Tuesday’s last-16 Champions League tie against Barcelona is highly anticipated to most people in the football world, but it takes on another level of extra special meaning to Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas. It’s the home/Stamford Bridge leg of the knockout round tie, and Fabregas will welcome his hometown club and former team to his current home ground.
Cesc Fabregas will also welcome a very close friend, countryman and former teammate for both club and country to the Bridge in Andres Iniesta. The 33-year-old Barca stalwart will be a key to this blockbuster match-up, says Fabregas.
“Once you have a talent, once you have the class that he and so many other ‘big’ players have, they can play until their late 30s,” Fabregas says of Iniestia, dispelling any notions that the Barcelona man with 35 goals in 430 appearances for the Catalan club might be deemed possibly over the hill. The former Arsenal man spotlighted what specific qualities Chelsea need to be on the lookout for in Iniesta.
“Physically, it’s important, obviously because the game nowadays depends a lot on that,” Fabregas said, “but when you have the quality, when you have the intelligence, it can sometimes compensate.”
Counter-balancing Iniesta will be key to Chelsea, as will their ability to maintain their prowess in stopping Lionel Messi (another friend of Fabregas’). Chelsea have kept the galactico of galacticos scoreless in all eight meetings, a feat that no other club has accomplished.
Odds: Chelsea 5/2, Draw 12/5, Barcelona 21/20
Injury report for both teams: go to this link
Chelsea starting XI prediction: go to this link
Prediction: Barcelona 3, Chelsea 1
Feel free to post your own Chelsea and/or Barcelona starting XI predictions, as well as your best guess as to what the final score will be.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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