JOHN TERRY had strode through the media suite before kick-off last night with the confident strut of a man convinced his next outing in this competition would be at Camp Nou. By the time these teams departed at the interval, one pepped and the other panicked, the colour had drained from the suspended captain’s face.
This arena had been transformed into a hive of anxiety, their last line of defence apparently shattered. Petr Cech appeared a broken man.
The transformation in the Chelsea goalkeeper was startling to behold and, even with progress assured by his team’s staggering second half revival, the psychological damage inflicted here will pursue him to Barcelona and the semi-finals.
A week ago, the man once considered the planet’s best goalkeeper had been outstanding in quelling any thought of a Liverpool comeback at Anfield. There had been saves aplenty but, perhaps more significantly, an aerial authority that had been transmitted to his centre halves.
Yet, crouching aghast in his goalmouth as if wishing the earth could swallow him up after 19 minutes here, Cech appeared a broken man. Traumatised by Kevin Davies and Bolton Wanderers at the weekend, his agony has been prolonged and will not be glossed over by his team-mates’ blistering ripostes after the break. The 26-year-old is a perfectionist and will have been unnerved by his own deficiencies here.
This was an unwelcome flashback to the error-prone indecision of the latter days of Luiz Felipe Scolari’s reign. Cech had been revived under Guus Hiddink, the whole spine of this team having been stiffened by the Dutchman, though he was unrecognisable from the man who had excelled at Anfield, Fratton Park and even in defeat at White Hart Lane recently. Chelsea may have been a team caught between a desire to put the tie out of the visitors’ reach or to stifle, but Cech offered indecision and too little reassurance amid the bedlam.
He, more than anyone, will have been pained by this display. The Czech had already mustered one unconvincing punch from a Fabio Aurelio free-kick when, with Ricardo Carvalho penalised for a foul on Dirk Kuyt some 35 yards out, he was left to bark orders to his one-man wall as he prepared for the Brazilian’s delivery.
Florent Malouda made a pathetic barrier, yet all were convinced that the ball was to be swung towards the muddle on the penalty spot. Cech even took a couple of side-steps to his right as Aurelio trotted up to dispatch his free-kick not to the far post but to the near one. The belated scurry across his goal-line was fruitless, the goalkeeper sinking to the turf in disbelief as the ball hit his net.
He never recovered from that slip. There were ironic cheers from those in the Matthew Harding stand at his back – Chelsea supporters – when he caught another Aurelio delivery two minutes before the break. The leap to palm away Kuyt’s looping header seconds later was a reminder of his excellence, though he failed to gather a cross from the left moments later. The baffling and hopeless scurry to try and intercept a loose ball before Lucas Leiva could collect 90 seconds after half-time merely confirmed the red mist had long since descended. Relief, when it came moments later, was sparked by Jose Reina’s own goal. This was no night to be a goalkeeper.
Progress offered consolation though, on this evidence, Barcelona will be licking their lips at the defensive fragility that waits them in the last four. Cech, arguably, has lacked his old consistency since the horrific head injury he sustained in a league game against Reading two seasons ago. He could have done with Terry’s authority in front of him here. Carvalho, edging back to full fitness after hamstring trouble, is still not at his best and had only been paired twice with Alex before all season, against Stoke and Ipswich back in January. Chelsea were not water-tight in either encounter.
Terry will be suspension free in Spain and this team will be steeled as a result, though Hiddink awakes this morning aware that, having restored Didier Drogba’s state of mind, he has another rebuilding job ahead. Chelsea need the old Cech back if they are to glean silverware from this campaign. This club’s first European Cup will not be secured in Rome if their goalkeeper remains a pale shadow of his former
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