Schalke-0,Barcelona-1

Schalke vs Barcelona first legBarcelona gained the upper hand in the two legged Quarter final against Schalke courtesy of a solitary Goal from Bojan Krkic. Considering their performance against Betis, Barcelona played well and showed enough consistency and courage to grind out this result. Now they can firmly look forward to finish the job at Camp Nou and get ready to face Manchester United in the semis. Rijkaard brought back Milito in place of Thuram and the rest of the line up was the same as the Betis match.

Barcelona started the match in pretty much their usual manner. They had the majrity of possession and got their first shot on target in the 8th minute when Iniesta shot was blocked by Neuer. Then in the 12th minute Barcelona went one up when Henry placed the ball across the face of the goal for Krkic to have the easiest of tapping. The goal was a courtesy of Schalke keepre who failed to held on to Henry's first shot and the rebound found Henry again. That goal made Bojan the second youngest to score a goal in Champions league Matches. Barcelona could not make any meaningful attack in the rest of first half and apart from some unfutile attempts Schalke really failed to test Valdes. In the begining of second half it looked like there will be a repetition of the Betis match. Barcelona was allowing too much of possession to Schalke and was finding it difficult to hold the ball against a more physical opponents. Throughout the second half Schalke was interested in testing the Barcelona defense with arial ball and was successful in most of the cases. Barcelona defefense didn't fare well against the arial ball but did well to thwart any danger. Moreover poor finishing skills of Schalke players helped Barcelona a lot.

Schalke has already shown that they are no push over. But to win at Camp Nou will be little tough for them.



Match Highlights