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Barcelona Cooling Off as Champions League Heating Up

Defending European champions Barcelona have suffered a blow to their repeat campaign last week as they have lost at home to Liverpool. The English team, the winner of the Champions League the year before last, had thus ended a 17 match unbeaten run by the Spanish team. Losing 2-1 in Nou Camp puts Barcelona in a highly uncomfortable spot to make it through the round of 16.

Barcelona went ahead 1-0 on a goal by midfielder Deco in the 14th minute. But the 2005 champs and five time European champs scored twice with goals by Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise. The second match is scheduled in about a week. To be the first club to defend the tile since AC Milan in 1990, they will have to win in England by a score greater than 2-1. This is why Bellamy said ?Today was a great result for us, but really it`s only halftime.? But his comment that Barcelona is still the favorite is certainly questionable, at least by the ?halftime? score.

Another British club favored to reach the final stages of the tournament is Chelsea. Its 1-1 draw at Porto, manager Jose Mourinho?s former club, along with the loss of captain John Terry to an ankle injury, injured 11 minutes into the game, makes their prospects somewhat worse. Mourinho acted as expected, commenting on the loss of Terry, saying: ?When we lost John Terry we lost everything, the tactical system, everything.?