Barcelona Stun Chelsea, Advance to Play in the Champions League Final

(Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)

On Wednesday, after being down to ten men, and being down 1-0 in Stamford Bridge at Chelsea in stoppage time, Barcelona's Andres Iniesta hit a volley into the back of the net, and tied up the game at one, and gave Barcelona the lead in the series based on away goals.

This proved to be enough for them, as they clinched their spot in the Champions League final in Rome on May 27 against English giant Manchester United, and here is a recap of the game.

First Half

In the openingminutes of the game, Barcelona came out with a strong offensive attack, which is what they normally do. However, in the ninth minute, after Frank Lampard's shot got blocked, Michael Essien came in and nailed a rocket of a shot that hit the top crossbar and found its way to the back of the net to give Chelsea a 1-0 lead.

Throughout the rest of the first half, Chelsea dominated the attack, and they had two controversial fouls inside the box not called in their favor, which would've allowed them to run away with the game.

And as the first half ended, Chelsea held a 1-0 lead over Barcelona.

Second Half

As the second half begun, Chelsea continued their attack, with only Víctor Valdés preventingthe game from getting out of hand. Then, Barcelona put themselves into a deeper hole in the 66th minute when Eric Abidal took down Nicolas Anelka as the last defender, and he was shown a red card.

Chelsea then continued their attack on goal, but surprisingly Guus Hiddink substituted Juliano Belletti for Didier Drogba in the 72nd minute. Chelsea continued to make the ten man Barcelona look very ordinary, but as stoppage time came, the tide of the game changed dramatically.

Barcelona finally was able to get offensive chances at the end of the game, but none of their shots were able to get to Petr Cech.

But in the third minute of stoppage time, Andres Iniesta got the ball on the edge of the box, and nailed a lob that went past Petr Cech, which silenced the Bridge, and gave Barcelona the lead in the series based on away goals.

Chelsea had one final attack, in which Michael Ballack's shot hit a defender on the arm, but referee Tom Ovrebo denied all appeals and the game ended. Throughout the game, Chelsea had multiple penalties turned away by Ovrebo, even thought most of them appeared to an infraction inside of the box.

After the final whistle, Didier Drogba and the rest of the Chelsea squad went nuts over the decision, as Drogba went after Ovrebo as soon as the game ended, and had to be held back from security.

As he was escorted into the tunnel, he went up to the cameraman and said that it was a f***ing disgrace to the television audience, which will definitely get him into further trouble with UEFA.

With the win, Barcelona will be heading to another Champions League final. In the final, they won't have Abidal and Alves due to suspension, and Rafael Márquez due to injury. But, they will have their trio of Messi, Henry, and Eto'o in the final, and they will need that against Man Utd's defense.

Finally, Barcelona might have not been the better team on the pitch on Wednesday, but they got their away goal, and will play Manchester United in the final in Rome on May 27.

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