| Official CFC Website Repost: Barca match |
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| Written by GS via ChelseaFC.com official website | |
| Wednesday, 01 November 2006 | |
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The article below was written by ChelseaFC.com's Giles Smith. You may access the site here. Giles Smith's midweek view Fleet Street’s premier Chelsea fan, Giles Smith, uses his midweek column to reflect on an incident packed night in Barcelona. Apparently the item at the top of Frank Rijkaard’s agenda last night, when he stormed out to the centre circle to stage an impromptu post-match de-briefing with the referee, was stoppage time. The Barcelona coach couldn’t see where the official had got those six extra minutes from.
I had an issue with the stoppage time, too. How come the referee only played five of the announced six minutes? We would probably have scored a winner in that last minute.
As it was, we had to settle for an equaliser, and a point for an away performance that looked like a home performance and deserved three. But that’s OK. We’ll swallow our natural disappointment and take that, I think, what with already being top of the group and everything.
In the event, as Didier Drogba blissfully controlled John Terry’s smart header, the clock showed 92 minutes. I don’t think Rijkaard could have any quibble with that, really.
When a team spends as much time lying on the ground as Barcelona do, the referee is surely duty-bound to tack on a few extra moments here and there, if only in the interests of value for money for the paying public.
One couldn’t help but notice that Rijkaard’s stroppy stomp in the direction of the ref was miraculously unimpeded by stewards. Now, there’s a thing.
Our coaching staff and subs tumble harmlessly into the technical area in celebration of the Drog’s point-clincher and someone in an orange Puffa jacket sniffs the end of civilisation and comes bouncing in.
Barcelona’s coach steams 25 yards into the playing area with smoke coming out of his nostrils and the only person with half a mind to stop him is Carles Puyol.
Truly Rijkaard is a blessed man in his own home. Let’s not join the rest of the media, though, in letting the night’s high controversy count overshadow the fact that it contained some of the most blinding football of the season — from us, or from anyone else, for that matter. Among other things, had either Essien or Robben managed to finish the moves that put them in on goal — Essien in the first half, Robben in the second — we would have a twin-set of goal of the season contenders, to sit alongside the one that happened, from Lampard, whose breathtaking chip came from so far wide of the posts he was practically back on the team bus at the point of contact. Incidentally, congratulations to Steven Gerrard, who actually managed to score a goal last night, his first of the season. And people say that Lamps is a midfielder in crisis. Frankly, the match had almost everything - ten yellow cards, three on-field dust-ups, two ignored penalty claims, and a partridge in a pear tree. Not to mention another in a long series of A-grade goal celebrations by the manager (greater love has no boss for his team than that he would risk getting grass stains on a perfectly decent suit), and a hugely enjoyable phantom tribute to Graham Poll in the apparent second-carding of Ashley Cole. Things the match didn’t have: the belated appearance of Lord Lucan from a tunnel under the centre spot; a half-time guest cameo from Elvis; an invasion of killer bees; and an altercation between Rijkaard and a steward. You’ll live a long time before you see one of those in the Nou Camp. |
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