Will Chelsea's negative approach prevail?

The question is, can Chelsea do it again in the impassioned Nou Camp tonight? Can they in brief prevail against an infinitely more talented and inventive Barcelona side by employing what might truly be called anti-football? At least their excellent goalkeeper Peter Cech, whose saves — not least the late, spectacular one from Carles Puyol's header — kept Chelsea in the game, has made no bones about it. "We are not used to playing games when we don't have the ball. Sometimes you don't see the ball for minutes because they're just passing it around and around and around, waiting for their chances."

Barcelona at Stamford Bridge made 24 of them. But it was surely two moments of arrogance which would doom them to defeat. First Lionel Messi tried to nutmeg Frank Lampard but not only failed to play the ball between his legs but also lost it in the process, Lampard then in an inspired moment swept the ball out left to Ramires. The second error was that the Brazilian was left inexcusably in space by Dani Alves, the Barca right-back who had spent most of the evening on the overlap. So Ramires had all the time he needed to cross to Didier Drogba, who duly scored the winning goal.

Ah, Drogba! Who infuriated Barca and especially Puyol, who on Drogba's fourth late histrionic collapse stood over him seething. Yet even at the advanced age of 34, Drogba is still a superbly effective striker. Witness the goal he got at the Bridge in the European tie against Napoli and the goal he so majestically scored days before the Barcelona game at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final against Spurs.

Vulnerable Gallas

To score that goal, he had powerfully to get the better of the Spurs centre-back William Gallas, and thereby surely hangs a tale. The longer the game went on, the slower and more vulnerable the French international appeared. Right at the end, he so nearly gave away a sixth goal when he lost the ball near the goalline.

All of which surely prompts the question, why did Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp keep Gallas on to struggle through the whole game? And in doing so, what did this say about his tactical abilities when he seems set to become the next England manager? True, Spurs in central defence were down to the bare bones, with both Dawson and Kaboul injured and unavailable, meaning that they started and finished with two elderly players in those roles, the other being Ledley King, whose knee problems are such that he cannot even train during the week.

Yet such were poor Gallas' problems at Wembley that it would surely have made sense to replace him with a fitter, younger player.

Endorsing Redknapp

Redknapp's enrolment as the England manager seemed to come closer with Phil Gartside, chairman of Bolton Wanderers and a prominent FA board member, trumpeting his virtues as "a good motivator with a winning mentality" who would make "an outstanding England manager".

But would he? There is no doubt that at club level, Redknapp has been impressively successful, but there is scant resemblance between the two jobs. Though he hates being praised as a notable wheeler-dealer, Redknapp's skills in the transfer market are famous, but of no use at international level. Players unquestionably respond to him as he's indeed a motivator, but he has no experience of running an international team.

Back to Barcelona. With all due respect to Roberto Di Matteo, who surely deserves confirmation as Chelsea manager, I deeply doubt whether a renewed negative approach will work again at Nou Camp.

The author is an expert on football based in England.