Chelsea vs Barcelona: Loss of Gary Cahill a Big Blow to Blues' Chances

Chelsea pulled off a stunning 1-0 victory in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final tie against Barcelona last week, and the play of Gary Cahill was a big reason why they were able to pull it off.

The Blues were banking on Cahill repeating his performance on Tuesday, but they only got to enjoy his play for just over 10 minutes. He had to leave the pitch with an injury, with José Bosingwa subbing in for him.

The first two words of this tweet from Sky Sports pretty much sum it up:

"

Bad news for Chelsea with Gary Cahill limping out of the action through injury, Jose Bosingwa comes on. bit.ly/J7rBDh

— Sky Sports (@SkySports) April 24, 2012"

"Bad news" indeed.

Anyone who watched Chelsea defeat Barca at Stamford Bridge last week should know why. Cahill found himself matched up against Lionel Messi early and often. The fact that Messi failed to score was not an accident. Cahill was all over him the whole match. It was a masterful defensive performance.

"You're always trying to prove things to yourself," said Cahill afterwards, via the London Evening Standard. "It's nice because I made the step up to international football, so I felt I could do that from the games I played with England."

With Cahill off the pitch for the rest of the match, the Blues have lost their primary anti-Messi weapon. Seeing as how he's arguably the greatest player ever, it suffices to say that's a disadvantage.

Lo and behold, it wasn't long before Messi made his presence felt. Not long after Sergio Busquets put Barcelona up 1-0 in the 35th minute, Messi dispatched an on-target pass to Andres Iniesta, and he did the rest to put Barcelona up 2-0.

There is hope for Chelsea thanks to Ramires' dramatic goal shortly before the halftime whistle. It's 2-1 at the break when it looked like it was going to be 2-0.

Even still, there's 45 minutes of football left to play, and Chelsea will have to play those minutes without both Cahill and John Terry, who was sent off with a red card after bumping Alexis Sanchez from behind.

If Chelsea survives this match and advances...just, wow...