Jose Mourinho has admitted that he enjoyed Chelsea’s stomach-churning triumph over Barcelona on Tuesday even more than watching his former club FC Porto triumph in last season’s Champions League final.
The acrimony that marred the first-leg encounter between the two sides lingered until the end but it failed to prevent them from delivering an epic encounter that Chelsea finally shaded courtesy of John Terry.
The Chelsea skipper’s late header completed a 4-2 win on the night that put his club into the last eight of the tournament 5-4 on aggregate.
Having seen his side pilloried as a cynical, negative force in football after the first leg, Mourinho could not disguise his delight at the outcome.
”I enjoyed the end of this game much more than some other games that were more important for me,” he said, referring to last season’s final.
”This was not a game where you knew at half-time who was going through. Until the last second, if they score we go out.”
Chelsea had stunned the Spanish league leaders by scoring three times in the first 20 minutes to take control of the tie.
But two goals from Ronaldinho allowed Barcelona to haul themselves back to 3-2 before the break — a score that would have been enough to put them through on the away-goals rule.
It could have gone either way after the break but it was to be Chelsea’s night.
When Damien Duff floated a corner in from the left, Barcelona made the fatal mistake of allowing Terry a free run from the edge of the box, and the Chelsea skipper planted his header powerfully beyond Victor Valdes, though the visitors protested that Ricardo Carvalho had impeded their goalkeeper.
”Any result that put us through would have been fantastic,” Mourinho said. ”We faced a very good team, we were losing 2-1 before the start and we were without some of our best attacking players [Arjen Robben and Didier Drogba].
”The way the players did it in the second half was fantastic. We scored four and should have scored six or seven. Barca could have had three, four or five.
”The football was magnificent. But over the 180 minutes, I think the best team goes through.”
It could just as easily have gone Barca’s way, and their coach, Frank Rijkaard, admitted the defeat was harder to bear because of the bitter legacy left by Mourinho’s allegations that he had gone into referee Anders Frisk’s room at half-time in the first leg.
”You always feel bitter after a loss but maybe I feel a bit more bitter because of all the lies that were told before this game. I didn’t like that,” Rijkaard said. ”I suppose all the stuff surrounding the game wants you to win a bit more, and makes it hurt a bit more when you lose.”
Rijkaard refused to make an issue out of Carvalho’s alleged impeding of the goalkeeper when Terry scored, and he was gracious enough to admit that Chelsea had deservedly capitalised on his side’s tendency to concede midfield possession cheaply.
”I always say the team that wins deserves to, I’m not complaining in that way,” the Dutchman said.
”I think we played quite well and played our own game. But it came down to individual errors by our players and generally a lack of maturity in certain situations.
”We lost the ball in midfield too often, and with Chelsea playing on the counter, that caused us problems.
”We were confused at 3-0 down but we got back on top and had chances to score. Chelsea had chances too but I think we had more of the ball. The last goal killed us, however.
”It is nice if people say we left a good impression on the tournament with the football we played. But I would rather be talking to you now having won the game.
”Hopefully, this defeat will give us the impetus to eliminate the errors that have cost us tonight.”
The elegant session of keep-ball with which Barcelona opened the match offered no hint of what was to ensue in a torrid opening period for the Catalans.
Eidur Gudjohnsen struck the first blow after a mistake by Xavi allowed Frank Lampard to send Mateja Kezman sprinting clear on the right to deliver a perfect cross for the Icelander.
Lampard added a second from close range after Valdes, wrong-footed by a deflected Joe Cole shot, could only palm the ball into his path, and by the 19th minute Damien Duff had made three, finishing off Cole’s defence splitting pass.
Samuel Eto’o, with a chip that Petr Cech touched over the bar at full stretch, and Ronaldinho, with a header from the resulting corner, both went close before Paolo Ferreira’s handball allowed Barcelona to get back into the match.
Ronaldinho hammered the resulting spot kick low past Cech’s right hand, and suddenly the mood of the evening was transformed.
A superb save from Cech kept out a viciously swerving free-kick from Deco but there was nothing that the giant Czech goalkeeper could do about Ronaldinho’s wonderfully improvised strike seven minutes from the interval.
Having trapped the ball on the edge of the area, the Brazilian contrived to toe-poke an audacious shot into the top corner.
An extraordinary first half almost yielded another goal when Cole, Chelsea’s outstanding outfield performer by some distance, beat Valdes only to see his shot come back off the post.
Chelsea had reason to be grateful to Cech, who produced two superb saves to deny Barca a third goal after the break, keeping out a shot from Gerard and a bullet header from Carles Puyol.
Eto’o was also guilty of squandering a superb chance after Iniesta’s shot came back off the post into his path.
The Cameroon striker snatched at his shot and the ball ended high in the stand, giving Terry his chance to claim a victory that will live long in the memory of every Chelsea fan who witnessed it. — Sapa-AFP