Come on guys, watch from a neutral view...
Before he was sent off, Del Horno intentionally clipped Messi's
knee hard after he had kicked the ball. That to me, was an instant
red card offence. No arguments about that. Incredibly, he escaped
unscath. In the red-card offence, Del Horno intentionally used his
body to foul Messi to prevent him from running past both Robben and
him. I would say that the offense deserved at least a yellow card
even if a lenient referee were to referee the match. So Del Horno
deserved to get sent off.
Puyol should be sent off in the 75th minute (I think) for his
second bookable offence. But then seriously, the damage has already
been done. Larsson, Messi and Ronaldinho were happily wrecking
havoc in the Chelsea defence and only Terry's heroics prevented
Barcelona from thrashing.
Mourinho could choose to play defensively, but he opted not to.
Instead he gambled attcking with 10 men, which was initially a
success. What Mourinho tried to do was to win in Stamford Bridge,
and then go over to Nou Camp to play defensively for a draw
(judging from Chelsea's away UCL form) to take them through to the
next round. His gamble failed, so tood bad for him.
So ultimately, whether Chelsea fans like it or not, Barcelona
deserved to win the match!
