CFC:s magiska kväll: Pressens reaktioner (uppdaterad)
Att det var en kamp av episka proportioner mellan Barcelona och Chelsea råder ingen tvekan om i pressen.
"Occasionally a match comes along that restores your faith in the beautiful game. This was one of them. Sadly, scuffles, accusations and controversy again spoiled the occasion but, on the pitch, Chelsea and Barcelona treated us to a 24-carat humdinger.
Dull? Boring? Who are you kidding? Jose Mourinho answered his critics - Barcelona among them - in the most appropriate fashion at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea earned themselves a place in the folklore of the European game with this magnificent victory over the Spanish league leaders. Their 4-2 win - 5-4 on aggregate - in a spectacle of explosive drama and swaying fortunes would have made a classic final.
It wasn't simply an epic match but a clear declaration of intent by the brash, bullish Mourinho. The Champions League trophy is his . . . and he intends to keep it. Nothing was more obvious as the dust settled at the end and the triumphant Mourinho scampered across the pitch."
Michael Hart, Evening Standard
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"Barcelona's players had said Chelsea were boring and defensive. Former Barca boss Johan Cruyff had said the way Mourinho organised his side made him "loathe" football.
An army of others had insisted that the way Mourinho behaved at the Nou Camp a fortnight ago, when he complained about referee Anders Frisk, lacked class and hinted he was cracking under the pressure. Sitting languidly in the Chelsea dug-out while opposite number Frank Rijkaard hopped about like a man on hot coals, Mourinho answered all those questions last night.
Because the way Chelsea played last night, the way they exploded out of the blocks against the team many have already anointed the best in Europe, was rich vindication for the Portuguese boss.
It showed that this Chelsea team is about far more than containment and counter-attack. It showed it can be creative and breathtakingly brilliant as well as pragmatic"
Oliver Holt, Daily Mirror
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"John Terry versus Ronaldinho. And the winner was - John Terry, the East End boy with West End dreams. If Chelsea go on for another millennium, no player will embody the club's ambitions quite like the homegrown warrior who scored their decisive goal on a night of unrelenting drama at Stamford Bridge."
Paul Hayward, The Daily Telegraph
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"Only the harshest of purists would have suggested that the defensive generosity of both sides was perhaps a reason why these two great metropolitan clubs, each with a history illuminated by a galaxy of stars, have won the European Cup only once between them. If the half-time score from San Siro - 0-0 between Milan and Manchester United - might have seemed more pleasing to the connoisseur of the European Cup, this match offered the sort of intoxicating flavour of those great nights in the early years of the competition, when Real Madrid borrowed Brazil's philosophy of noting their opponents score and then simply scoring a few more."
Richard Williams, The Guardian
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"Johan Cruyff said Jose Mourinho is death to football, but the ageing Dutch master could not have got it more wrong. Death to polite and temperate behaviour, maybe; death to sweet modesty and decorum, as he proved again when he blew brief kisses to the shattered Barça fans after this stupendous match, but not football, and certainly not Chelsea."
James Lawton, The Independent
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"They summoned a performance from the gods to beat Barcelona and, in doing so, Chelsea also had to beat a player whose football seems at times to exist in another dimension. Ronaldinho contributed some sublime moments to this contest but the news that even the greatest player in the world does not possess enough talent to shake the destiny of Jose Mourinho's side might yet be all the evidence Chelsea need that they can win this Champions' League. It was a towering epic of a match, a game that shifted from elation to despair and then back again for Chelsea as rapidly as these two teams committed themselves to the plundering of one another's penalty areas."
Sam Wallace, The Independent
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"HE NOT only knocked them out of the European Cup, he also sent Barcelona away kicking and screaming. On top of defending the trophy that he regards as his to keep, José Mourinho appears intent on belittling the mighty clubs of the Continent on the way.
No club and no rival coach is to be spared the lash of the Portuguese's tongue, but this most extraordinary manager keeps coaxing performances from his teams to back up his provocative words and gestures. The more he talks, the better his Chelsea team play.
Their success last night was all the greater for the fact that they had to win the tie twice. Having stormed ahead with three goals inside 19 minutes, they conceded two to trail on away goals at the interval. The resolve of players such as Frank Lampard, John Terry and Petr Cech in the second half revealed European champions of the future, if not this season. Their opponents would have made worthy finalists, with Samuel Eto'o and Ronaldinho outstanding, so Chelsea's triumph must not be underestimated."
Matt Dickinson, The Times
