Chelsea win unjust, says Barca’s Iniesta
BARCELONA midfielder Andres Iniesta insists Chelsea do not deserve to take a slender lead into next week’s Champions League semi-final second leg.
The Blues repelled wave after wave of attack and landed a classic sucker punch, in Didier Drogba’s breakaway goal, to upset the holders 1-0 on Wednesday in west London.
Barca virtually monopolised possession, enjoying 72 per cent, and fashioned 24 goal attempts to Chelsea’s five, but now stand on the brink of a shock elimination.
Iniesta believes the Catalans were unlucky to lose but has backed them to turn the tie on its head at Camp Nou on Tuesday and reach next month’s final in Munich.
“The result is unjust,” said the Spain World Cup winner. “But we knew that Chelsea are a team that take advantage of their opportunities. We were off-target in front of goal but we still have the return leg at home.
“We have the feeling that we created a lot of clear chances. The only thing we were lacking was the final touch. Sometimes this happens.
“We’ll try to be more effective in the return leg. We have confidence in our ability to overturn the scoreline. We have had an adverse result and we have to work harder seeing that we’re capable of doing it.”
Barca, who face a pivotal top-flight clash against arch-rivals Real Madrid tomorrow, have hosted Chelsea three times since 2006 without winning, giving Blues goalkeeper Petr Cech hope of frustrating them again.
“We’ve done well in the past there, and need to reproduce the same kind of performance that we did before,” said Cech. “It will be really important to score an away goal as well, but we seem always to score there and, hopefully, we can replicate that.”