The much awaited tussle between Chelsea and Barcelona football clubs is here and the first leg of the two leg semifinal will commence in the evening in Barcelona. It is deemed as the match up of the season with teams with different abilities trying to out do each other. In many ways it will be a contest between the fast paced physical approach of English premier league and technically superior one touch football of Barcelona.
The prediction is hard to make and even both coaches are staying away from making any sort of announcements before the match.
I guess I need to put my head on block and I’m going with Chelsea Football Club. I believe the Barcelona is about to catch a slap. They will be beaten over both legs.
Chelsea unlike Bayern Munich in the previous round have a much stable and permanent defense and it will be mighty hard for the Barcelona’s forward to run them home and dry by beating the off side trap. Henry, Eto and Messi are good in La Liga this season but they haven’t come across the physical approach of Chelsea. Bayern had three new defenders in last four and probably playing for the first time together at Nou Camp.
Secondly most of Barcelona creativity is focused on Xavi and Inniesta, and the duo will face a stiff challenge from Essien and Ballack, both physically demanding players especially upper body strength which the Barcelona players lack.
The dual of the match could be either Essien and Xavi or Malouda vs Dani Alves. It may seem strange but most of Messi industriousness depends upon Alves as it provides Messi to go in on his left foot. Malouda drives will not only keep Alves in his own half but his better adaptability to defensive work will also make it easy for Boswinga to defend against Messi. Henry and Eto are free running players and they won’t get any space today so won’t be a big surprise if one of them get substituted around 75 minutes.
Leave all the rest to Drogba has Barcelona don’t have something called defense in football and with fast paced closing they will bound to make errors. Barcelona is not getting anything out of its home match.
Leave the rest for next week.