Chelsea vs Barcelona: Blues Should Not Shun Attacking Ambitions

By Alan Frost / April 24, 2012

Los Blaugrana out for another ninety minutes. The men from Catalonia may be wobbling at the moment but by hook or by crook you would expect them to breach the Blues€™ defence. However, as Real Madrid showed on Saturday night, you can score against Barcelona and Chelsea have the personnel to replicate Madrid€™s goals. The first, scored by Sami Khedira, came from a corner as Real exploited the lack of height in the Barca team. In the aforementioned Terry, Cahill, Branislav Ivanovic and Didier Drogba, Chelsea are even stronger in the air and should look to attack any set piece opportunity that arises. The second Real goal from Cristiano Ronaldo was the result of a counter attack, just like Drogba€™s goal at the Bridge. There is a lack of pace in the Barcelona back line and, with Gerard Pique currently out of favour, a lack of real defenders. If Chelsea€™s aims amount to parking the bus on the edge of their penalty area it only takes one shot, one lucky deflection, or one bad decision to ruin their plan. If they can manage to score an away goal Barcelona will need to score three and with a Chelsea side as belligerent as this one you doubt that will happen. The first fifteen minutes will be key. Barcelona have a habit of finding their passing game without the required tempo to open up teams and create clear cut chances. If Chelsea can see out the initial burst and silence the Camp Nou crowd Barcelona can find it hard to move up the gears and with no plan B they can become insipid. Of course, they can generate moments of individual or collective magic but as we saw last week they can be profligate in front of goal. Di Matteo will need some luck if his side are to make it through to the final in Munich but he has the kind of hard working, determined and cunning players that can make their own luck. If they can sneak an away goal they will be favourites to progress.