The first leg of the Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona at the Camp Nou ended in a 0:0 draw, with Chelsea’s vice-captain Frank Lampard, who was substituted in the 71st minute, losing his 4th place in our FTBL rating of best world midfielders to Barcelona’s Xavi, who played the entire game.
Lampard has not scored a goal since the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Liverpool. He lost 14.18 rating points at the Camp Nou and now has just 160.73 points over all. In contrast, Xavi managed to lose just 2.3 rating points, since his performance in the 6th game was not as alluring as Lampard’s. Xavi has snatched the 4th place in the midfielders’ FTBL Top 23 from the England international.
Xavi remains behind Lionel Messi, who is in third place. Nonetheless, as we projected, Messi was unable to improve his rating as compared to the 6th game, where he scored a double and produced a dazzling performance against Bayern Munich. He lost a whopping 26.14 rating points.
Another 3 Chelsea players have exited the Top 23 as a result of their performance in the game against Chelsea: They are Cameroon international Samuel Eto’o, who lost 19.36 rating points; Andres Iniesta, who lost 12.36 rating points; and Carles Puyol, who lost 11.94 rating points.
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