Normally, rivalries in football are reserved for the domestic league. Given their London home grounds, Arsenal and Tottenham are just some of the clubs that will trigger any Chelsea fan.
But on rare occasions, some rivalries are so deep that they even cross borders and in the 21st century, no international rivalry can match that of Chelsea and Barcelona. Here we’ll take a look on how this relationship formed, and what’s to come for these gargantuan teams.
Modern football has seen its shares of derbys and domestic rivalries, but few teams like FC Barcelona can tick a Chelsea fan off. The Catalonian giant, who has been prone to play the righteous tiki taka for the past 20 years, are not only considered the biggest international rival for Chelsea in the 21st century. The rivalry itself, the Blues vs. the Blaugrana, might be considered the biggest rivalry in European football. Here we’ll see why.
Head-to-head for 25 years
Chelsea has met Barcelona a total of 14 times in European football. Each has won 4 times, and 6 times it ended with a draw. When they met the first time in the 1999/00 Champions League quarterfinal, some of the starters were Marcel Desailly, Gianfranco Zola and Tore Andre Flo against Rivaldo, Patrick Kluivert and Luis Figo. A line up from classic late 90’s football.
Fate had them meet again every season from 2005 to 2007 Champions League. With Mourinho on the sidelines, Chelsea set the pace for attacking and cynical football against Rijkaard’s Barcelona. They were either set up in the round of 16 or in the group stage, each winning their share of games, so the match was lit for what was to come later.
The saga of Tom Henning
The stakes had never been as high as in the 2009 semifinals. The first match on Camp Nou was a rare goalless occasion, even for the newly assigned coach Pep Guardiola, who was proving his ground as a first team coach. The second leg at Stamford Bridge was overseen by the Norwegian referee, Tom Henning Øvrebø, who was unfortunately remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Refusing to award Chelsea any penalties during the game, tension ran high even though Essien had brought the Blues in the lead since the 9th minute. But this wasn’t enough as Iniesta, with a strike in the 3rd minute of overtime, secured Barcelona a spot in the final with a volley to remember. Unfortunately, this broke almost every heart at Stamford Bridge, and Øvrebø had to be protected from angry Chelsea players on the way to the dressing room. He ended his career shortly after because of the aftermath of this legendary game.
Revenge is always sweet
Chelsea had the chance to avenge this bitter defeat just a few years later against Barca, still under Guardiola showing their tiki taka-masterclass. This time Barca tasted their own medicine, unable to produce enough goals from their endless passing, and ended up conceding a goal in the 92th minute from Fernando Torres.
This wasn’t just a rivalry between two football clubs, it was a game between two football philosophies, two views of the game, so entirely different that they couldn’t be further from each other. This time Chelsea’s cynical approach proved better against what some considered the “right way” of playing football. But as we all know, the winner is always right and the winner takes it all, as Chelsea did in the 2011/12 Champions League season.
Coming up
It would be hard to dismiss this beautiful rivalry in the future, and therefore, visiting the Camp Nou to see Barcelona play is on the bucket list for many Chelsea fans. Camp Nou is incredible to attend, and it’s something that is going to stay in the mind of a football fan for a long time.
But going to Barcelona has always been associated with a lot of expenses, and tickets can be hard to come by. However, due to the recent turmoil around the club this is now looking a lot better for travelers wishing to catch a game at one of the most impressive stadiums in the entire world.
Today, there is also the possibility of buying tickets straight from an official partner of FC Barcelona such as hellotickets. This, in turn, means that you can be sure that the book does everything, as scams against tourists in the second-hand market are, sad to say, relatively common.