The Diagnosis: Barça-Chelsea Rivalry Is Well Awake—A Short Prediction

Barça-Chelsea has been a consistent matchup in the Champions League knockout stage. They've always provided us with great games that were always solved by some out-of-this-world strike.

In these quarterfinals we saw some incredible performances by both teams.

Chelsea played an incredible game yesterday and scored four goals in 40 minutes and beat Liverpool with a great performance in the first leg.

Barça did their job and played a tidy match against Bayern Munich and got away with an acceptable draw. In the first leg Barcelona dismantled Bayern on both ends with great offensive and defensive performances that broke every singe attempt from Bayern.

With the final whistle blown, it's time to compare the teams and pick a favorite.

Chelsea have a very solid squad, just like Barcelona. They have a great midfield, just like Barcelona. The only difference lies in the game style.

Barça has an offensive trio that can easily create its chances. So even if you block Barça's midfield, that does not mean that you have them controlled.

Chelsea's offense depends lot on its midfield.

If a team manages to block the midfield, then you might as well forget about it. Drogba and Kalou cannot create their chances all by themselves, and the transition game, which is on of Chelsea's keys, will break down, causing a collapse.

We'll see some great matchups in midfield.

Barça's midfield is faster; they play more through the middle in transition and then give the ball away to the lines in offense, and that proves to work really well.

Chelsea has a stronger midfield but is much slower when compared to Barça. Nevertheless, Lampard and Essien are very dangerous since they can shoot very well from the back.

Lampard-Xavi: Two great midfield generals. Lampard is more of a playmaker, whereas Xavi is a fourth man for the offense. Lampard plays more in midfield, and Xavi prefers to play on the edge of the penalty box. Lampard is stronger and has a physical advantage; nevertheless, Xavi is very fast and has great ball control.

Essien-Yaya Touré: Essien is stronger, definitely, but Yaya Touré is a great defender, so he'll probably be able to stop him. This will be of great importance since Essien contributes much more to the offense than Touré.

Ballack-Iniesta: This comparison is quite similar to Lampard v. Xavi. Still, Iniesta is too fast for Ballack, so I doubt that he'll be able to block Iniesta, especially when he comes zooming down the line, which happens quite often.

The defensive matchups are quite interesting.

Barça will have its hands full, definitely. Nevertheless, Chelsea does not attack by the wings, which will force Dani Alves and Piqué to concentrate more on Lampard and Ballack trying to cut in and of course to Ivanovic (Bosingwa?) and Ashley Cole (he'll not play the first leg though).

Drogba-Puyol: I'll expect some close man-to-man defense, but Chelsea's ace will have to perform against Puyol. They're very strong physically, and Puyol is very good at cutting off passes. He did that more than once against Bayern and succeeded—although Bayern's goal came through a fantastic through ball.

Marquez: Very fast and with great positioning sense, due to his experience as defensive midfielder.

Chelsea's defense is up to the challenge. They have great players in the middle and on the sides. Nevertheless, they will experience some rough times on the sides.

Ivanovic/Cole-Messi: Messi is just too fast for both of them. He's too smart and too quick. This will be the most difficult matchup.

Don't forget that Xavi and Iniesta like to play on the side of the box, which will create some open spaces for Messi and Henry, who will probably be playing nearer to the lateral line.

Offensively, both teams are completely different.

Chelsea has two great strikers, Drogba and Kalou (Anelka is also very dangerous). The problem is that they need to be fed with great passes in order to produce great goals.

Barça's dream-trio is amazing. With Messi, Eto'o, and Henry, you have three lightning-fast players that can play on every side of the box. On top of that, they can create their own chances, which will be a huge plus in this match, especially due to the hard midfield battle.

Offensively Barça tries to avoid high balls, so speed will be very important. On top of that, Xavi and Iniesta are also great contributors, and they often appear unmarked in the penalty box.

Chelsea will play a lot with high balls since they have a huge advantage in stature. They are taller and stronger, so basically they are very dangerous in set pieces (ask Liverpool about that).

Personally, I expect some very close matches. This semifinal will definitely be decided with a great play by one of the star players.

Barça has a bigger advantage in that branch, but Chelsea showed that they have a huge will yesterday after coming back from a loss three times.

Nevertheless, I rely on Messi's quick feet and Eto'o's and Henry's quickness in the box to solve this great semifinal.

My guess: Barça goes through with a slight advantage on aggregate.