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Iniesta’s Miracle Strike

IniestaEssien (ISIphotos.com) 

                                                                                  Photo by ISIphotos.com

After more than 180 minutes without a goal in its Champions League semifinal series, FC Barcelona looked in danger of having its dream season ruined at the hands of Chelsea. At least before Andres Iniesta took on the role of hero and scored a game-winning goal for the ages.

You can argue about the referee all day, but nothing takes away from the brilliance and bravery of Iniesta's clutch finish.

Here it is for those of you who haven't seen it and for those of you who, like me, can't see it enough. Enjoy:

 

"Andres Iniesta is the God of soccer justice."

Now that's a line.

What did you think of Iniesta's goal? One of the most clutch goals you've ever seen? What was your reaction when it happened live? Is Iniesta your new favorite player?

Share your thoughts on Iniesta's goal and Barcelona's series victory in the comments section below.

Comments

  1. Here’s my question: Why is Ives all over Barca’s crotch? It’s getting a bit tiresome.

    My favorite Barca crotch jockey moment of late came in his poll on how the match would finish and the options were: “Barca win in a blowout,” “Barca win,” “Barca draw (and win),” “Chelsea win.”

    Hmm, so it wasn’t possible for Chelsea to win in a blowout? Funny, because that’s what the result would have been yesterday minus the worst officiating in the history of mankind.

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  2. Chelsea outplayed them over two legs. Hiddink’s tactics made Pep look like the rookie that he is. Taking nothing away from Iniesta’s goal- both his and Essien’s strikes were top class, but Barca did nothing to adapt in either game. ZERO shots on goal all game and everyone is thrilled to see Barca in the finals? As much as it pains me to say it, United will take them apart at the seams.

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  3. The goal was ridiculous, but I don’t know about the most clutch goal I’ve ever seen. Happy for Iniesta and Barca.

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  4. “Andres Iniesta is the God of futbol Justice.” Guys, that is not what the announcer said. He said: “It wasn’t Andres Iniesta. It was the God of futbol justice.” He was making the bigger point that the God of futbol justice mandated that the better team should go through.

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  5. Barca was lucky to escape this one and I’d be surprised if Man U didn’t walk all over them.

    Chelsea played a bunkered style, with 11 men behind the ball most of the time, but Barca was utterly clueless as to how to deal with it. Rather than a) going with speed when they had numbers b) switching the point of attack with passes (instead of dribbling) or c) taking more shots on goal, Barca just dinked the ball around, trying to walk it across the goal line.

    Iniesta’s goal was magic, but the dude passed up a half dozen obvious opportunities to put the ball on the frame earlier in the game. Maybe those shots go in, maybe they create a dangerous deflection. We’ll never know. He was utterly useless on the ball in the attacking third up until the end of the game.

    If Barca doesn’t learn how to adapt a bit to the in-game tactics of their opponent, United will destroy them. I hope they figure it out, as I’d like to see a decent final… but I’m not hopeful.

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  6. It’s a fair question to ask how Barca could be playing attacking soccer when they only had one shot on goal.

    Well, how do you define attacking soccer? For me, attacking soccer is when you’ve got players willing to stroke the ball around, beat defenders on the dribble and when you commit defenders forward.

    Barca was doing those things. There was panic in the Chelsea defense whenever Messi got the ball, and he skinned them a number of times. Alves was getting into the attack regularly. This sounds like (and is) attacking soccer.

    But good god, Barca wasn’t doing a very good job of it. Each time Messi beat a defender, he lofted a garbage cross. Alves got into great situations but similarly squandered each and every one of them. *That’s* how you play attacking soccer and still only have one shot on goal. Chelsea defended well, but they were playing a dangerous game. Barca was *always* just one good ball away from scoring. It’s a testament to how good Chelsea are that they pretty much stopped that final, good ball, but Chelsea’s strength doesn’t Barca wasn’t attacking for almost the entire game.

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  7. Onto the final! Alves, Abidal are going to be missed. But Puyol, Pique and Ya Ya still there. Hopefully, Henry will be back for the final. Should be a cracker!

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  8. HAHA, the funny thing is, Essien scored a hell of a goal, the made the crappiest clearance to Messi, who then drew THREE Chelsea players leaving Iniesta wide open. Great tactics.

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  9. I wanted Chelsea to win (so United can beat then again in the final) but was glad Barca went through. To say that Barca failed against a “superior physical” team is utter nonsense. Chelsea bunkered for 180 minutes and in the first 90 it was Czech’s spectacular saves that kept them in contention. Lowly Albania managed to draw in Portugal playing for 60 minutes with one man down but that’s because we bunkered for the whole 90 not because of our “superior physical” abilities.

    This will be one great final. United wins on penalties.

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  10. Iniesta is the epitome of calm, cool, and collected. He is an amazing player. Him and Xavi make up the best center mid pairing in the world. I am jealous the US will never have that much talent in the middle of the pitch.

    I’m not a fan of either team. I would have loved to have seen a Man U/Chelsea Champions League re-match. But this will suffice. Barca won’t be full strength on defense, but their offense will hopefully.

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  11. There were some bad calls so I have sympathy with Chelsea on that regard. If it had happened to my beloved team I would’ve been dispondant.

    However there is absoulte NO PLACE in football for the actions of Ballack and Drogba. I don’t care what the Ref did. And to have to smuggle the Referee out of the country after the match (after the whole Anders Frisk debacle a few years back) is an embarassment for English football.

    The referee was horrible all around but for those looking for the real answer as to why Chelsea lost, they can look no further than Chelsea themselves.

    -Chelsea went to the Nou Camp and played a defensive game, successfully keeping a clean sheet 0-0. However with that scoreline you open yourself up to exactly what happened last night

    -Didier Drogba can whinge and complain about penalties and disgraces but the biggest disgrace was his two brutal misses over the course of the tie. His early miss in the 1st leg and his miss just before halftime in the second. Arguably either one of those strikes being hit would’ve been the goal needed.

    -Guus Hiddink grabbed the goal that would put Chelsea through early on then sat on the lead. Sure Chelsea had some chances on the counter but to sit back for 80 minutes as one of the best attacking teams in football attempt to unlock you is just asking for exactly what happened. And then after being handed a gift with Abidal’s dismissal Hiddink replaces one of his strikers (supposedly the better one) with a defensive player.

    So at the end of the day, Chelsea have nobody to blame but themselves. All that talent, one of the better midfield’s in Europe and they tried to sneak into the finals.

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  12. North, agree w/ your last post-it was those tactics that gave Chelsea a chance to win and the difference was poor finishing and/or great goalkeeping depending on how you look at it.

    The thing w/ the ref: regardless of how you shake out on the math or comparison betw. the red card and the pk misses over both legs, it is undeniable that Chelsea were a MAN UP FOR 30 minutes on their HOME GROUND. Score a goal and this discussion is irrelevant-So for all the Hiddink man-crushing-and I do agree that he is the best manager in the world-he should have changed tactics for the end of the game-pushed Chelsea up to a higher line on the pitch and went for the juggular-instead, Barca took control of the match for the first time really, and w/ a man down, and there isn’t much to be said about lil Andres-absolutely orgasmic finish.

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  13. Poor officiating doesn’t even itself out, it’s just poor officiating. The idea that one bad red card somehow equals 3 missed pentaly kick decisions is a bit of wishful thinking.

    Ask any team. Would you rather be up a man or get 3 penalty kicks? I’m pretty sure most would rather have the PKs. Of course that being said I don’t think there were really 3 (of 5 as guus claims) bad PK decisions. Maybe 1 or 2 but that’s still 1 or 2 too many.

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  14. Chelsea played two of the ugliest games back to back that I’ve ever witnessed in CL. -regardless the Ref was standing right there with the drag down in the box.. blatantly too obvious it was inside the line.

    The Londoners were robbed.

    On to the Final..

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  15. as for the tactics failing Chelsea, those tactics are what gave them a shot to win. It’s pathetic finishing that failed then. In a one-one series, Drogba had two one-on-one breakaways with Valdes. If you were Guus running up to this series, wouldn’t you take those odds? There were at least five times in this series that Drogba, a world class finisher most of the time, had the ball in the box against either the keeper or one defender. That’s all you can hope for as a manager, pathetic finishing and inspired goalkeeping was the difference there.

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  16. Wow what a bunch of Chelsea haters. I hate how people think tradition warrants justice over being good by buying good players. I hate the ManU/Liverpool/Arsenal/RealMadrid/Juve/Barca fanboys just as much as you guys hate Chelsea. It’s pointless to use that as a reason to hate on Chelsea.

    Simply put:

    – Chelsea generally was screwed out of the match. No way around it. 3 non PK calls is considerably less fair than a red card.

    – However, Chelsea acted very classless. I agree.

    – In the end, every argument I’ve read regarding whether “better football” or the “more deserving team” won has been lame. There is almost as less objectivity in sports as there is in politics.

    This is for the same reason why everyone hated on Hoffenhiem: “They don’t deserve to be that good because they haven’t been that good in the past.” Those arguments are lame.

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  17. Please, Ronaldo is the second leading scorer in the epl, playing against defenses that do that every week. Not all of Chelsea’s quality, of course.

    And of course Sir Alex is going to copy those tactics, they obviously work, with better finishing (which man utd has) Rooney and Ronaldo don’t miss all those opportunities. He’d be a fool to do anything else. And he is not a fool.

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  18. I asked the question a couple of weeks ago with respect to Iniesta being the last guy you want coming at you with the ball. Well, he didn’t have to dribble at all, but what a shot!!!

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  19. There were so many mistakes by the refs in this series that it’s impossible to even say what ifs. Ives, you and Johann Cruff have taken the position of “forget the refs.” There is a LOT of merit in that and certainly the most mature approach to this series.

    But the question I have is when will FIFA, UEFA, and the other governing bodies decide to raise the level of referring–make it professional. Yes, mistakes will always continue to be made by all humans involved in the sport. But by adding officiating error to the equation, close games become a crap shoot. Players, coaches, managers from teams are always under pressure to raise their games. It’s time pressure be put on FIFA and UEFA, MLS to raise their game as well, and make positive changes to ensure the game is called as evenly and consistently as possible so that it’s players, coaches, managers, etc that decide games.

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  20. He made one shot, why should he be my new favorite player? He should be cleaning my pool. But, I’m glad that we are going to be able to witness a ManU-Barca final. They are by far the two most talented teams in Europe. Hopefully it will be an open game, and they don’t play too cagey.

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  21. UNBELIEVABLE FINISH. Are you kidding me Chelsea fans? Are you effing kidding me?? The ref sucked for both teams, no argument there. Horrible, horrible reffing, I don’t think anyone can dispute that. But Chelsea fans have to blame their team first and foremost. Namely because even with 10 men, they were afraid to play! Was that the ref’s fault too? What gives?? Great teams finish off wounded opponents. Every single title winning team has that killer instinct when they sense blood. But what Chelsea did by going ultra conservative was give Barca repeated attempts at cracking the shell, when leaving Drogba in, taking advantage of the extra player (what did Belletti do??), and having faith in Chelsea’s offensive advantage at that point would’ve seen another Chelsea / ManU final. That’s where Hiddink was wrong for once, and what gave Iniesta the chance to become legend. Chelsea played with incredible discipline and spirit, undeniably. And to have the result denied to them in that way was the cruelest possible way to lose. But I believe the team that wanted it more, that was physically smaller but technically superior, and they team that played absolutely fearlessly won, even shorthanded. Sure sounds like justice to me. Gods of futbol indeed. ps Individually, I think Pique for MOTM. Even the announcers had no idea where he would come from next, he was absolutely everywhere , especially in those last 20 mins.

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  22. madmax, totally agree. Eto’o has been off his game for a few weeks now…not sure what’s going on w/ him-needs a fire lit under his you know what. And Keita looked way out of his depth in this match-Busquets got pretty bad reviews from most yesterday-but I actually thought he was FAR superior to Keita-aside from the one bad mistake giving up the ball to lampard which almost led to a goal. Keita consistently gave the ball away and did not impress at all in the tackle as he usually does.

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  23. Iniesta has been playing incredible football all year, but is often over shadowed by Mesi etal.

    Pep will have problems in the final besides his decimated back line. Eto’o was invisible this game often shying away from contact and the ball. Kieta looks well over-matched at this level. If Pep can solve these three issues, it should be a great final.

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  24. Chris–
    I agree that this clip captures the spirit of the moment much better than the English broadcast. Plus Ives is right– what a great line. I, for one, can’t remember the last time I saw such a wild scene. The whole thing was just incredible. Soccer is the only sport I find compelling even when I don’t care who wins– like this match-up– and this was the perfect example of why that is. It’s not just a game, it’s a referendum on an entire philosophy of life… or something like that. What a goal. What a game.

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  25. Just a comment on the Youtube clip here. I don’t speak Spanish and normally when I hear Spanish commentary during matches I usually find it annoying and too over the top. However in this case during this clip it sounds awesome. The English commentary on just made it sound like the match was over for so much of the game. From what we hear in this clip the announcers are into it. Was this from the broadcast in Spain? The logo says Canal rather than ESPN so I guess it’s not a feed for the Americas. Would explain why they were so excited.

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  26. Chelsea can cry all they want. Their tactics failed them. End of story. See you next year.

    Barca, we will see you in Rome!

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  27. Look guy, the bottom line is you ignored what I wrote, I acknowledged that Chelsea defended him brilliantly-but I guess that means that the CL quarterfinals and first knock-out rounds are not big games, or the classico against Madrid, or the Olympics, or WC qualifying, or the Copa del Rey. Yes, Messi had 1 pt over the 2 legs against Chelsea, but to somehow extrapolate that and claim that he’s not a big-game player as a result is just plain silly, and that’s all there is to it-which is why EVERYONE-including the English press, know he’s the best player in the world.

    Ronaldo is fantastic, and if he plays better than Messi in the final, then perhaps the pendulum will swing back his way, but right now Messi es numero uno.

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  28. And for those saying Blatter fix this, gambling that, come on, get a clue. Do you really think this type of a finish was rigged? Good one.

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  29. I have never in my life seen a bigger pack of sore losers. The spirit of The Special One lives on.

    You lost. Try to show the tiniest bit of class.

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  30. Guus tactics weren’t “great,” defend all game and get lucky (That’s essien did, got lucky). Messi didn’t do anything, true, but how could he, there we three on him every time he got the ball, and by the way, he completely made Cole look like a slow and inept defender. Yeah the ref was bad, but he was bad both ways and we all know, at the end of the day, it’s not the red, it’s the team, the ref thing is just an excuse. The thing that sucks now, is that Barca is going to Rome short handed.
    Peace.

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  31. I’m an ardent Premier fan. But Barca won the game. Chelsea did not play the whole game, they let their guard down in the waning minutes when Iniesta had a clear shot. So to say Chelsea played the whole game is rubbish, I’ve seen hundreds of derbies where the winner was outplayed the whole game yet still won in the final seconds because the dominating team had thought they’d won and let their guard down at the end.

    To blame the referee is childish and sophmoric, to call him profanities is even worse, to send death threats is beyond comprehension. Chelsea left the game like school children (with exception to John Terry and a few others). There were just as many missed calls for Barca in both legs. Abidal’s red card was a total miss which changed the complexion of the game even more.

    To say the ref ruined the game? If he had called every call, then everyone would say he ruined the game with too much control. If he called half of the lot, then even more bias. Stop blaming the ref. Let the players play, and act like gents.

    There is one goodresult here:
    Maybe (whishfully thinking?) FIFA president Sepp Blatter will quit trying to regulate English football.

    (Ives, comment on Blatter?)

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  32. Dave, calm down there buddy, it actually has a lot to do with it. Would you rather have player score 5 times in the group stage against obvious weaker opponents or 2 times in a knockout round? There’s no doubt all goals count, but just ask Ibrahimavic if scoring on the big stage isn’t important. Is there any way I can spell it out more clearly than that?

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  33. First off, I am not saying this game was fixed.

    But how many of you out there, and Ives in particular, I would love to hear your comments, think top matches get fixed? It is a fact that matches get fixed. Bribes or gambling influence, it happens. So do you believe that top CL or WC matches get fixed? If so, is it an official like Sepp Blatter telling the ref, “hey, no all English final again, OK?”

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  34. who cares where the goals have been? are you kidding me? That’s a head scratcher.

    Did you read anything i wrote? Read my post before writing something like that.

    HE HAS SCORED 8 GOALS IN THE CHAMPS LEAGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RONALDO HAS SCORED 4.

    Is there any way to spell it out more clearly than that?

    I’m glad you’ll be rooting for messi, I will be too.

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  35. I’ll agree that Barca could well win the EPL, but it is debatable and far from a guarantee, Senor El Matador.

    Messi didn’t do jack against Chelsea. The pass to Iniesta was an assist technically but far from a thing of beauty. Compare that to last year’s semi against Man Utd when Messi was one of the only players to threaten Man Utd. Iniesta was a real threat, though.

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  36. Dave, look at where Messi’s and Ronaldo’s goals have been though…Ronaldo shows up in the big games (2 goals in the semi-finals, for example), while Messi didn’t make much of an impact against Chelsea. Sure he made the easy square ball to Iniesta for the goal but any player in professional football can make that pass (not to mention it probably never should’ve happened, as Essien completely whiffed on the clearance).

    I’ll be rooting for Messi to show up and make a statement in the CL Final but let’s not pretend he’s made more of an impact than Ronaldo. Also, maybe if Messi and the rest of Barcelona shot more from 18 yards out, instead of trying to dribble the ball into the net, they wouldn’t have needed a last minute goal to advance.

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  37. Some of the posters on here have it right on-Chelsea were up a man for 30 minutes and could not put the game away…it’s that simple-put it away and it doesn’t matter what the ref does.

    I could see the anger if the ref disallowed a goal or something that was clearly in-but that’s just not the case here.

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  38. I love how the “clear PK” shouts keep rising . First two, then three, then four. Delusional. Barca is the better team, as evidenced by the ridiculous tactics Chelsea employed. Had they grown a pair in the final 25 minutes and actually attacked, they would have won…especially seeing how suspect Barcelona’s back line was. Chelsea dug their own grave.

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