Chelsea will travel to Barcelona for the first leg of their semi-final Champions League game in full battle mode despite the absence of some key players such as left-back Ashley Cole and defender Ricardo Carvalho. The latter has seen the return of a hamstring problem. The remainder of manager Guus Hinddinks’ (pictured center) squad are full of determination to win at the Nou Camp and boost their ratings in the process.
The laborious 1:0 win over West Ham in English Premier League action did no good to the FTBL rating of midfielder Michael Ballack, who came in as a substitute 7 minutes before the end of the game: he lost 15.12 rating points and now has only 122.82 points. The Germany international could lose even more rating points in the showdown with Barcelona if he fails to beat his plank of approximately 20 rating points. He will also have to score if he wants to avoid sinking into negative territory.
Frank Lampard (174.91 points) and John Terry (121.29 points) will have to prove they belong in our World Top 23: Lampard will have to beat the plank of 22.07 rating points, while Terry needs at least 11.51 rating points. If Chelsea concede less than one goal, Terry would escape a slide in the rating...that is if Chelsea go on to win.
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