Can Chelsea's old warriors beat Barcelona?

Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo told the BBC yesterday: “The tie is half-time, it’s 50-50 - both teams still have the same chance to go through. I do think we will have to try to score. It will be difficult to just play for a goalless draw.” It will not only be difficult, it will be next to impossible. Of course, a team of Chelsea’s caliber can pull it off, but this is not the era of Jose Mourinho and ‘park-the-bus’ football anymore. In fact, his umpteenth successor in Di Matteo is right: Chelsea have to score. The major question is, will their golden oldies be able to? Many members of this Chelsea side faced Barcelona in the 2009 Champions League semi-final loss. In those days, their owner Roman Abramovich wanted ’entertaining’ football. But sadly he might not get that against Barcelona, a side which emulates any in the world where beautiful football is concerned. [caption id=“attachment_286986” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Will Chelsea’s old guard stand firm? AP”] [/caption] There is still quite a chance Chelsea could do it. They have a few seniors in their side aching to prove a point. Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, John Terry, Ashley Cole and maybe even Michael Essien are part of this group of ‘untouchables’ that was created in the Special One’s era. Until of course, his protege and would be successor to the throne Andre Villas-Boas came by. He tried to change everything around too fast and what in the process lost the dressing room. The mutiny paid off — AVB is gone and ex-Chelsea star Di Matteo, for now, is captain of the ship. As alleged, and as rival fans may like to believe, AVB was shown the door on the recommendation of the Chelsea seniors. That should be a learning lesson for any future managers coming through Chelsea’s ever-revolving door at Cobham . For the Chelsea players who may or may not be directly or indirectly involved in the sacking, there is no bigger stage to prove a point. Maybe a grin from Drogba into the camera to a sulking Villas-Boas somewhere in Portugal will be like salt on his fresh wounds. But that should be the last thing on their minds when they take on Barcelona. The Catalans rarely lose at home. Forget about lose, they rarely ever drop points there. But they come into this match at the back of  a pride stinging defeat to Real Madrid. Now they have only one thing on their minds: the Champions League. The same is with Chelsea. They don’t have a chance in the English Premier League. If they are too tired to battle for fourth position, winning the Champions League will automatically qualify them for next year. Abramovich always wanted to win in Europe and doing it this year will probably stop him from constantly meddling with the team. Throw caution to the wind though, because winning this match is not like winning the Champions League. There will still be a final to play. Beating Barcelona may feel like winning the title but the battle does not end there. Real Madrid and Bayern Munich will be equally hard to beat in one-off game. Lampard’s eyes will light up more than usual when the ball falls to him just outside the box. Essien’s marauding runs forward will be harder to stop. The adrenaline pumping Drogba up-front will make him faster and stronger. Cole may just time his tackles right and stop Lionel Messi and Terry’s leaps will be unreal. Or it may all fizzle and scatter—just like a castle of cards which could not brave an unstoppable gush. Then it won’t matter… whether the cards are aces or kings or jacks. And for Chelsea’s old aces and war-horses, this may be a final shot at proving the whole world wrong. Just the sound of that sounds sweet.