5 December 2006
 
CHELSEA 2-0

LEVSKI SOFIA
Shevchenko 27  

 
Wright-Phillips 83  

 
     
Mourinho surprisingly fielded a strong side, despite having already secured
qualification. Shevchenko made up for a bad early miss with an excellent first
time strike, driving through the left side of the ball to send it curling into
the bottom right corner of the net. Levski 'keeper Mitrev should have been sent
off for doing a Schumacher (Harald not Michael) on Drogba, the ref didn't even
give a penalty. Misfit SWP came off the bench to score his first ever Chelsea
goal. He broke from midfield and played a one-two with Carvalho before drilling
a low shot past Mitrev. Hilario, who has performed much better than Cudicini
when called upon, made two excellent saves in quick succession. Mitrev wasn't
bad either.

Attendance : 33,358
Assists : Lampard, Carvalho
 
 
BARCELONA 2-0

BREMEN
Ronaldinho 13 (fk)  

 
Gudjohnsen 18  

 
     
Ronaldinho ended Bremen's slim chances of making the last 16 with a crafty low
free kick which fizzed under the jumping Bremen wall and beyond the helpless
Wise. Ronaldinho hit a pass out wide to Giuly and the extremely poor Gudjohnsen,
who was standing in a clear offside position as the Frenchman received the pass,
smashed the ball into the roof of the net.

Barca's chances of getting to the quarter-finals are good, despite the absence
of Eto'o, unless they are the team that draw Lyon.

Attendance : 95,550
Assists : Ronaldinho (won fk), Giuly
 
 
22 November 2006
 
LEVSKI SOFIA 0-2

BARCELONA
   

Giuly 5
   

Iniesta 65
     
Barca were passing the ball around in midfield going absolutely nowhere until
Zambrotta decided to add some urgency to the attack by running down the right
flank and firing a cross into the box, the ball took a deflection off two Levski
players and Giuly arrived with a late run to volley past Petkov. Iniesta smashed
in a second on the rebound after Petkov failed to hold Deco's ferocious drive.

Barca have to beat Bremen in the Nou Camp to reach the last 16 and unless Deco
and Ronaldinho are added to the injury list I don't see them blowing it.

Attendance : 38,000
Assists : n/a, n/a
 
 
BREMEN 1-0

CHELSEA
Mertesacker 27  

 
   

 
I know what everyone is thinking and they're probably right. It looked like
Chelsea mailed this in - for starters Mikel started alongside Drogba in attack.
Bremen scored from a corner either side of Mikel missing a sitter and Wiese
denying Ballack with a brilliant save but the home side created the better
chances and deserved their victory.

Attendance : 40,000
Assist : Frings (ck)
 
 
31 October 2006
 
BARCELONA 2-2

CHELSEA
Deco 3  

Lampard 52
Gudjohnsen 58  

Drogba 93
     
Deco dispossessed Boulahrouz on the half way line before charging down the left
flank, he cut inside as the Chelsea defence backed off then thumped a shot
between Terry's legs into the bottom corner. Ronaldinho should have made it 2-0
but blazed over from 12 yards following a tremendous pull back from Messi. Motta
and Drogba traded off the ball fouls, on the second incident Rafael Marquez ran
over and pushed Drogba to the ground. Unfortunately in their wisdom UEFA
appointed the most incompetent and crooked ref in Serie A, Stefano Farina, and
he missed it, either that or he decided not to do anything about it. Ballack
wasted Chelsea's first chance with an awful shot from the edge of the box while
at the other end Hilario saved brilliantly from Xavi after he ran on Ronaldinho's
 through pass. Valdez made two brilliant saves in quick succession, first from Essien
 after the midfield almost finished off a wonderful attack and from the resulting corner
 an even better save from Robben's half volley. Cole brought down Xavi from behind
 with an awful challenge. Having already been booked, Farina showed him another
 yellow card but failed to show the red as Cole walked away protesting his innocence.
 Farina walked over to Mourinho on the touchline, gave him a thumbs up then walked
 back and showed a yellow card to Messi. It turns out the first card was for Lampard
 (who did NOTHING) and not Cole. THE SPINELESS COWARD (Farina not Cole).

Valdes made another brilliant save from Robben at the start of the second half
then the Dutchman missed an absolute sitter following superb work down Barca's
right flank by Cole and Lampard. Lampard miss-controlled a Makelele cross, as
the Barca defence stood appealing for offside he chased down the ball before it
went out for a goal kick and from a ludicrous angle curled a right foot shot
over Valdez and inside the right post. Ronaldinho pulled a Marquez long ball
away from Boulahrouz, burst into the box, toe poked the ball across the face of
goal leaving Gudjohnsen to slam in from close range. Gudjohnsen, who is totally
out of place in such a high quality side, should have scored a second but wasted
a fantastic Ronaldinho pass with an abysmal volley. Gudjohnsen was stretchered
off after landing awkwardly under a challenge from Carvalho. Ballack missed
another chance made for him by substitute Kalou. In injury time Essien hurdled
Edmilson's cynical attempt to chop him down before running down the left flank,
ignoring Joe Cole, and sending a cross towards the far post, Terry headed the
ball down, as Drogba controlled it on his chest Marquez, who was kicking and
diving all match, took another swing at him but Drogba resisted the temptation
to go to ground and slotted past Valdez to give Chelsea a deserved equaliser.

This was a fantastic match with Chelsea outplaying and beating Barca at their
own game i.e. playing inventive attacking football (not hacking and diving).
Marquez's cynicism was only matched by Farina's incompetence.

Attendance : 98,000
Assists : n/a, Makelele, Ronaldinho, Terry
 
 
LEVSKI SOFIA 0-3

BREMEN
   

Mihaylov 33 (og)
   

Baumann 35
   

Frings 37
   

 
Eromoigbe played a back pass to his 'keeper Mihaylov, he tried to stop the ball
but a heavy first touch took it into the back of his net. Bumann headed in
Vranjes corner and Frings completed a miserable four minute spell for the
Bulgarian's when he capitalised on confusion in the area caused by Hunt's slip,
with a firm shot across goal.

Attendance : 40,000
Assists : n/a, Vranjes, Borimirov
 
 
18 October 2006
 
BREMEN 2-0

LEVSKI SOFIA
Lucio 45 (og)  

 
Diego 74  

 
     
Bremen took the lead right on half time, Naldo's free kick clipped Lucio in the
Levski wall wrong footing Petkov. Diego punished terrible defending to seal
victory in this battle for a UEFA Cup spot.

Attendance : 41,000
Assists : n/a, Klasnic
 
 
CHELSEA 1-0

BARCELONA
Drogba 47  

 
   

 
The second half was great. Drogba received a pass from Ashley Cole and with his
left foot back heeled the ball through Puyol's legs then turned before blasting
a right foot shot wide of Valdes. Chelsea defended deep and caught Barca on the
break on several occasions. Essien selfishly shot at two defenders with Carvalho
and Shevchenko free on either side of the box and Shevchenko missed an absolute
sitter when Lampard left him with only Valdes to beat.

Chelsea should have made more of the high line Barca's defence were holding.
Barca never threatened, Ronaldinho was anonymous.

Attendance : 45,999
Assist : A Cole
 
 
27 September 2006
 
BREMEN 1-1

BARCELONA
Puyol 56 (og)  

Messi 89
   

 
Bam Bam Puyol, under pressure from Borowski, turned a cross from Aaron HUNT, yes
 that is his name and how I wish he has a brother named Mike, past a helpless Valdes.
 Eto'o was stretchered off with looked like a bad knee injury, possibly kneecap related.
 Deco destroyed the Bremen defence with an exquisite disguised pass into the box
 and Messi fired into the bottom right corner to give the Champions what was, on the
balance of play, a deserved equaliser.

Attendance : 41,256
Assists : n/a, Deco
 
 
LEVSKI SOFIA 1-3

CHELSEA
Ognyanov 89  

Drogba 39, 52, 69
   

 
Mourinho played an orthodox 4-4-2 with Mikel on the right and Lampard on the left,
 and Essien and Ballack in the middle, is it any wonder Shevchenko never scores or
 gets any chances? Drogba lashed in his first goal on the rebound after Mikel forced
 Petkov into making a great save. Drogba controlled a Bridge longball on his chest
 before turning and thumping a left foot shot at goal, Petkov got a touch, and really
should have put the ball out for a corner, but it rolled into the back of the net. Drogba
 completed his hat-trick when he messed up a back heel but his luck was in tonight.
 An outrageous back-heel sent Ognyanov clear of the Chelsea defence and he
 hammered a lot shot into the corner finally beating Cech who was actually the
 difference between the two teams given they had an equal number of genuine
 chances.

Attendance : 27,950
Assists : n/a, n/a, Lampard, Yuvov
 
 
12 September 2006
 
CHELSEA 2-0

BREMEN
Essien 24  

 
Ballack 68 (Pen)  

 
   

 
Essien seized on a ridiculous mistake by Pasanen on the edge of his box to give
Chelsea the lead. Ballack took over penalty duties from Lampard and duly converted
 with a venomous strike from the spot after the lively Drogba was pushed in the back.

Attendance : 35,000
Assists : n/a, Drogba (won pen)
 
 
BARCELONA 5-0

LEVSKI SOFIA
Iniesta 7  

 
Giuly 39  

 
Puyol 49  

 
Eto'o 58  

 
Ronaldinho 93  

 
   

 
Iniesta got the Champions off to a flier in the pouring rain with a low drive from the
 edge of the box. Eto'o helped on Iniesta's quickly taken free to Giuly who cut in from
 the right before lifting the ball over a sprawling Petkov in the Levski goal. Puyol
 tapped in the third after Petkov spilled a Ronaldinho free kick. Man of the match
 Eto'o sent three defenders dizzy with a rapid changes of direction before surprising
Petkov with a precise, slow shot. Ronaldinho made sure he grabbed the headlines
 with a fabulous fifth goal. Gathering a pass from Eto'o he forced Milanov back into
 his box, cut inside the defender and whipped the ball inside the top right corner of
 the net. World Cup hangover? Bollocks.

For the first time in their history Barcelona had shirt sponsorship, proudly displaying
 the Unicef logo that they actually paid for in a deal which brings the charity
 €1.5 million a season. At a time when clubs like Milan and Bremen have disgraced
 their shirts with logos of betting companies Barcelona club cannot be praised enough
 for this gesture.

Attendance : 65,000
Assists : Eto'o, Eto'o, n/a, Deco, Eto'o
 
R Mehdi