As Barcelona are ready to kick-start their UEFA Champions League campaign during the midweek, Lionel Messi recalls the loss against Chelsea in the semi-final stage last season.
Last season http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 were considered to be the favourites to win the Spanish La Liga and the UEFA Champions League.
However, with Jose Mourinho managing Real Madrid, it was hard for Josep Guardiola to cope up with the pressure, and he couldn’t lead La Blaugrana to a fourth consecutive Spanish La Liga title.
With all hope almost gone in the Spanish La Liga, Josep Guardiola tried to divert his team’s attention towards the European fixture, but the Premier League giants, Chelsea, made things hard for La Blaugrana and the Catalan giants were knocked out of the
competition.
When http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 were drawn against the former Spanish champions, each and every footballing pundit thought it was an easy way out for Josep Guardiola’s men.
However, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roberto-c31294 Di Matteo was able to come up with the perfect counter-attacking tactics against Barcelona and the Blues were able to win the first leg of the Champions League semi-final with a 1-0 score-line at the Stamford Bridge.
With the second leg taking place at the Nou Camp, most of the fans thought that Barcelona are going to win it easy against the Premier League giants.
However, the Blues made life difficult for them and despite being a man down; they were able to draw the match 2-2 at the Nou Camp and won the semi-final 3-2 on aggregate.
In wake of Barcelona’s match against Spartak Moscow, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296 recalled the semi-final against Chelsea and said:
“We did things right, because although there are people who might not pay much attention, we were able to win the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup.
“Obviously we didn't win the Champions League, and that is a major goal of ours, but I think we are ready to try and win it this year.”
However, Messi is also of the opinion that Champions League is a tough competition and stated:
“There are no easy games in the Champions League. From personal experience, I can say that every team in the competition came make life difficult for us.”
Barcelona will start their Champions League campaign against Spartak Moscow on 19th of September, 2012.
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