Bridge a Barca bogey ground

Juan Mata is hoping Stamford Bridge will prove Barcelona’s bogey ground once again as he prepares to face his fellow Spaniards in Chelsea’s Champions League semi-final first leg.

Mata will take on Barca tomorrow night for the first time since joining the Blues last summer, renewing a rivalry he enjoyed while at Valencia.

And his current team-mates have wasted little time schooling him in the previous instalments of the Chelsea-Barcelona saga, which have seen the European champions win just once in London.

Mata said: “My team-mates did mention that if there is one stadium where Barca does not feel comfortable and struggle, that is Stamford Bridge, especially in recent years.

“Chelsea’s hope is to progress. Barca will try to hold possession and force us to defend but we have a lot of experienced players in these type of ties.”

Barcelona did not need to win at Stamford Bridge to knock Chelsea out at the same stage three years ago, Andres Iniesta’s stoppage-time strike saw them win on away goals after Chelsea had been denied a clutch of penalties. Mata added: “The previous meeting with them was a very exciting one until the end.

“Deep in stoppage-time, Andres scored a great goal but that is in the past. I hope the outcome of this semi-final will be a different story.

“As soon as we found out that we were playing against Barca, everybody knew it would be difficult but not impossible.”

To succeed, Chelsea will surely have to limit the impact of Lionel Messi, who scored his 63rd goal of the season on Saturday. Mata said: “To stop Messi is very difficult. He can appear at any time, as was the case this weekend in La Liga.

“But we cannot forget that Barca also have other dangerous players.”

Iniesta is, of course, one of Barcelona’s dangerous players and he is anticipating another tough night against Chelsea — but hoping for a similar outcome to their last visit to Stamford Bridge.

“It’s painful to be knocked out so close to the final. Now we are facing each other again and undoubtedly their desire to beat us and be in the Champions League final will be significant,” Iniesta said.

“We hope that things will turn out well for us again this time. We are going there with the intention of winning, to have a good game and commit as few mistakes as possible, as in the Champions League they are very costly. We always go out to win. We know that it is a knock-out tie and there is a return game, but our only intention is to win.

“It will be a tough 90 minutes. Chelsea are more experienced now, inevitably, and they have also changed some players. They have Fernando (Torres), Mata and some other young players. Chelsea were very strong that year and will be this year as well.

“They are very dangerous, very intense, and that will by multiplied in their stadium due to the atmosphere. We are expecting a very tough tie.”