How Blues beat Barca

PICTURE: REUTERS

Chelsea confounded their critics yesterday morning (Singapore time), beating Barcelona 1-0 with a Herculean performance in the rain at Stamford Bridge.

Thanks to the holy trinity of football forces – commitment, guile and luck – the world's greatest team were brought to their knees, felled by a single Didier Drogba goal.

Cynics will claim that the Blues simply parked their bus in front of the goal and got lucky, but that is far too simplistic a reading of the match.

Chelsea did what they had to do to win the game, and it worked.