• Gary Cahill upbeat over Champions League semi-final
• Petr Cech: 'We always seem to score in the Camp Nou'
Chelsea will travel to the Camp Nou next week confident they can register the away goal that eluded Barcelona at Stamford Bridge and force their way into next month's Champions League final at the hosts' expense.
Roberto Di Matteo's team surrendered possession to the holders for long periods on Wednesday night and worked prodigiously in defence, benefiting from a dose of good fortune with the Catalans striking the woodwork twice, and scored with their solitary shot on target. Similar resilience will be required in the return fixture, where the London side are unbeaten in their past three visits, with Chelsea accepting they are likely to need to score to progress.
"It's going to be tough to keep a clean sheet there," said Gary Cahill, who excelled alongside John Terry. "We will have to score but I think we can. We will get a chance in the 90 minutes. We're under no illusions how tough it will be away from home but if we put in a performance like we did in the first leg then we will not go far wrong. Maybe we will have to offer more, football-wise, but I think we frustrated them at Stamford Bridge. If we can do that in the away leg, replicate that performance … We're under no illusions about how tough it'll be on their own pitch but we're happy at 'half‑time' [in the tie]."
Nine of the side who began Chelsea's goalless draw at the Camp Nou in the first leg of the semi-final three years ago remain at the club and could feature next week. Petr Cech said: "We've done well there in the past and we need to reproduce the same kind of performance. It's the only way we can do it. It will be really important to score another goal as well. We seem to always score a goal there so hopefully we can replicate that. We need to basically have a great night again to go through.
"But we can use our experience. We made it really tight against such a wonderful team on Wednesday. We were tight, disciplined and focused, and they still managed to have some chances, but we were rewarded for the commitment and for the team spirit. But we're still a long way from going through. The tie is still open and they've got the advantage of a game on their own pitch. Everything can still happen."
Di Matteo will make changes for Saturday's trip to Arsenal, with Fernando Torres, José Bosingwa, Michael Essien and Salomon Kalou expected to start in a game Chelsea can ill afford to lose as they attempt to restore themselves to the top four. Terry, who is recovering from two fractured ribs, will have to play in the absence of the suspended Branislav Ivanovic and the injured David Luiz, with the England defender's form inspiring his team-mates.
"You can just see how much he wants to be on the pitch," Cech said. "There's only two ways: either you accept [the injury] and you sit at home, or you get through all the pain and you play. I think JT has always been like that. He's doing everything as normal in training and I'm not really surprised. I played for 14 months with both my shoulders broken and I think, sometimes, how did I manage to do that? Because I wanted to be part of the team and win titles. I didn't want to rest. You will reach the point where you can't do it any more but if you accept the pain then you can. He's always been fantastic with that. If you see him going off you know there is a problem because, normally, he would until the last second be fighting.
"We have almost everybody [else] fit so we can rotate the team. This is a massive game against Arsenal because we need to reach the Champions League spot. It's always hard to manage everything. But Barcelona have the Clásico against Real Madrid on Saturday as well, so maybe that's an advantage. We have a massive game, they have a massive game. So we both need to manage that. Who's going to do it better? Let's see." Read More
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