Chelsea are to submit an official complaint to UEFA about a half-time tunnel incident in their clash against Barcelona at the Nou Camp.

No representative from Chelsea attended the post-match press conference after Jose Mourinho lost two games in succession for the first time since taking charge of the club last summer.

A spokesman for the club, Simon Greenberg, said: "First of all, our apologies that there are no members of the Chelsea management team or players talking after this game.

"We will be submitting an official complaint to UEFA about an incident that occurred at half-time. That's all I can say."

Chelsea were also left unhappy with Didier Drogba's second-half sending-off for a second bookable offence, but they refused to elaborate on the reasons for their complaint.

Earlier yesterday a cartoon in Catalan newspaper Sport had shown Barcelona's golden trident of Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o and Deco dressed as members of Robin Hood's Merry Men firing arrows from their bows. Robbery, it turned out, was to be a theme of a compelling night.

The undertone was of Barcelona nicking Chelsea's Russian cash - which was a bit rich given Barca's wealth - and it was Barcelona who left the field at half-time smelling larceny at Chelsea's lead.

By the end, though, it was Chelsea, deprived of the dismissed Didier Drogba for 34 minutes, and conceding twice, who felt their pocket had been picked.

Playing this much-vaunted Barcelona with 11 men would be difficult, but 10 men could not stop them. Thanks to the resilience of John Terry and Claude Makalele, however, Chelsea did not fall to an irretrievable defeat and when the heat of battle cools it may be considered that Chelsea's defence were more than equal for Ronaldinho and co.

Terry may not be lauded as a thinker but Mourinho has stressed the "psychological" aspect to his captain's leadership. Mourinho has yet to christen Terry an equivalent of My Rock, Arsene Wenger's term for Sol Campbell, but Mourinho knows the full psychological impact Terry's presence has on team-mates and opponents.

And what opponents Terry, Ricardo Carvalho and Makelele were to be confronted with here.

Barcelona, not content with having in Eto'o La Liga's leading scorer up front, also fielded Ronaldinho, world player of the year, and Ludovic Giuly, the small Gaul with the talent large enough to take Monaco past Real Madrid and into the European Cup final last season.

It quickly became clear that this trio, along with Deco behind them, offered sufficient speed of thought and deed to disturb Chelsea.