Chelsea’s Champions League clash with Barcelona was billed by many as one of beauty taking on the beast. It was supposed to be a battle of the most aesthetically pleasing team on the planet against perhaps the most defensively dogged.
We were all led to believe that everyone who does not hold an affinity for the team from West London would be rooting for the one from Catalunya. But why?
Sure enough there are plenty of neutral observers out there who yearned to see a repeat of Barca’s delightful display in dispatching of Real Madrid 6-2 at the weekend. When Sir Alex Ferguson says he was ‘drooling’ over a team, you know they’ve got to be pretty special.
Have those people now got their wish?
Were they all jumping for joy when Andres Iniesta’s injury-time strike hit the back of Petr Cech’s net to deny Chelsea a second successive Champions League final? The mighty Barca are through to face the might Manchester United – the dream final, surely?
But does it not matter that Iniesta’s almost arrogant swing of his boot led to his side’s first – and only – shot on target of the entire second leg? Chelsea had, for more than 180 minutes of football, prevented a team that scores for fun from doing just that….scoring.
This is surely as much of a reason for admiration as anything else. In an ideal world – one bereft of swine flu and recession – every team would play open, flowing football and go hell for leather at one another. Indeed, the final in Rome in three weeks’ time might provide us with just this.
But that is not to take away from the other side of the game. What The Blues did in blunting Lionel Messi over two legs was truly commendable. How they made Xavi – the usually oh-so imperious Xavi – look a shadow himself in the second leg deserves special praise.
They hassled and harried, they maintained their shape and they stayed physical, direct and intelligent.
In short, in playing to their own strengths, Chelsea denied Barca the chance to play to their own very different ones. For two games, they carried off their speciality more effectively than their opponents.
When a game plan - whatever it may be - is undertaken with such precision, it is reason enough for admiration from anyone and every bit as 'beautiful' as the football Barca can so often treat us to.