25 April 2012 05.16 AM GMT+8
Barcelona 2 - 2 Chelsea (2 - 3 on aggregate)
This night may be my most historically, wonderful, and joyful night of my life as a Chelsea fan.
I screamed in my room, and I nearly shed tears. At this very moment, I cannot be any prouder to be a blue, cannot be any prouder with my team, my club, Chelsea FC.
Here is the situation. We are 6th place in the league, and we're up against, what most people would say, the best team in the history of club football, Barcelona FC in the Champions League Semifinal. So, even before the game started, nobody expected us to come through. Then, in the game, we lost Gary Cahill due to injury, and then, we lost our captain, John Terry, because of a red card. We were down to 10 men, with no central defenders at all, as David Luiz is injured as well. The situation couldn't have been any worse, right? But then, we were 2 - 0 down in quick succession.
At this point, even league champions would have given up. But then, with a spirited counter attack, Ramires scored a goal to make it 2 - 1 (2 - 2 agg). And with a long 2nd half to deal with, we managed to hang on to this for another 45 minutes, before Fernando Torres scored a goal in the final minutes to clinch the game once and for all.
Conclusion: 10 men Chelsea, 6th place in the league, with no central defenders, no captain, against the best team in the world, and we won!!
I got to admit even I was half-hearted when we were down. But as time went, our team showed great commitment & spirit, which along the way lifted up my belief higher and higher. And here we are, Chelsea are through to the Champions League Final, and I cannot praise them enough for what they have shown.
If you analyse the statistics, no one would have believed we won. We had less than a-third of possession, less than a-third of the shot attempts, and yet we won. We were resilient in defense and amazing with the counter attacks (which all our goals came from). The fact that Lionel Messi, until now, never score against Chelsea is quite funny, with him missing the penalty, and several other chances. Then, the perfect clinch was there with Fernando Torres scoring the goal, proving his 50 million pounds worth. Luck was with us throughout the whole game definitely, as most of the game are played in our half.
This memorable game, has been represented in many stories & movies before. The likes of David vs Goliath, or movies such as the Alamo, Real Steel, and many others. We were underdogs the whole time, defending for nearly the whole 90 minutes, resisting their attacks again and again and again. Our defense were very resilient, and then when the chance came to counter attack, we converted them to a goal. This seemed a very similar story to those in movies, surviving enemy attacks, and attacking them when the opportunity comes, hitting them at their weakest.
I got to say something about Barcelona though. They did bring up a great, great challenge for us, which was, well, great! But they, in many cases, turn up in heating encounters, where many cards were flashed out by the referee. The tension between these 2 sides, especially after the controversial game 3 years back, has never been greater. But respect to them who played excellent, and respect especially, that they in turn have shown to us they are still humans after all. Both sides traded handshakes with one another after the game, which shows great character both in victory & defeat.
My utmost respect goes to current interim manager, Roberto Di Matteo. He may well have been the best interim manager in history, and should be Chelsea's permanent manager. His tactics may not be as great as the Special One, Mourinho. I don't how he does it, but he manages to get the best out of every player, brings up the best spirit & commitment from every player. And every player likes him, and he still is able to rotate the team well, and produce marvellous result, losing only once from his first 15 games. This is such a remarkable feat. Thanks to him, we recovered from the defeat at Napoli, and push through all the way, and here we are, in the Champions League Final.
He is a true blue in and out. Chelsea FC is in his blood. He was a great player during his playing career in Chelsea, and now he seeks to write more history as he become Chelsea's manager. Let us hope he can bring in more trophies to Stamford Bridge in the years to come.
