Chelsea 1 - 2 Football

Karma has just bitten Chelski on the arse!

Chelsea are on the verge of extinction in the competition, having not only been beaten but also conceding two away goals, with Samuel Eto'o winning the game by heading home Rafael Marquez's cross in the 79th minute. Match Report

Jose's still graceless as ever in defeat.

"Can we suspend Messi for what you call in Barcelona play-acting?" the Chelsea manager said. "Barcelona is a very cultured city. It's a place where they understand all about the theatre." Del Horno made no attempt to play the ball as he stopped Messi in his tracks but Mourinho said: "I think it's of course not a red card. The kid is not just a very good player; he's more than that. He jumps and provokes contact with Del Horno and because of that the referee gives him the red card. It's not a red card. Of course not, and for the second time we have to play 55-60 minutes without a man and that is completely different.

That was a reference to Chelsea's match at Barcelona in the Champions League last season, when Didier Drogba was dismissed, unfairly in Mourinho's view. Chelsea were leading 1-0 when the striker was sent off, lost 2-1 but recovered in the second leg to progress. The task facing them this time looks harder with the return at the Camp Nou. "I shouldn't speak about the game because the game is not a game," Mourinho said bitterly in reference to Del Horno's dismissal.

"It was a pure game until that moment. After that it was not a pure game. So we should speak just about that moment when it was 11 against 11 with two good teams tactically thinking a lot about the game."

He remembers well how Michael Essien was retrospectively suspended by Uefa this season for a bad foul on Liverpool's Dietmar Hamann. He raised the issue last night to question whether Del Horno's red card might be rescinded, and seemingly to hint that Messi deserved a ban on video evidence. "I can refer back to the game against Liverpool when Essien got a yellow card and was correctly suspended for it after the game," he said. "Can we revoke the red card of Del Horno? Can we revoke any suspension for the game in Camp Nou? Can we suspend Messi?" There is no chance of either happening.

Mourinho believes the suspension of Essien, which ruled the midfielder out of this tie, came because the incident was shown repeatedly by Sky. Referring to Messi's behaviour, the manager asked the broadcaster: "Are you going to show that 200 times a week and press Uefa to replay the game? Can you do this for us?" He mischievously asked whether he ought to send a weakened team to the second leg if Chelsea might not be treated fairly. "We have the right to go to Barcelona and compete on an even playing field," he said. "Would it be right to send a B team and concentrate on the [FA] Cup and the league?"

The tackle for which Del Horno was sent off followed another late challenge on Messi four minutes earlier by the same player which so angered Frank Rijkaard that the Barcelona coach came into the technical area to show that he thought studs had been raked into his player. Messi said: "I thought the first challenge was a red card but the second one was a 50-50 and I didn't really see what happened."

Here are the two incidents in question:



That first tackle is a shocker, could have snapped his leg in half. Sky (& that totally unbiased commentator Andy Gray) didn't really say much about that one. The second one alone probably didn't deserve a red, but considering it was the second time Del Horno had gone into a challenge studs up with the sole intention of taking Messi out and then going down himself quicker than a russian prostitute, it deserved a red. Messi exaggerated too, but its important to remember that he's the victim in this tackle. Del Horno didn't go in for the ball, he went in to hurt Messi and there shouldn't be any place in football for this type of attitude which has become the hallmark of Chelsea's style of play.And to all those who think the result could've been any different had the red card not been shown, Barca actually had 60% posession BEFORE Del Horno was sent off.