Football: Chelsea’s ‘old’ Drog saluted after Barca stunned

Drogba scores only goal at Stamford Bridge.

LONDON: Roberto Di Matteo said Chelsea’s old guard had silenced its critics after leading the club to a 1-0 upset of holders Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final first-leg on Wednesday.

The elder statesman of the Chelsea line-up – 34-year-old Didier Drogba – scored the only goal of the match as the Premier League side withstood a furious Barcelona onslaught to hang on for a memorable win. Chelsea’s win came despite being outplayed by long periods, with Barcelona enjoying 72% possession throughout the match.

The Spaniards also had 24 attempts on goal while Chelsea’s only shot on target came in the shape of Drogba’s winner.

‘Oldies’ gave the answer: Di Matteo

Nevertheless the win was a triumph for Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Ashley Cole and Petr Cech as Barcelona were sent crashing to their first European defeat this season.

“In the past, a lot of the public opinion has been that these boys are over the line and too old to play two games at this level,” said Di Matteo. “It wasn’t just Drogba. We had other players who you regard as old guard that have played two games in such a short period of time. I think they gave their answer on the pitch.”

Di Matteo had surprised many pundits by electing to start with Drogba in attack ahead of £50 million man Fernando Torres. However the interim Chelsea manager admitted he had chosen Drogba after being impressed by his goal scoring in Sunday’s 5-1 drubbing of Spurs.

“I felt I had to be fair looking back at that game with the way we wanted to play. For today’s game he was the right man to play.”

Chelsea’s favourites:  Guardiola

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, said the defeat had left Chelsea as favourites to advance to next month’s final in Munich.

“They are favourites,” said Guardiola. “They have a good result but at least we have the challenge to play 90 minutes. And in that time we have the opportunity to create chances. But 1-0 is a very good result for them.”

He also dismissed suggestions that Barcelona had been robbed of victory given their overwhelming dominance of possession and shots on goal.

“They won, that’s football. It’s not a question of fairness. They scored, and we didn’t. Congratulations Chelsea. If football matches were awarded to teams who had the most average possession of the ball we would win every game. But the most difficult thing is getting the ball into the net.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2012.