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Chelsea vs Fulham
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Unrepentant Guus Hiddink last night hit back at Barcelona's bully boy claims by telling them: "It's a man's game."
The Chelsea boss and his team were condemned as practitioners of "anti-football" and putting up a "wall of shame" to blunt Barca's attacking weaponry in the goalless draw in the Nou Camp.
But Hiddink insisted he had no regrets about the approach his side took in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.
And he hinting that the barrage of complaints by Barcelona revealed a psychological weakness.
Hiddink, preparing for today's visit by Fulham, said: "We didn't play with fear. We don't know fear. But when you play a team like Barcelona you must give resistance.
"We didn't want to play 'anti- football'. We like to play a good game, as we've proved on several occasions this year, and at the beginning of the season and I'd have liked us to show more initiative than we did.
"This Chelsea team can play and likes to play football - but they also like to show resistance and like to be winners. We didn't allow Barcelona victory. This team has the character to fight as well.
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"We're not going to say sorry to them because we didn't concede a goal. I put the emphasis on being a winner, not giving in and starting to cry when it's not going well."
Barca coach Pep Guardiola - a former Spain midfielder - began the whingeing after the game, with his players lining up to join in.
Hiddink, however, pointed out: "It was a man's match. I know Guardiola, and remember he liked a tackle, within the rules.
"It's not as if we were the only team making tackles. I've looked at the DVD of the game again and you see Yaya Toure, Eric Abidal, Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol all understand this approach so well.
"They like to make the game tough as well. It's not a black and white situation.
"This was the first time for a long time that they hadn't scored, so that was disappointing for them."
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