Hard on Chelsea during tiring times

On Wednesday at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea face the red-hot European Cup favourites Barcelona just three days after their FA Cup semi-final at Wembley against the Spurs. Thanks to the stubborn perversity of the Football Association and the wretched dominance of television over what a major advantage to Chelsea it could have been had the kick-off been as it was the previous day for the Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool soon after mid-day.

Especially burdensome for the bulwark and inspiration of the Chelsea defence, indeed of the team at large, John Terry obliged to play despite his broken ribs. Whatever happens to Chelsea in these demanding days, it would be good but unlikely to see Roberto Di Matteo confirmed as manager, now billed by the club so ungenerously as interim coach.

The word is that he simply isn't seen as prominent enough for the job. Which makes you wonder just how qualified for it was Avram Grant, the Israeli who took over when the impatient billionaire-oligarch owner, Roman Abramovich, so illogically sacked ‘The Special One', Jose Mourinho, who'd already won the European Cup with Porto, and would go on — having so nearly piloted Chelsea to the trophy — to do it against Inter.

Hard, anyway, to Chelsea with the physical demands made on them and with Terry's injuries, resisting Barca, not least at Wembley when the Catalans on their last visit to Wembley in the 2011 European final simply took Manchester United to the cleaners. Will it happen again to Chelsea?

Impregnable

Hard to see them stopping Lionel Messi any more than United or the overwhelmed Bayer Leverkusen could. Yes, the Barca defence is by no means impregnable with Mascherano a stop-gap and somewhat undersized centre back, but for much of the return home tie against Benfica, the Chelsea defence looked shaky and uneasy, with little Pablo Aimar, the veteran Argentine playmaker, elusive and influential in midfield.

Arguably though, Di Matteo has surely done enough to remain in office, having brought a Chelsea team, previously in crisis, outplayed in Naples, all the way to this semi-final stage.

Any established manager must know that the best he can expect from Chelsea and Abramovich is a limited tenure, compensated, it is true, by a large pay-off.

Super goals

And Messi? The greatest, as some say, that there has ever been? For me, Pele still merits that title. Messi is superbly effective on the ground, but what does he ever do in the air, where Pele excelled, with all his other talents? I was privileged to watch him head super goals in two World Cup finals, 1958 and 1962 let alone score with that devastating right foot and make goals, as in 1970, for others.

Moreover, with his doubtless brilliance for Barcelona, Messi didn't excel in a World Cup yet, though this may have had something to do with Diego Maradona not giving the free reign in South Africa with Argentina which he enjoys when he is playing for Barcelona.

And I'd also rank his fellow Argentine, the gloriously versatile Alfredo Di Stefano, above him.

The writer is a football expert based in England.