Barcelona’s Iniesta (right) does not appear to hold
back as he gets stuck into Real’s Sergio Ramos at the
weekend
Barcelona arrive in London this afternoon, back on the
attack and again calling on the football world to unite
against Chelsea’s
suffocating system.
The purists in Pep Guardiola’s side, which includes just about
everyone who lined up in the first leg against Chelsea in the Nou
Camp last Tuesday, believe their devotion to the beautiful game
will be their pass to the Champions League final in Rome.
Andres Iniesta, one half of Spain’s dynamic central midfield
partnership with club-mate Xavi Hernandez, promises that they will
attack all night in the return leg, just as they did in the
goalless draw last week and as they did to devastating effect in
the 6-2 mauling of Real Madrid in the Bernabeu on Saturday.
According to Iniesta, Chelsea will be beaten by the beautiful
game at Stamford Bridge, taken apart by the fearsome front line of
Samuel Eto’o, Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry, should the former
Arsenal striker come through a fitness test.
‘We will be thinking, “Attack, attack, attack”. That is the
Barcelona way,’ claimed Iniesta.‘Chelsea play football the way they
want to, and they have had success that way. But we will not play
their game.
Bosingwa: Kept Messi quiet in first leg
Guardiola’s team are the guardians of free-flowing
football, an advanced version of Arsenal’s young team, capable of
slicing teams apart with their exquisite touches on the edge of the
area.
They believe they can overcome Chelsea’s bully-boy tactics,
finding a way past the
muscular presence of Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Michael
Ballack in the centre of their midfield and then leaving it to
their attacking trio to conjure their way past the Stamford Bridge
defence.
Iniesta added: ‘I made it quite clear I was unhappy with the
first leg. Chelsea had their game-plan and realised that the way to
stop us was to hit us hard. If that’s what they want to do then
that’s fine. ‘We will not stop playing the way we do because, quite
simply, beautiful football is the only game we know. We pass
quickly, play with style and a flow. That’s how it will need to be
if we are to beat Chelsea.’
To do it they will inevitably turn to Messi, the world player of
the year in waiting. He was subdued by Jose Bosingwa’s solid
performance at left back last week, but he came alive again in the
Bernabeu on Saturday evening, scoring twice against Real.
He showed flashes of his creative genius against Chelsea, but
Iniesta believes one
moment of Messi magic can turn the tie in Barcelona’s favour
tomorrow evening.
Iniesta said: ‘At the moment, all eyes are on Leo, and if he
doesn’t have the best game of his life then people say so — and
that is crazy when you consider what he has done this season.
‘He is the best player in the world and the pressure that comes
with that will not get to him. He loves occasions like this because
he can really lift his game.
‘With a player like Leo he doesn’t even need to have a good game
to punish you. He can have one moment of genius and that’s a team
finished before they even have time to understand what has
happened.
‘Chelsea will try to keep him out of the way again, but that is
not an easy thing to do, as many teams have found out this
season.’
