Barcelona Vs. Chelsea: Player Ratings

Let in two goals and only faced four more shots on target, but pulled out some spectacular saves regardless. In the first half, he kept the score at 0-0 when he kicked away what looked like a certain goal from Lionel Messi, and then he saved his best stop of the match for the very late stages when he pushed Messi's long-ranger (Barcelona's last chance of the match) onto the post. Could do nothing for two two goals he conceded, and was fortunate that a third didn't go in via penalty. Distribution was ok and his long punts forward scared Barca badly whenever they ended up anywhere near Didier Drogba, which was pretty amusing while it lasted. Commanded the penalty area pretty well whenever a through ball or cross came near him - seeing Cech near the ball in that second half was a sign to breathe a little bit easier, at least for a few minutes.

Was majestic in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, leading to a change in Barcelona's strategy - instead of relying on Alexis Sanchez to trouble the left back, they'd put a dedicated winger up against him in Isaac Cuenca. Cole then happily put Cuenca in his pocket, because that's apparently what he does when he's not playing for Andre Villas-Boas. Had absolutely no trouble with the Barcelona attack despite the makeshift nature of Chelsea's back line, and his last touch of the game was the assist that ensured we'd make it to Munich. Great stuff.

Terry's done enough for the club that I'm not going to launch a witch hunt (or anything near it) over this, but seriously, dude, what the heck did you do this for?



Played reasonably well when he was on the field, though.

Injured very early when he slipped in the area chasing Alexis Sanchez. Touched the ball once, and that was in the Barcelona box. Replaced by Jose Bosingwa.

Chelsea's starting right back became the closest thing to a pure centre half on the field after the departures of John Terry and Gary Cahill in the first half. Had to man the barricades for the absurd defensive performance Chelsea pulled off after the break, although he'll be devestated for the yellow card he received which rules him out of the Champions League final. Ivanovic has had problems at centre back all season, and it's incredible that he was able to give as much as he did under some very very difficult conditions. It would have been nice if he didn't make sure a complete mess of the free header he received in the second half, though.

Absolutely incredible from Ramires, who started as a left winger and then played much of the match as Chelsea's third right back of the game. Scored one of the most important goals in our recent history to make it 2-1 when all seemed lost, picking up the ball very deep, laying a pass off to Frank Lampard and continuing to run until he beat Victor Valdes with an absolutely sublime first-time chip. I could write love notes to that goal. I think I might be doing that right now. That was a sublime combination of skill, athleticism and insane determination and it came at an absolutely vital moment. Add that to his defensive contribution (he was tied for the team lead with five tackles and made eight clearances) and I think I'm going to give out a perfect score. Yay Ramires!

Gave the ball away far too many times - including once for the temporarily heartbreaking second goal. Also lost Dani Alves in the penultimate pass for Sergio Busquets' opener, although it's hard to blame him too much for that. All in all, Meireles was nowhere near as effective in this match as he was in the first leg. Unlike the yellow cards to Branislav Ivanovic and Ramires, I don't think the Blues will be too upset that Meireles got booked. Still, he was part of a Chelsea midfield that absolutely refused to give in to Barcelona pressure, so he gets some bonus points for that.

Played a very solid game - similar to Raul Meireles sans the mistakes. Given license to push forward in the early going as Chelsea looked for the away goal, but then was forced to revert to a mobile destroyer after John Terry was sent off, harassing and hounding Barcelona's key players. Not pretty, but highly effective - it would have been nice if he was a bit more careful in possession, however.

The best pass in the match was not a defence-splitting through ball from Xavi or a bit of backheeled trickery from Alexis Sanchez. Instead, it was Lampard's absolutely stunning assist on the Ramires goal. Under heavy pressure and with barely any time to see what was going on, Lampard played an inch-perfect pass for the goal that may well have saved our season. Did it again in the second half to release Salomon Kalou, but the result was (surprise!) not quite there. Also, had a lot of defending to do, and did it very well.

Had 169 fewer touches than Xavi, and most of them were kind of pointless. I'm not really sure what else there is to say about his performance. Subbed off for Salomon Kalou early in the second half.

There was some early promise from Didier Drogba, who managed to cause chaos in the Barcelona defence by getting Victor Valdes to hospitalise Gerard Pique. Nearly exploited that later on, only to shoot into the side netting. In the second half, he was called into the defence - like everyone else - playing as a wingback on first the left side and then the right. The most Drogba moment of the lot came when he won the ball, skinned Carles Puyol and then tried to score from 60 yards. He very nearly did. It's difficult to know just how much to dock him for the Cesc Fabregas penalty. I think it was a dive, but the nature of the challenge meant it would be very easy to sell it as a foul, and that's just what Fabregas did.

Still, a heroic performance from the big man, who was exhausted by the end and replaced by Fernando Torres.

Raise your hand if you thought that Jose Bosingwa was going to be part of the centre back pairing that broke Barcelona. Started the game on the bench unitl Branislav Ivanovic had to be pushed infield to cover for the absence of Gary Cahill, and then was drafted into the middle himself following the loss of the captain to a moment of utter stupidity. How did he do? I don't recall a single major error from him once he was playing in the middle - we've joked that the only time that Bosingwa plays well is when he's out of position, and this is just going to add more ammunition.

His screwup one-on-one with Victor Valdes will overshadow the excellent work he did on the defensive side of things. Really helped to solidify the wings for Roberto di Matteo, making a series of key interceptions and one important tackle. Yeah, it would have been super if Kalou had finished off that chance, and I'm disappointed that he didn't, but defending was the name of the game at the Camp Nou, and he did that reasonably well. Won the ball four times and made two clearances.

I was fully prepared to talk about how Torres was actually rather poor for the first ten minutes of his time on the field before his goal made everyone go into magical happiland and forget about saying anything bad about him. Instead, I'm still in magical happiland. Sorry.