- The Guardian,
- Thursday April 6, 2000
On one of the finest nights in the club's history, Chelsea proved beyond doubt that they can live with the very best in Europe. They scored three goals in eight minutes just before half-time to consign Barcelona to their first defeat in this season's competition.
Although the Spanish take an away goal into the second leg, Gianluca Vialli's gallant team go to the Nou Camp with an outstanding chance of reaching the semi-finals.
Barcelona had begun the game with a confidence befitting a side on a run of nine wins in a row. And it took them only 14 minutes to cause the panic in the Chelsea defence which many pundits had predicted before kick-off. But a couple of crucial saves by Ed de Goey kept the Spanish at bay and by half-time Barcelona had seen the swank knocked out of their aristocratic stride.
A packed Stamford Bridge mixed disbelief with joy as the giant video screens flashed up a fantasy scoreline of 3-0. West London pinched itself and so did Barcelona.
Chelsea's first-half dominance was created by two factors. First their growing tenacity in the tackle, denying the Spanish team's legion of ball-players time to even start their party tricks.
The second ingredient in Chelsea's ascendancy was of Barcelona's own making. Their team are built for attack, with a three-man forward line firing the bullets. But the natural consequence of their urge to get forward is that they leave holes at the back. And Chelsea fully exploited the space.
First, though, the Premiership side were required to undergo an early test of their defensive character as Barcelona three times came close to scoring.
On 14 minutes Luis Figo, an early handful for Celestine Babayaro down the right, fed Rivaldo, whose shot was acrobatically saved by De Goey diving to his left.
A minute later the Dutch goalkeeper denied Garcia Gabri at the near post and then Emerson Thome, replacing the suspended Frank Leboeuf, brilliantly cleared Figo's cross as Patrick Kluivert dashed in.
On the half-hour Luis Figo was yellow carded for handball on the edge of the Barcelona area and Gianfranco Zola shaped to take the free-kick. He practises these every day on the training ground and the hours put in paid off as he bent a pearler over the wall and inside Ruud Hesp's right-hand post.
If Chelsea could not believe they were ahead, the sense of disbelief was doubled four minutes later as the former Barcelona player Albert Ferrer won the ball on the right and fed it down the line to Zola, whose cross was side-footed home by Tore Andre Flo.
Again the speed of the movement had caught Barcelona unawares, and the trick was repeated four minutes later. A hopeful ball hooked over the top by Didier Deschamps caught the Spanish back line flatfooted and Flo ran on to the ball before executing a delightful lob from 19 yards over the advancing Hesp.
Chelsea made the early running in the second half as the indefatigable Zola wriggled his way characteristically into the Barcelona area before going down under a challenge by Frank de Boer. But instead of winning a penalty, the referee rewarded the little Italian with a yellow card for diving.
Barcelona's attacks were unusually ragged, but on 64 minutes everything suddenly came together. A great through-ball split the Chelsea defence and found Rivaldo unmarked on the left. The world player of the year fired in a first-time cross and from close range Luis Figo nipped in front of Marcel Desailly to tuck the ball past De Goey. Barcelona had bagged a precious away goal.
• Valencia, beaten 3-0 by Barcelona in the Spanish league on Sunday, made amends last night by crushing Lazio 5-2 in the first leg of the other quarter-final.
Chelsea (4-4-2): De Goey; Ferrer, Thome, Desailly, Babayaro; Petrescu (Di Matteo, 72min), Deschamps, Morris, Wise; Zola, Flo (Sutton, 88).
Barcelona (4-3-3): Hesp; Puyol (Litmanen, h-t), Abelardo, F de Boer, Bogarde; Gabri, Xavi, Cocu; Figo, Kluivert (Dani, 72), Rivaldo.
Referee: M Merk (Germany).
