Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Do-or-die battle for the defending Champion Barcelona tonight against Chelsea.


                             Defending champion Barcelona will host the British side Chelsea tonight at Nou-Camp in the second leg  of the UEFA Champions League semifinal following a 0-1 defeat in the first leg. Barcelona seeks to overturn their first leg 0-1 deficit in front of their homecrowd for becoming through to the final while Chelsea just needs a draw for becoming through to the next stage.
                        If the Catalan side can perform their best then overturning one goal deficit wouldn’t be a big deal for them apart from that the positive point is since 2003 Barcelona have never lost three consecutive matches in any kind of competition. Though Barcelona have lost back to back two matches against Chelsea in the first leg & against their arch rival-Real Madrid in La-Liga but it has to be told that the hosts don’t need a Midas touch for overcoming the defensive strategy of the visitors. Few peoples  already started to criticize & comment  that its all over for Barcelona but they shouldn’t forget that this Catalan side has won 13 titles since 2008 in the coaching of Pep Guardiolla, midfielder  Pique told that there is no question of doubts creeping in. "I don't think any of our supporters doubt this team," he said. "We have given a lot and people recognise that we can lose a match because our opponents are very good, but I am sure the Nou-Camp will be full and everyone will be behind the team”.
                    It doesn’t look that which team have a player like Lionel Messi, all time top scorer in European competitions, they need to think muchmore about overturning an one goal deficit in their home while the visitors also have some good solid defenders like John Terry, who lead from the front in the first leg clash. Apart from the battle of tactics it could well be also a battle between Barca’s attacking line & Chelsea’s defence.
                     The visitors are going to miss few of their key players due to injury tonight, the Ivory coast international Didier Drogba is Chelsea’s main injury doubt having missed Saturday’s goalless draw against Arsenal with a knee injury, in first leg Drogba not only scored the goal, he continually disrupted the game by falling to the floor almost throughout the 90 minutes, if Drogba misses, Fernando Torres will start from the beginning, apart form that the visitors will also miss their Brazilian centre-back David Luiz, in his absence Gary Cahill will start from the beginning.

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