Barca vs Chelsea: The statistics story

Pep Guardiola said after the first leg that ‘statistics don't win you games', a fact that sadly rang true for Barcelona after going out 3-2 on aggregate against Chelsea despite their dominance in the numbers column.

Chelsea and Barcelona had entered the tie with the distinction of being the teams to reach this stage the most times in the last nine seasons with six times each.

Only Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have played against each other more times than Barcelona and Chelsea in this competition's history - Real and Bayern have met 13 times before while Barcelona and Chelsea have clashed 12 times.

Chelsea went through to the final despite having had only 18.3% possession over both legs, which is the lowest by any team in the Champions League this season. In the 1st leg, Chelsea became the first side in the Champions League since 03/04 to win a game despite having less than 24% possession with 20.9% at Stamford Bridge.

Pass Masters

Barcelona's dominance stemmed from the midfield, where their pass completion of 90% was significantly higher than 65% than that of Chelsea's in the second leg.

Xavi topped the passing charts in the match at Camp Nou, where he completed 169 passes, which was almost twice that of the next nearest player, Lionel Messi, who completed 89 passes. Xavi's fellow midfielders Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta were close behind Messi with 88 and 75 passes each.
Tellingly, Xavi completed eight more passes (69) than the entire Chelsea team (61) in the first half of the second leg.

In contrast, Chelsea's top passer Raul Meireles made only 22 passes and perhaps more surprisingly, goalkeeper Petr Cech was the next highest passer for the Blues with 19 passes completed.

Goals count, shots don't

Over both legs, Barcelona amassed 47 attempts on goal, of which 12 were on target - a stark contrast to Chelsea's 11 attempts, of which four were on target. 

Shots don't matter if they are not converted and Chelsea proved stronger than Barcelona in this vital aspect, scoring three goals from four shots on target (75%) while Barcelona managed two goals from 12 shots on target (16.6%).

That, however, is not surprising given Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes' poor shots-to-save statistics. Only Borussia Dortmund's Roman Weidenfeller (40%) has a worse ratio than Valdes (52.9%) in the Champions League this season.

Barcelona's loss despite their overwhelming dominance shows that statistics tell a story - but frequently, stories can come with a twist right at the end.