Barca’s Blue murder

SO, after the pain of Moscow last year, Chelsea decided to get their Champions League heartbreak out of the way early this time. The purists might have their dream final in Manchester United versus Barcelona but, unless you were Catalan, there was precious little romance about Chelsea’s exit last night.

A towering collective performance, capped by an outstanding Michael Essien goal, seemed to have given the Londoners one foot in Rome but, three minutes into injury time and with 10-man Barcelona having failed to trouble Petr Cech for most of the night, Andres Iniesta found the top corner with one last, despairing swing of the boot.

Not long after, Eto’o’s arm seemed to come in contact with the ball inside the area resulting in a Michael Ballack strop.