Fear and loathing at the Bridge

LONG after the final whistle on Wednesday night, the Frank Lampards, senior and junior, slipped out of a side door at Stamford Bridge, the younger hopping straight into an impressively substantial black car while the elder paused for a moment to share a word with an old acquaintance.

“That was hard on the boys,” said the friend. “Yeah,” Frank Senior agreed, “but you always need the second goal in European competition.”

It was one of the saner post-match comments on a night which had lost itself to hysteria moments after the final whistle. With the wisdom of the ages, the former West Ham favourite was identifying the fact a 1-0 lead is always perilous, under the away goals rule as it meant Michael Essien’s wonder strike on Wednesday would effectively have a value of zero if Barcelona managed an equaliser on the night. Which, of course, they did through Andres Iniesta’s priceless last-gasp goal and in the kind of dramatic circumstances which left Chelsea at first stunned and then reduced to angrily pointing the finger at the referee.

And more, in the case of Didier Drogba who, having failed to make the game safe for his side by squandering some gilt-edged chances, confronted Tom Henning Ovrebo in a raging fury at the final whistle, branded the non-awarding of penalties a “f*&%ing disgrace” on live tv and then, according to eyewitness reports, thumping the door of the referee’s room after the recriminations continued in the tunnel. Such was the mood of fear and loathing which had descended on West London that the Norwegian official reportedly took police advice and changed his hotel for security reasons for the night.

But while his Dad might have bemoaned the absence of the second goal, Frank Lampard Jnr, speaking in the calmer aftermath, still felt Chelsea, not Barcelona, should be in the final in Rome against Manchester United.

“We deserved to go through, without a doubt,” he said. “Barcelona were very strong in the Nou Camp, and we worked hard out there. But we deserved to win the second leg. We could have scored more goals and we had at least three blatant penalties.”

Lampard also defended his team’s angry reaction at the end, with Michael Ballack manhandling the referee on the park before Drogba tried to take matters into this own hands. John Terry and Lampard himself were also reported to have confronted UEFA officials in the tunnel, against the backdrop of a gathering conviction that European football’s governing body didn’t want another all-England Champions League final.

Said Lampard: “Everyone who saw the game on TV and in the stadium can see that when there’s that many blatant penalties and they’re not given, you can understand our sense of injustice. I don’t know what people expect. When you have 11 grown men battling to get to the final and at least three penalty decisions don’t go your way you can’t expect men to walk off quietly. There was nothing violent, it was just anger because we had worked so very hard to get this far. One decision maybe you don’t get it, two maybe, but when it’s three, four or five, then it’s just not possible that you don’t get them.”

If he stopped just short of publicly alleging conspiracy, would Lampard prefer to use that other C-word which has lately become popular at the Bridge?

“I don’t think it’s a curse but one day hopefully we’ll get that little bit of luck and go on and win the competition,” said the England midfielder.

“Everyone knows what we felt after last year’s final. I don’t want to moan too much because credit to Barcelona, they are a great team and I think it will be a great final, probably the final a lot of people wanted to see. Will I watch it? Maybe, we’ll see.”

CHELSEA captain John Terry also leapt to the defence of Didier Drogba who is now expected to receive a severe punishment from UEFA.

“One hundred per cent, I’m fully behind Didier Drogba for the way he reacted,” Terry declared. “The man wants to win. You could see the passion he played with in the game and the passion afterwards. If a referee makes bad decisions, he’s the one who should face the consequences, he’s the one who should be coming out explaining his decisions. We did exactly what we needed to do to beat Barcelona and go through. And we’re not going through because of bad refereeing decisions.”

Barcelona, by contrast, are walking on air, even if their own celebrations in reaching the final in Rome were dampened on Wednesday by a red card for Eric Abidal and a yellow for Dani Alves, ruling both players out of the decider. The not inconsiderable upside for Pep Guardiola is that he should have Carles Puyol and Thierry Henry available again.

“We might go to the final with different players,” said the manager, “but we go with the same style.”

As if it could be any other way.