Chelsea v Barcelona: An astonishing statistical story in screengrabs

Last night's Champions League semi-final at Stamford Bridge featured a sustained attacking threat from Barcelona thwarted by a brilliant rearguard action from Chelsea, as shown bythe StatsZone app â from FFT & Opta, available now...

Barcelona completed almost five times as many passes: 754 to Chelsea's 158. But no yellow "assist" arrowsâ¦

As @attacktheball pointed out on Twitter, in the attacking third Chelsea completed 17 passes (mostly long) to Barcelona's 215.

Player Influence shows involvement by average position and name size (the bigger the name, the more touches the player had). Note the solidity of Chelsea's deep-lying midfield.

Barcelona sent in 21 crosses (including corners) but few reached their target.

Barcelona had 24 shots to Chelsea's four â but 11 of the visitors' attempts were blockedâ¦

â¦as this screenshare shows.

Chelsea players blocked five of Messi's seven shots; Drogba had one attempt all night and scored the winner.

Messi attempted the most take-ons (dribbles), but they were all central and mostly unsuccessful. Drogba had Chelsea's most take-ons, and most were in his own half.

â¦but as a million Chelsea fans pointed out, one stat's bigger than the rest: Chelsea won 1-0.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League â and, coming soon, Euro 2012.

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