Well, in theory, Meireles should make things even tighter in midfield...but so far I've not been impressed with him as a robust ball-winner. I hope he gets involved tonight, he too often drifts around without much purpose for my liking.

Enjoy the game everyone - Come on Chelsea!!!

That first half flew by. Cole has been fantastic. Drogba being a dick for 20 minutes before scoring. Ramires will be our most important player for the next game and-a-half against them.

Pretty much went how i expected, Barca dominating(and going very close to scoring), although the goal at the end was fantastic! Great counter attack, Messi losing possession which led to a goal, surprising! Hope we can keep it together, defending very well so far but Barca still looking likely to score. Drogba is annoying me tonight, should stay on his feet and get on with it, fantastic player when he wants to be. I can see why he is doing it, obviously just to waste some time and get free kicks, but it isnt great to watch.

What's happened to Essien? A season or two ago he would've been a cert for this game. Has his last injury taken that much out of him?

Fantastic, couldnt ask for much more. All the players did very well tonight. Cole, Terry, Cahill, Cech, Ramires, Lampard, Drogba all had briliant games. Only downside for me was mata had a poor game imo, although he never really had much chance to influence the game. Unbelievable that Barca never scored, if that fell to anyone but busquets it probably would have been in the net. Although pluses for us are the great defending, looking deadly on the counter and looking very dangerous from set pieces. Mildly confident we can get an away goal in the 2nd leg, and that forces Barca to score 3, who knows what will happen

Terry, Cole, Cahill and Bane, how immense were they!!

We rode our luck at times but I really couldn't ask for anymore from them. We used our strength and power and hit them on the counter. Fantastic night!

Well done on a very good performance.
I think you now have a decent chance to get through

Well done guys. (Never thought I'd come into this thread to say that!)

Thank you, appreciated.

Bloody hell!!! Really rode our luck how they didnt score.....dont think can watch the next 90 lol eeek!!!

Great result Drogba's rolling around got annoying but made up for it with a goal but hopfully he'll cut that out!!

Still ...looong game ahead

Gonna be a loooong wait until next Tuesday night....

A small chance. Barca could have easily won 1-2 or 1-3. They will be far more deadly in the Nou camp moving the ball around like a magnet on a big snooker table. Rough times ahead.

They could've been about 3-0 up in the first 15 minutes or so!
Yeah 2nd leg a lot lot lot lot harder and cant see them not scoring.We've done it before but that was 1st leg this time gana be much harder no doubt...long 90 minutes!!

But to be the only English team in it..still a bit of a shocker

Yes, I would go with a small chance. At the Nou Camp, different kettle of fish altogether.

Congrats. It took ITV 91 minutes to finally realise why Barca had a slim chance tonight; the narrow pitch.

At Camp Nou it will be a totally different proposition.

MOM- Cole.

Cesc Fabregas : "It's always difficult playing Chelsea. When I was at Arsenal, we attack, attack, attack.. and then Drogba scores"

and then he scores again, and then he scores a third

That work rate ... that relentless concentration on the task ... that spirit ...that self belief ...

I love the Chels I do

Blimey what a night. No idea if we can do that again but we showed how you beat Barcelona. Of course we had a bit of luck and you always need that.
Drogba first goalscorer at 8-1 as well

Great team performance. It was like the rope-a-dope trick played by Muhammad Ali in the rumble in the Jungle fight against George Foreman.
Outstanding performance by Ashley Cole, but there were so many others who were not far behind. I must mention Meireles, having criticised so much him in the past..he worked tirelessly tonight. But I couldn't really fault anyone, they all showed tremendous concentration.
I think there are reasons to be (a little) optimistic about the second leg. It didn't seem to take much to cause a bit of panic in their defence. We didn't get foward very often, but when we did, they were all over the place.
Can we keep them out for another 90 minutes ?..very unlkely, but I think we will score as well.

Are you not embarrassed by Drogbas cheating, or have you become immune to it after all these years? Serious question.

It annoys the hell out of me and every Chelsea fan I know as he is such a great player. I know why he was doing it last night, he was time wasting, trying to break up play, and it worked but no, I don't condone it.

And yes, it does get embarrassing when a player of his build would get knocked over my gran.

I still stand by my leaving Mata out last night, he is too similar to Barca, we needed strength and power last night, he was practically invisible.