Barcelona vs Chelsea, UEFA Champions League Semi-Final, 2nd Leg: Open Thread

It’s the match that we’ve all been waiting for — the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final to determine who will be playing in the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final. Will it be Barcelona or Chelsea? We will find out in the next few hours.

With Chelsea going into the match with a 1-0 aggregate lead, the first goal in this match will be crucial. If Chelsea gets the first goal, Barcelona will need to score three unanswered goals to go through. So it’s quite possible that Chelsea will push forward with a conservative effort during the first half, to try to get that elusive goal which could be enough.

Barcelona, meanwhile, is the team that’s under pressure. If Barca can get the first goal in the match, that will calm their nerves and will boost their confidence levels to push forward and to try to score more. Remember that with Barcelona not scoring an away goal at Stamford Bridge, even a 2-1 win for Barcelona will not be enough to go through.

Barcelona team: Valdes; Puyol, Mascherano, Pique; Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta, Fabregas; Cuenca, Messi, Alexis.

Chelsea team: Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Cole, Mikel, Lampard, Mata, Meireles, Ramires, Drogba.

In the United States, the match kicks off at 2:45pm ET on FOX Soccer. Pre-match coverage on FOX Soccer begins at 2pm ET.

Before, during and after this must-see match from Camp Nou, post your rants, raves, questions and observations about the match in the comments section below. We’ll post the squads as well as more info about the match as soon as we get it.

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