3. Messi v Chelsea, 2012
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Barcelona were drawn against Chelsea in the semis of UCL 2012 and it was expected to be an exciting battle of a fierce attack vs a tight defence.
Chelsea were determined and followed their defensive plan with discipline. They stunned Barcelona at the Bridge with a 1-0 win, thanks to a Didier Drogba strike on a counter. More importantly, they had not conceded an away goal. It was time for a memorable showdown at Camp Nou and Barcelona looked ferocious.
After much drama of Terry being sent off, Barcelona played some beautiful attacking football to go 2-0 up and then Ramires chipped Valdes beautifully to get the Blues back in the tie. Now, the pressure was on Barcelona to get the win against a depleted, yet determined Chelsea. Four minutes into the half, Drogba proved to be the anti-hero when he fouled Fabregas just inside the box to give Barcelona a golden opportunity.
The reliable Argentine had already scored a staggering 14 goals in the tournament but the Ballon d'Or winner's kick from 12 yards hit the bar and Chelsea pulled off one of the most remarkable results against a juggernaut.
Messi hasn’t scored against Chelsea and till then had never scored against Petr Cech and some experts believe that the stat would have probably put extra pressure on him. If that’s the case it just proves that even our greatest superstars are humans indeed.
