The debate has been raging over good and "evil" over the past 24 or so hours. Poor Barcelona, an awe-inspiring footballing side that represents all that is heavenly and good and pure about the game, failed to find the back of the net over 90 minutes against Chelsea. At the Nou Camp no less.
In response to this atrocity, the Spanish press -- among numerous others -- have done the right thing: launch scathing, sometimes absurd, attacks on the Blues and their "gutter football" tactics. This is what I call taking a stand for something that is RIGHT.
(I could eat this stuff up all day.)
Some of the finer moments...
"Hiddink, good old Guus, was winding us up. He said 'it's going to be an open game with lots of goals because Barcelona attack and so do we.' He must have been talking about the second leg. He certainly wasn't talking about the first – a game in which La Vanguardia pointedly described Didier Drogba as an island in a wide open sea, miles from anywhere, utterly isolated."
-AS match report
"What would you take on a desert island? You could always go to Didier Drogba for suggestions. He had 89 minutes to think about it last night, 89 minutes to choose a book, a CD, to go for a mobile phone or a Swiss army knife or a lighter to make fires. Every now and then Piqué or Márquez visited him as they went to collect some strange object his team-mates occasionally sent his way, always by air mail."
- Carles Rupiérez
"Chelsea were more of a wrecking company than a football team."
- El Periódico
"Mean-spirited, dull, destructive..."
-Sport
"Barcelona were the only team who wanted to play, and yet the reward is for Chelsea, even though it seems like they came for a draw. At least we know we're superior because we showed that on the pitch."
- Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué
"The good news is that if there is any justice in the world, we'll reach Rome. The bad news is that in this sport justice is conspicuous by its absence."
-Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola