Chelsea Not Scared of Barcelona or Nou Camp, Says Cech

Chelsea's Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech, who played a vital role in the Blues' 1-0 win over Barcelona in the first leg of the two clubs' Champions League semi-final tie, said the Blues were not scared of facing the Catalans at the Nou Camp, for the return leg on 24 April.

The Stamford Bridge club, who despite being completely dominated in the first leg, will go into the second leg with a tactical and mental advantage and retaining the underdogs tag which has served them well so far. However, Barcelona at home are formidable opposition - they are unbeaten in 30 games this season, having won 27 of those. In the process, they have scored 104 goals and conceded just 16. Chelsea will draw inspiration from the fact they have not lost in the last six games against the European champions and Cech is confident of retaining that record.

"We've done well in the past there and need to reproduce the same kind of performance that we did and like we have before. It will be really important to score an away goal as well but we seem always to score there and, hopefully, we can replicate that," the Guardian quoted Cech as saying.

However, Chelsea will have to do better, defensively, at the Nou Camp if they are to contain the Spanish giants, whose only flaw in the first leg was failing to convert the numerous chances they created.

"This performance was all about the focus and concentration, to stay disciplined all the time and not give them space, even though you could run for three minutes and not see the ball. We had to fight from the first to the last minute. We've done the maximum we could do against such a great side. We've had some good results against them in the past and used that experience again. We made it really tight, but will have to play the same way in the second leg," he added.

Chelsea defender Gary Cahill, who also played well in the first leg, also believes Chelsea have a good chance of making it to the finals of the Champions League despite it being very tough ask.

"I think we can score in the Nou Camp. I think we will get a chance in 90 minutes. The lads say the pitch is massive. It's going to be tough. Playing them on any pitch will be tough, but playing them on their massive pitch will be extra tough," Cahill was quoted by the Telegraph as saying.

"But if we put in a performance like we did in the first leg then we will not go far wrong. It's going to be tough to keep a clean sheet. We will have to score. We're under no illusions how tough it will be away from home, but we've made a great start," he added.

Chelsea, who have a very tiring couple of weeks ahead of them, next play a London derby against Arsenal, at the Emirates.