Mourinho's side a masterclass in possession football.
There were few of the fireworks, however, which might have been expected
given the controversies that had characterised the previous three meetings
between the two sides over the past year.
Instead, this was a slow-burning tactical game and although the tension was
still high, Chelsea went out with a whimper rather than a bang in a
disappointing performance for a side that has yet to live up to expectations in
Europe.
For Barca the win put them into the last eight for the first time since 2003
and their performance will give them real hope that they can finally win a
second European Cup.
"Beating a team with a great coach always makes you really happy," Ronaldinho
told Spanish television station Canal Plus.
"There's nothing better than winning a game like this one. Revenge wasn't on
our minds."
Mourinho remained defiant in defeat, saying: "We played them in four matches
in two seasons and when we were 11 against 11 they never beat us, that's the
reality.
"Knockout is about two ties and we lost the first 2-1 in circumstances (that
were at the) minimum, strange," he told Sky Sports.
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