Plenty of scores to settle as Barca size up Chelsea challenge

IF CHELSEA thought they had shaken off some kind of eternal European foe in defeating Liverpool, after one of the Champions League’s all-time classic matches, then they are about to feel like Butch and Sundance did every time they looked over their shoulders and saw the Pinkerton detectives relentlessly appearing on the horizon to pursue them.

Barcelona are those menacing men on horseback, and after eight Champions League meetings this decade, 29 goals, three wins each and two draws, it’s little wonder that footballers of the calibre of Xavi Hernández, Leo Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Dani Alves gave wary but determined answers when peppered with questions about Guus Hiddink’s side the day after the night before.

Messi, for example, owes Chelsea one. The greatest game he ever played, in his opinion, was while winning 2-1 at Stamford Bridge during Barca’s march to the victory over Arsenal in the 2006 Paris final. But a horrific thigh-high kung fu kick by Asier del Horno, which earned Chelsea’s full back a red card, also did the Argentinean sufficient muscle damage for him to ultimately miss the final and refuse to celebrate with his team mates or touch the cup out of pure anger. As soon as the ‘C’ word was uttered yesterday, he rolled his eyes in arch-comedy style. “They are a club which have been responsible for my best and worst Champions League moments, and from what I’ve seen of the game against Liverpool it’s clear that either one of them could eventually have gone through.