You might want to watch Barcelona's dismemberment of Bayern in the previous round. The Germans arguably qualify as a 'decent team.'
Not that Chelsea can pretend to be of premier international class anyway, being only 3rd in the Premiership, below the erratic Liverpool and out of the running for their domestic title.
Chelsea's bus-parking Nou Camp escape was by no stretch of the imagination a 'genius' performance. They showed little or no inclination nor ability to do anything with the ball and 'earned' their draw only through Barcelona's profligacy. A team that is dominant when defending does not permit >20 efforts on goal, after all. (This is assuming that defending starts higher up the pitch than the edge of the penalty area...)
btw Real's defence is the equal second best of La Liga.
Barcelona rarely threatened to score before that header in the 92nd (?) minute, and Drogba's was arguably the clearest chance of the match. No-one could've complained if it had been 1-0/2-0 to Barca, I'd agree with that, but they didn't actually put the ball in the net, did they? Three halves of semi-final football vs English teams, and nothing to show for it. They may well come good on Wednesday, but they need to prove they can hack it vs the best defensive teams.
I was saying that Hiddink qualifies as a management genius, not Chelsea - he judged the game on Weds very well. Why would he adopt tactics that would see Chelsea get murdered? More generally, name any manager who has done better with often limited resources, aside from Clough. He gets better results than could be predicted when it really counts - Guardiola has yet to prove he can (off the field), much as I admire the type of football Barca play in principle.
As another has said, Bayern don't qualify as a decent team at present. Though quite how bad Sporting Lisbon are is mind-boggling.
Real are a joke at the highest level, I'm sorry. The erratic Liverpool embarrassed them. When was the last time an English team lost a European tie 5-0? Much as it's all due to money, with 3/4 semi-finalists and 2/2 finalists two seasons in a row, the Premier League is more dominant in Europe than any league in living memory, even Spain in 2000-2002. Quite when it's going to change, i can't foresee, but then everyone said that about Serie A in the 90s.
