John Terry hailed Chelsea FC's 0-0 draw away to FC Barcelona in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final as a near flawless defensive display which he hopes has laid the foundations for a second successive appearance in the final.
Team effort
"That was an almost perfect performance which did the manager, the club and ourselves proud," Terry said. "It's definitely up there with all the best games I've been involved in. The work our midfield did was incredible but we defended as a team all night. Barça kept coming at us and coming at us and everyone is feeling it a bit in their legs at the moment. But even if the job is still only half done, I think we can be delighted to take a team like this one back to Stamford Bridge at only 0-0."
Dogged work
Terry, who missed what would have been a match-winning penalty in the Moscow final defeat by Manchester United FC a year ago, thrived on the pressure and typified his team's dogged, intelligent work. Keeping Barça scoreless at the Camp Nou for the first time in any competition since United did so at this stage last season clearly gives the 28-year-old great pride and the belief that the momentum is with Chelsea. "They are such a good side that this counts as an achievement," said the England captain.
Defensive problems
The Spanish Liga leaders will travel to Stamford Bridge without the suspended Carles Puyol and his fellow centre-back Rafael Márquez, who suffered a serious knee injury on Tuesday, giving Terry hope that striker "Didier [Drogba] will cause them problems in London". He continued: "In fact, it will be a different game at our place. Credit to Barcelona, they stopped us playing, but now we're going to have our fans roaring us on and it's definitely game on."
Čech boost
As far as Terry was concerned Chelsea's leading light on a night of joint heroics was Petr Čech. Judged to have had an inconsistent night in the 4-4 draw against Liverpool FC in the previous round, the goalkeeper is evidently back to his best. "It's great to see him in tip-top form," said Terry. "He was brilliant for us at the weekend and his form has been coming back to its very best for a couple of weeks now, which is a massive boost for us at this stage of the season."
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