LONDON, April 5 - Chelsea, with three goals in an
astonishing eight-minute first half spell, beat European Cup
favourites Barcelona 3-1 in the first leg of their Champions
League quarter-final at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
The victory put them within touching distance of a place in
the semifinals. But despite two goals from Tore Andre Flo and one from
Gianfranco Zola, Chelsea still have a big hurdle to overcome in
the second leg in the Nou Camp in two weeks time after allowing
Luis Figo to pull back a vital away goal midway through the second half.
Chelsea became the first team to beat Barcelona in 13 Champions League
matches this season. But Barcelona, who had won their previous nine
cup and
league games, can rarely have played as badly as they did in the closing
stages
of the first half and will no doubt be fired up for the return in front of
a 120,000
crowd on April 18.
Despite missing their inspirational playmaker Pep Guardiola who was
ruled out
with an injury, Barcelona settled first and seemed the more likely to score
in the
opening half hour. But with Patrick Kluivert looking isolated in attack,
Figo running
into blind alleys on the right and World Player of the Year Rivaldo
plainly unfit,
their domination came to a swift end after 30 minutes.
TURNING POINT
The turning point came after Figo was adjudged to have deliberately handled
two metres outside his own penalty area. That not only earned him a
booking
from German referee Markus Merk, but also led to his side going behind.
Gianfranco Zola took advantage of a huge gap left by goalkeeper Ruud Hesp
and his defensive wall to curl the ball perfectly into the back of the net
for the
opening goal. Four minutes later, Chelsea breached the away defence
again
when former Barcelona defender Albert Ferrer broke and found Zola on the
right. He cut the ball back for Flo who pushed ahead of his marker Abelardo
to sidefoot home.
Amazingly Chelsea made it 3-0 after 38 minutes when Didier Deschamps sent
Flo clear with a high bouncing volleyed pass and the tall Norwegian lobbed
it
over the stranded Hesp for his 17th goal of the season.
Barcelona re-organised after the break with Finnish striker Jari Litmanen
replacing
Carles Puyol and the Spanish side gradually regained their composure. They
kept
the tie alive when Rivaldo slipped his marker Ferrer for about the first
time in the
match after 64 minutes, and crossed to Figo who slipped it home in a classy
move.
Barcelona largely took control of the game after that and went desperately
close
to a second goal eight minutes from time when a superbly crafted inter-passing
move split the Chelsea defense, but ended with Figo blasting a rising 18-metre
shot
just over the bar. A miserable night for Barcelona was completed when
Kluivert,
unhappy at being substituted after 71 minutes, ripped off his gloves and
threw them
at the Barca bench before angrily disappearing down the tunnel. Chelsea coach
Gianluca Vialli said: "I think we had our plans tonight and they worked,
especially
in the first half." The Italian added: "They played so well. Everyone today
was spot on."
