Chelsea-Barcelona: Champions League Semi-Final Recap

After the Champions League match on Tuesday between Chelsea and Barcelona, which ended at a 0-0 draw, we now know that it will probably be a tough game for Barcelona at Stamford Bridge.  They will need either a win or a draw with at least one goal scored for them to head onto the next round. Here are some quick stats between the two teams during the game.

Shots: Barcelona 19, Chelsea 3

Shots on goal: Barcelona 6, Chelsea 1

Fouls: Barcelona 7, Chelsea 20

Corner Kicks: Barcelona 10, Chelsea 2

Amount of Possession Barcelona 70 percent, Chelsea 30 percent

From the looks of this information, you can tell that Barcelona pretty much dominated the game at the Camp Nou, and they probably should have scored multiple goals. That is 100 percent true, as Barcelona dominated the game in the offensive end from pretty much the beginning of the game to the end.

Chelsea Highlights

During the game, Chelsea only had one good offensive chance in the entire game, and that was off of a Rafael Márquez turnover.  Didier Drogba came in and took a shot on goal, but it was stopped by Víctor Valdés, and he batted away the rebound, which kept the game scoreless.

After a somewhat shaky first half, Petr Cech played a great second half, and he robbed Barcelona of the go-ahead goal multiple times towards the end of the game. Without him, they would have definitely would have lost and would have a upward battle to fight at Stamford Bridge.

Barcelona Highlights

Barcelona had tons of good offensive chances throughout the game. During the first half, Xavi had a shot that didn't miss by much, and Samuel Eto'o and Thierry Henry both had several strong shots on goal. Lionel Messi also had several strong drives that led to multiple Barcelona free kicks that were close to the goal.

However, because Cech played extremely strong in the second half, Barcelona wasn't able to break through with a goal, and that led to the scoreless draw. Barcelona also has some bad news, as defender Rafael Márquez had to leave the game after suffering a knee injury.  He will miss the rest of the season with it.

Finally, this first leg matchup between these two teams has shown us that Chelsea is indeed ready to play for a chance to win the Champions League final in Rome. And we also saw that Barcelona has a ferocious attack that probably will find the back of the net at some time at Stamford Bridge.

But, the big questions surrounding Barcelona are if Lionel Messi will play a strong game, as they will need him to play an extremely strong game for them to get to Rome, and how long will they be able to hold onto the ball during the second leg, because they will need good scoring chances in order to advance.

Also, the big questions with Chelsea is how much longer is their defense going to be able to stop this strong attack from Barcelona, because they will probably have at  least several good chances for them to close out the game.

The other big question is, if they are they going to be able to score at least one goal, because they have had very little possession time in the first leg.  That will probably also happen in the second leg, unless Chelsea can dominate the game.