Barcelona 0-0 Chelsea

Real Madrid may be the team Barcelona will always love to hate, yet Chelsea have once again proven to be the side they hate to play.

This is the fourth time they have met the Blues in the Champions League in the past five seasons and they are still waiting to give them the beating that they crave.

Chelsea's performance was met by howls of derision from the home crowd. For the visitors, it must have been a very satisfying and familiar noise because it meant the plan to frustrate their opponents had worked again.

They have still suffered only one defeat here in Europe since 2005 and conceded just five goals.

All the talk ahead of this semi-final, first leg was of Barca's incredible attacking threat, especially the front three of Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o.

The trio may have found the net 90 times this season but last night their threat was snuffed out.

Chelsea's defensive mindset will have won few friends but they won't be too concerned should they make it to their second final in a row. Before that, they have a very difficult second leg at Stamford Bridge next week and Guus Hiddink will be aware that conceding an away goal will mean they have to score twice.

However, the manager must also know that his side have Barcelona rattled and may now have a crucial pyschological advantage. Many of their players were in the side that lost 4-2 at Chelsea in 2005 to go out at the last-16 stage and must fear a repeat. Certainly, the longer the match wore on, the more their superstars lost their cool.

Instead of concentrating on finding a way to unlock the well-marshalled defence led by the exemplary John Terry, the home side looked to get Chelsea's players booked.

For all their obvious talents, Barcelona also have a rather spoilt nature. When on top, they play with a smile on their face. If a team gets stuck into them, like Chelsea did, they begin to snarl and Barca didn't display much sportsmanship last night. Even their manager, Pep Guardiola, came across as bitter in the post-match press conference, when he should have been focusing on how he was going to change things next week.

At the moment, Hiddink (left) has the edge over the young pretender. The Dutchman's decision to bring in John Obi Mikel as an extra holding midfielder to play alongside Michael Ballack, while pushing Michael Essien out to the right worked a treat.

It meant Chelsea had two players in the middle to cope with the constant threat of Xavi and Andreas Iniesta. Essien was deployed to help Branislav Ivanovic contain Henry on Barcelona's left wing, with Florent Malouda assisting Jose Bosingwa's attempts to stop Messi on the right.

His tactics to nullify Barcelona paid off, although he probably wouldn't have wanted it to take such a toll on the attacking play. The statistics showed that Barcelona had 70 per cent of the possession in the first half and yet they did very little with it. Keeper Petr Cech showed a return to form after recent criticism but most of the Spanish club's efforts came from long range.

And what of Messi? Billed as the greatest player in the world before the match, he couldn't make an impact against Bosingwa, despite the right- back playing out of position.

The Argentine's first involvement was to allow the ball to roll under his foot and out for a throw-in.

Incredibly, he looked the more nervous of the two players and never really recovered last night.

Hiddink is wary he may do so in time for next week and said: "It can happen one night that you stop him but I don't think it will happen twice."

Chelsea actually had the best chance of the half when Rafael Marquez's weak back pass only succeeded in putting Didier Drogba through on goal, but he sent his shot straight at Victor Valdes. Ballack also should have done better with a header from Drogba's free kick after the restart but he sent the ball just over the bar.

The rest of the half was all Barcelona, though, and they were left to rue missing some great chances.

The introduction of substitutes Krkic Bojan and former Arsenal winger Alex Hleb almost broke the deadlock in the dying minutes, only for the former to head over from six yards and the latter to also be denied by Cech.

If failing to beat Chelsea again wasn't bad enough, Barcelona will also be understrength at the back for the return as Marquez was stretchered off with a knee injury that has ended his season and Carlos Puyol is suspended.

Terry said: "It will be a different game at the Bridge but we showed a few years ago that we can get in their faces and make things difficult for them.

"We will certainly be going for the win from the off."