Cautious Chelsea get clean away

Barcelona 0 Chelsea 0: THE RESILIENCE of Chelsea was formidable and it has preserved their hopes of a return to the Champions League final. A minor yet telling honour has been collected since they are the first visitors to keep a clean sheet at Camp Nou this season.

Chelsea survived one vigorous penalty appeal and saw the substitute Bojan Krkic head over in stoppage time. After that, Petr Cech still had to block at the feet of another substitute, Alexander Hleb. This was, all the same, a highly practical exercise by the visitors, with no compunction shown about taking off Frank Lampard when the need was for fresh energy.

There is no cause for suggesting that Guus Hiddink had come up with a masterplan to leave Barcelona confused and forlorn. Chelsea were under stress almost from kick-off and it was, if anything, their well-known durability that narrowly kept them in the match during the first half.

Hiddink had implied that his side must take the fight to these opponents. It is a fine idea yet hard to apply when the opposition have the ball in their custody. Instead, the back four drew on its resilience and at least limited the number of blatant openings.

Chelsea’s actual scheme was visible in the formation Hiddink had selected but not in the execution. Michael Essien, Lampard and Florent Malouda were a bank of attacking midfielders who were supposed to assist the lone forward Didier Drogba. In practice, they were often forced to retreat until they stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Michael Ballack and Mikel John Obi.

All the same, Barcelona were thwarted. Prior to the interval the best opening was, against all odds, Chelsea’s. Until the 39th minute there was such a paucity of chances in the Barcelona goalmouth that Pep Guardiola’s surprising decision to name his captain and centre-back Carles Puyol among the substitutes might have gone undetected by latecomers.

Then, Rafael Marquez underhit a back pass and released Drogba. The first attempt by the Ivorian was blocked by Victor Valdes and the goalkeeper then threw up a hand to make an outstanding save as the attacker attempted to convert the rebound.

A goal for the visitors would have mocked the logic of this game. Marquez was to suffer a freak knee injury and was replaced by Puyol in the 52nd minute.

Before then Thierry Henry, as if invigorated by a whiff of old Premier League rivalries from his Arsenal days, was full of vigour. On the right, the scheming to thwart Lionel Messi had mixed results. With 13 minutes gone, for instance, he simply raced past Jose Bosingwa and was brought down by a marker who is normally at right-back.

The set-piece came to nothing. There had been far more apprehension at a free-kick from the right. Xavi took it and Samuel Eto’o, stationed beyond the far post, headed it back in the middle where Marquez was close to converting. At other moments it must have taken strength of mind for the visitors not to lapse into an inferiority complex. It was elementary, in one episode, for Messi to ease a pass between Malouda and Bosingwa and send Daniel Alves running for the byline.

Room remains then for debate about how good Barcelona truly are. They cannot be entirely above the fray in La Liga and a loss at the Bernabeu on Saturday would see their lead cut to one point. The mere possibility of such an event is puzzling, particularly since Real Madrid were a hollow team when losing 5-0 on aggregate to Liverpool in the last 16 of this season’s Champions League.

A year ago, prior to the appointment of Pep Guardiola, it was possible to keep Barcelona in check and Manchester United went through to the final on a 1-0 aggregate. There was every appearance at the interval here that Chelsea’s hopes were of repeating that exercise. Even before Marquez had to be removed, there was at least a suggestion that the tempo set by Barcelona was dipping a little.

Barca began to show some signs of vexation. Even by Messi’s standards, for instance, it was optimistic to attempt a volley from distance after a corner dropped to him.

The Camp Nou crowd roared their pleasure at the attempt although it had gone over the bar. The risk remained yet Chelsea were no longer as beleaguered as they had been. Barcelona’s annoyance could be sensed and the visitors made some tentative incursions into the opposition’s half.

Even so, the Barcelona menace was not wholly stifled. Eto’o beat John Terry to run free from half-way in the 70th minute and, after he had evaded Alex, was only denied a goal by Cech’s right boot. Barcelona soon had strong claims for a penalty rejected as Bosingwa seemed to tug Puyol. Chelsea continued to make their tortuous way to the clean sheet that had been their principal ambition.

• Guardian Service

BARCELONA:Valdes, Dani Alves, Marquez (Puyol 52), Pique, Abidal, Xavi, Toure Yaya, Iniesta, Messi, Eto'o (Bojan 82), Henry (Hleb 87). Subs not used: Jorquera, Gudjohnsen, Keita, Sylvinho. Booked: Toure Yaya, Puyol.

CHELSEA:Cech, Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Bosingwa, Mikel, Ballack (Anelka 90), Essien, Lampard (Belletti 71), Malouda, Drogba. Subs not used: Hilario, Di Santo, Kalou, Mancienne, Stoch. Booked: Alex, Ballack.

Referee:Wolfgang Stark (Germany).