CHELSEA 2, BARCELONA 2 In Stunner, Chelsea Advances to Champions League Final

BARCELONA, Spain - When it was over, and the balloons had shriveled and the whistles had faded away, Lionel
Messi put his hands to his head. The slick, slippery
forward stood still, rooted to his spot. It was as if he
could not believe what he was seeing. He was not alone. Around him, the Chelsea players
threw their arms over one another, hugging in equal
parts glee and exhaustion. The Barcelona players only
stared, as if overwhelmed by a pair of sobering truths:
On this day, Messi, the greatest player in the world,
could not score. And Barcelona, considered the greatest team in the world, could not win. Instead, it was Chelsea that advanced to the Champions
League final despite playing a man short for nearly an
hour in front of a frenzied crowd at Camp Nou stadium.
With Chelsea winning by 1-0 in the first leg of this
semifinal, its 2-2 draw Tuesday was more than enough
to carry it through on aggregate. The Blues will face Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the final May 19. "It's one of the finest moments in a Chelsea shirt," the
veteran midfielder Frank Lampard said afterward. "To
perform like that - what spirit. It was unbelievable." Unbelievable for Chelsea, maybe; for Barcelona, the
result was shocking. Questions had lingered over the
Catalans after they lost their last two matches, including
a dispiriting defeat here against Real Madrid over the
weekend that virtually assured that Real Madrid will
win the Spanish league title. Now, after his team crashed out of the Champions League in startling
fashion, Coach Pep Guardiola, who has won 13 trophies
since taking over in 2008, will face only more scrutiny. In his postgame news conference, Guardiola seemed
sullen. At one point, he was asked what he would tell
his son, who might have cried for the first time after
seeing Barcelona stumble. Guardiola snorted. "Welcome to the club, that's what I can tell him,"
Guardiola said.
Guardiola will not be the only person scrutinized; Messi,
too, will face questions about a scoring drought that has
come on at the worst time. Messi, a dazzling Argentine
known for his prodigious scoring, was held without a
goal for a third straight game, missing chances of every
kind, including one from the penalty spot: a mistake roughly equivalent to LeBron James missing a
breakaway dunk. That kick, which clanged off the crossbar, will be the
moment Barcelona's fans will rue. Trailing on aggregate
after Ramires's chip in first-half injury time, Barcelona
would have been back in control with a goal. Instead, it
was forced to continue pressing, trying to capitalize on
the man advantage after John Terry was sent off in the 37th minute. It came close more than once: Barcelona had a goal
called back for offside late and Messi, again, hit the post
with a low blast in the 83rd minute. "I think we failed because we did everything we could,
but we didn't score," Guardiola said. "And football is
about scoring." Of course, in the beginning, Chelsea might have
disagreed. The Blues' defensive approach, with nearly
all their players packed in deep, made much of the first
half look like something from a youth soccer practice.
While Chelsea retreated, Barcelona continually
controlled the ball around the penalty area, poking and prodding and trying to find a way through a space more
congested than Las Ramblas on a sunny afternoon. Barcelona finally broke through in the 35th minute,
though, as Dani Alves fed Isaac Cuenca on the outside,
and Cuenca raced to the end line before cutting the ball
back to Sergio Busquets, who coolly finished. Alves was in the game because Barcelona's starting
center back, Gerard Piqué, was flattened in a scary
collision with his own goalkeeper, Víctor Valdés.
Chasing a high-bouncing ball, Piqué never saw Valdés
rushing out and his head crashed into Valdés, leaving
him limp near the edge of his penalty area.
He was replaced moments later and was in the
dressing room recovering when the game exploded. Terry was in the middle of it. Two minutes after Chelsea
lost its lead, it also lost its leader after Terry's
inexplicable knee to the back of Alexis Sánchez. Terry
screamed in protest, but the contact was clear. "I was trying to protect myself, but looking at it on the
replay, it does look like a red card, so no complaints,"
Terry said. Had the game played out differently, Terry would have
surely been castigated, but as it is, he will be just one of
several Chelsea players to miss the final. Ramires,
Branislav Ivanovic and Raul Meireles will also sit out
after picking up yellow cards that pushed them over
the accumulated threshold for suspension. Chelsea Coach Roberto Di Matteo, however, was not
interested in pondering that particular challenge just
yet, choosing instead to focus on the glee he felt when
Fernando Torres scored in second-half injury time to
ensure Chelsea's passage. Di Matteo's emotions were understandable. Chelsea
was nearly eliminated several times on its way to the
final, and at 2-0 down with only 10 men Tuesday, even
Di Matteo admitted it looked dark. But then came Ramires's beautiful chip over Valdés, a
"lifeline," Di Matteo said. And then, not much later, came
Messi's penalty miss. Soon, Camp Nou would go quiet.
Barcelona's Champions League season - and, perhaps,
its dynasty - had ended.