A game of many tales

So many things to talk about in the Barcelona vs Chelsea match yesterday.

Such as an awful injustice to Barcelona who deserved to win over the 2 legs. They had their chances at 2-0 up against ten men. They hit the post four times, they missed a penalty. But there has been justice in a certain way for Chelsea, who got dumped out of the competition against the same opponents in controversial fashion a couple of years back, when they should have had at least 2 penalties in their favour. So Barcelona can feel aggrieved today, but the Chelsea fans were nurturing the same feeling of paramount injustice 2 years ago. Massive payback time for the Blues.

We can talk of warriors in the Blue dressing room, in the likes of Ramires. The Brazilian got a second yellow to rule him out of the final, yet scored for his teammates to send them through. It was heroics a la Roy Keane during the Man Utd treble season where the Irishman started the Red Devils comeback trail after receiving a yellow card that ruled him out of the final as well. No, we are far from the crying Paul Gascoigne who lost composure and plot after picking his yellow in the 1990 World Cup semi-final against West Germany.

It was 2 Spaniards that ultimately undid the Spanish giants; Mata was the one that sent Ramires through on goal despite being surrounded and under pressure from 3 Barcelona players. And Torres who scored the killer goal that quieted the Nou Camp, with it the dream of the hosts to win 2 consecutive UCL finals.

Of Messi, we can talk of the world's best player who can miss penalties when they really count; a last-minute one against Sevilla earlier in La Liga that cost Barcelona 2 invaluable points, and yesterday possibly the most important he had ever taken and might ever take. He found the crossbar, the same one I was talking about regarding Cech's reliable friends, in the previous post.

Finally, the summary wouldn't be complete without mentioning John Terry; Captain Terrific or maybe more appropriately Captain Idiotic. How quick off the mark he was to say he was not the dirty player that the video replays clearly labelled him. Well, you knee-ed the guy thinking you wouldn't be caught. At least Zidane was provoked during his moment of madness against Materazzi. At least Beckham was against Diego Simone. You were unprovoked but still wanted to show Sanchez how dirty you are, on and off the pitch.What a captain, to let his team down during the most difficult circumstances. If there is a justice, it's that he won't play the UCL final. The only final he'll have to contend with is the one he royally screwed up by missing the crucial penalty against Man Utd. Missing this year's final will hit him as bad or very possibly worse.

With so many suspended players missing the final, it's hard to see Chelsea lifting the trophy in the end. It seems destined to go to either Real or Bayern. But who knows, things can change in a few week's time.