Guardiola slams Chelsea´s negative, physical tactics

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola reacted angrily at what he saw as the referee’s leniency towards English side Chelsea’s physical approach in their 0-0 Champions League semi-final first leg match.

Chelsea went away with mission accomplished after they stood firm against a barrage from Barcelona at the Camp Nou and become the first side this season in the competition to stop Barca from scoring at home.

As expected Barca took the game to Chelsea and enjoyed the vast majority of the possession but they were unable to find a way through to goal for the first time at home this season in the competition.

Petr Cech made a couple of important blocks from Samuel Eto’o and substitute Alexandr Hleb but too often they were restricted to strikes from distance.

“It is difficult to play against a team which doesn’t want to play football,” stormed 37-year-old Guardiola, who has worked wonders with the side since replacing the sacked Frank Rijkaard for this season.

“It was a game in which Chelsea had five defenders and the ball was always Cech to (Didier) Drogba and then backwards and forwards again.

“The result was fair, though, because neither side scored but there is something wrong when we ended up with the same number of yellow cards as they did and yet they committed 20 fouls compared to seven,” added the former Barcelona and Spain playmaker.

Guardiola, who cleared out stars such as Deco and Ronaldinho last summer, believed that German star Michael Ballack was fortunate to have remained on the pitch.

“Chelsea played very physically and I thought it was scandalous that (Michael) Ballack did not receive a second yellow card for a foul on (Andres) Iniesta on the edge of the area,” said Guardiola.

“That is something you would expect in any normal game during the season and it is these small details which did not go our way which will end up deciding the tie.

“Referees need to take an overall look at games and if that had happened then he would have seen that we were not the team which was fouling and we were looking to play football.

“Anyone looking at the match will know there was only one team looking to attack, we were always looking for a goal but Chelsea are a good side who have been together for a long time and won trophies.

“We now have to go to Stamford Bridge, play the football we always play and try and win.”

The Barca players were similarly forthright with Xavi Hernandez complaining: “so that is what the English call fair play,” while Toure Yaya also hit out at Chelsea’s tackling.

“It was a difficult game and some of their tackles were outrageous while we would just touch a player and there would be a free-kick or a booking. We now have to go there (Stamford Bridge) and get a win, the tie is still not decided,” said Toure, who was one of those booked.

Barca were also dealt a blow with the news that centre-half Rafa Marquez is set to miss the rest of the season after picking up what appears to be a serious knee injury. His replacement Carles Puyol will also be absent from the return leg through suspension after accumulating his third yellow card.

Eto’o, who it has been denied is subject to a 40million pound bid from Manchester City, said that there was hope for Barcelona as playing at home Chelsea will now have to come out and attack.

“We had all the chances,” said the Cameroon marksman.

“I would imagine they won’t be able to play in the second leg like they did tonight by sitting back in their half.

“We will see how they are going to approach it. We will try and score the goal that we need to get us to the final.”

Chelsea coach Guus Hiddink, though, praised the character of his players for the way they stood firm and prevented Barca’s star-studded forward line from scoring.

“This was a good result but the tie is not decided yet and we have another very hard game ahead of us. It was not an easy match to play and we will have to improve in some areas for the next game but overall I am happy as we defended very well,” said Hiddink, who won the what was then the European Cup as coach of PSV Eindhoven in 1988.

“Barca keep the ball very well and so it meant we had to defend a lot but we defended very well and I have to praise (John) Terry for his courage. They put us under a lot of pressure but we never yielded and we managed to neutralise the threat from (Lionel) Messi.”

Chelsea skipper Terry conceded that Barcelona had had the majority of the chances but was delighted to have come away with the draw.

“We stayed very tight at the back,” said Terry, whose missed penalty in last year’s final handed victory to Manchester United.

“It was a fantastic performance and to not concede a goal is delightful. Hopefully going back to the Bridge we can use that to our advantage.”