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Ashley Cole vs Lionel Messi UEFA Champions League 2011/12 semi-final second leg (Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea | Agg: 2-3)
Chelsea recorded a narrow 1-0 win over Barcelona in the first-leg of their 2012 UEFA Champions League semi-final clash courtesy of Didier Drogba’s goal. They still had to face Barcelona at Camp Nou – probably one of the toughest grounds in the world to go to for the visiting side and that too, carrying a slender one-goal margin.
The Blues did have the away goal advantage but to progress, they needed to score against Barcelona in their own backyard and also contain Lionel Messi and his team.
Ashley Cole was assigned the job of keeping the talismanic Argentine under check and he did so with some aplomb. However, there is no denying that Petr Cech was also excellent on the night and Chelsea had luck on their side as Messi missed from the penalty spot.
Barcelona opened the scoring through Sergio Busquets in the 35th minute before John Terry was shown a straight red card for a cynical challenge on Alexis Sanchez just two minutes later. The difficult became impossible for the English side when Andres Iniesta scored the home side’s second goal in the 43rd minute and it looked like a rout was on the cards.
However, Ramires scored a crucial away goal in the first minute of injury time and Barcelona were now forced to score one more to avoid getting knocked out. The Catalan giants won a penalty which Messi crashed against the crossbar and a sucker punch was dealt by Fernando Torres, who rounded off Victor Valdes to send the Blues through to the final.
Messi had a shocking night but it wasn't just because of the penalty miss. Cole, with some help from Ivanovic, was successful in keeping the Argentine in check for the remainder of the game and neutralized the threat possessed by him. Messi had scored 14 goals in the Champions League prior to the two legs against Chelsea. But all he managed to do was hit the bar against the Blues.
