By Clare Lovell
BARCELONA, Feb 23 - Barcelona won the battle of
the Spanish and English league leaders on Wednesday, coming from
behind to beat Chelsea 2-1 in the first leg of their Champions
League first knockout round first-leg tie at the Nou Camp.
Second-half strikes from Maxi Lopez and Samuel Eto'o
countered a first-half own goal by defender Juliano Belletti
after Chelsea were reduced to 10 men in the 56th minute when
striker Didier Drogba was sent off.
Chelsea's was a classic counter-attacking goal made by
winger Damien Duff against the run of play just past the half
hour.
Duff had been ruled out as unfit only a day earlier by wily
Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho but his speed on the break suggested
his much discussed knee injury had never been too serious.
After concerted pressure by the home side, England's Frank
Lampard, an almost invisible midfielder for the first half hour
of the match, supplied Duff with a pinpoint pass upfield.
Duff sped down the flank and aimed a cross at Drogba which a
sliding Belletti could only poke past keeper Victor Valdes.
Frank Rijkaard's Barcelona were nearly caught again a minute
later when Claude Makelele clipped the ball into Drogba's path
from the centre circle. The striker raced clear and with just
Valdes to beat bent an angled shot wide of the far post.
Drogba, in his first match after more than a month out with
a thigh injury, undid his good work early in the second half
when he was sent off for colliding rashly with Valdes, his
second yellow card after a first-half booking for a bad tackle.
FULL ADVANTAGE
It took Barcelona 11 minutes to take full advantage and with
blue and red shirts bearing down on the Chelsea goal, substitute
Maxi Lopez locked on to a pass from Eto'o and fired past Petr
Cech.
Six minutes later Eto'o and Lopez combined again, the
Argentine, signed from River Plate in the January transfer
window, pushing the ball to the African Player of the Year who
made no mistake from close range.
For most match and even before Drogba's dismissal Chelsea
were doing a holding job, stemming waves of jinking Barcelona
runs from Ronaldinho on the right and Ludovic Giuly on the left,
then from Lopez and Andres Iniesta.
The statistics told the story with 64 to 36 percent
possession in the home side's favour in the first half alone.
The renowned central defence pairing of England's John Terry
and Portugal's Ricardo Carvalho were made to look slow and
clumsy, often resorting to booting the ball in any direction to
avoid danger.
Barcelona may rue their profligacy in front of goal after
dozens of chances went begging as Chelsea earned a valuable away
goal for the return leg at Stamford Bridge on March 8.
By the last 15 minutes the London side were reduced to
blocking, with every player behind the ball in a desperate
rearguard action.
It was the first time under Mourinho that Chelsea have lost
two games in a row, having gone down 1-0 at Newcastle United in
the FA Cup on Sunday, but the Portuguese coach will be thankful
the margin was only one goal.
Mourinho refused to make any public statements after the
match and stopped his players from doing so. His spokesman Simon
Greenberg told reporters Mourinho was upset by an incident at
halftime and was putting in an official report to UEFA about it.