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Roberto Di Matteo on the night he beat Pep’s Barcelona to write himself into Chelsea folklore

Chelsea might have been leading by a single goal from the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, but the odds were heavily stacked against interim manager Roberto Di Matteo as he stood on the touchline at Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium.

Not only was he up against Pep Guardiola (the man Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich dreamed of replacing him with) but Di Matteo also had to navigate his way past a Barcelona attack featuring Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez without his first-choice centre-backs – one of whom went off injured and the other was sent off.

What transpired proved to be one of the most heroic achievements in the club’s history, as Di Matteo’s 10 men somehow managed to draw on the night and win the 2012 tie to advance to the final where they beat Bayern Munich on penalties to become European champions.

Di Matteo plans to be at Stamford Bridge for Chelsea’s latest Champions League clash with Barcelona on Tuesday night. In the build-up to the game, the Italian gave Telegraph Sport a fascinating insight into the night he got the better of Guardiola and wrote himself into club folklore.

Plans torn apart

Chelsea’s trip to Barcelona came at the end of a hectic 10-day run in which they thrashed Tottenham Hotspur 5-1 in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, secured a 1-0 Champions League semi-final first-leg lead against the Spaniards at Stamford Bridge and drew against Arsenal at the Emirates.

“We were playing every three days, so we didn’t have too much time to prepare on the pitch, it was more video analysis and team meetings,” Di Matteo said. “I watched a lot of Barcelona games and our game plan was to go with a 4-2-3-1, stay compact and double up on Messi. I told the players that we weren’t going to see much of the ball, but they were prepared for that after the first leg.”

Di Matteo’s plans were ripped up in the first half, as he lost Gary Cahill to injury after just 12 minutes and captain John Terry to a red card in the 37th minute, just after Barca had taken the lead through Sergio Busquets.

John Terry receives a red card from referee Cuneyt Cakir

Chelsea captain John Terry was given his marching orders in the 37th minute - Getty Images/Adrian Dennis

With a patched-up central defence of Branislav Ivanovic and substitute José Bosingwa, and Ramires moved to right-back, Chelsea went 2-0 down in the 43rd minute, thanks to an Andrés Iniesta goal, and looked to be heading to a heavy defeat.

“At that point you just think it’s slipping away from us,” Di Matteo said. “It wouldn’t have been the first time that Barcelona took a team apart. They took teams apart 11v11, so with one man down, 11-10, it could have happened.

“I wasn’t angry with JT. It was a bit of a silly red card and he apologised to the rest of the team after the game, but what was it going to achieve if I was angry? He was really devastated at half-time, but I needed to focus on what I could control. I had already been thinking about what I’d say to the team at half-time when we went 2-0 down and the changes we needed to make.”

Ramires wonder goal

The mood was turned on its head by a brilliant Chelsea goal against the run of play on the stroke of half-time, as Ramires was sent through by Frank Lampard and produced a Messi-like finish to chip the ball over Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdés.

Ramires scores Chelsea's first goal at the Camp Nou in 2012

Ramires’ delightful lob finish put Chelsea ahead on the away goals rule - Getty Images/Darren Walsh

Chelsea may have been trailing 2-1 on the night and level on aggregate, but they were leading on the away goals rule at half-time.

“Mr Ramires came up with the most beautiful goal in his career and then suddenly everything changed,” Di Matteo said. “The whole dynamic of the game changed because from being out, suddenly at half-time we were leading on away goals.

“Lamps played the most delightful reverse pass and I thought that Ramires was going to try to go round the goalkeeper, but he came up with this incredible finish and it changed half-time for us.

“I told them ‘right now we have qualified for the final and that’s a beautiful position to be in’ and the players were mentally prepared not to have too much of the ball. I made a couple of small adjustments and we knew we’d need some luck, but there was a belief we could do it.”

Keeping cool

Chelsea certainly had to ride their luck in the second half, as Messi struck the crossbar with a penalty and hit the post after Alexis Sánchez had seen a goal disallowed for offside against Dani Alves.

Di Matteo liked to smoke the occasional cigarette to collect his thoughts when he was a manager. There had been no time for a quick half-time puff at the Camp Nou, but he tried to exude calm from the touchline.

“What am I going to do? Run up and down the touchline? No, I just tried to stay calm because, obviously, if I’m agitated or anxious then the players can feel that,” Di Matteo said. “My heart rate was probably a little higher than usual and time seemed to move so slowly, but I was pretty calm. I tried to show the guys that I knew it was possible.

“If Barcelona had scored one goal then they probably would have scored another and maybe another, but Messi missed the penalty and hit the post and each time you go from 50 to 60 minutes and then to 70 minutes and 80 minutes, you start to think ‘we’re going to do this’.”

Neville’s ‘goalgasm’

Other than reshuffling his defence, Di Matteo’s decision to send on Fernando Torres in place of Didier Drogba late in the game proved to be inspired and provoked a famous reaction from Gary Neville, who was commentating on the match.

Neville produced his “goalgasm” moment, as Torres rounded Valdés in the final minute to draw Chelsea level on the night and make sure of their Champions League final place with a 3-2 aggregate victory.

“Didier was running out of energy a little bit and I knew that Fernando could give us something fresh,” Di Matteo said. “I didn’t see it as a gamble at all and I knew there was the possibility for them to give us something on the counter-attack.”

Torres had joined Chelsea for a British record £50m in January 2011 and struggled to live up to his transfer fee. But that moment in Barcelona guaranteed him a fond place in fans’ memories for ever more.

“He deserved the goal because he worked so hard for the team and to change people’s appreciation of him,” Di Matteo said. “So I was very, very happy for him.”

Di Matteo’s leadership

Di Matteo is the first guest on a new podcast called Style in the Arena, hosted by founder Julie Anne Quay, who is also a director and minority owner at Barnsley. His episode is centred around leadership and there was no better example of Italian’s capacity to lead than the dramatic night in the Camp Nou.

It is often said that the Chelsea team of Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Petr Cech and Ashley Cole could effectively manage themselves, but that should not detract from the role Di Matteo played in their Champions League success.

Installed as interim manager following the sacking of André Villas-Boas, who he had been assistant to, Di Matteo knew that his job was to reconnect a strong group of Chelsea players.

Roberto Di Matteo lifts the Champions League trophy in celebration in 2012

Di Matteo was unfazed by the interim title, his only aim was to ‘help the club and try to help the players to achieve something special’ - Getty Images/Mike Hewitt

“Ultimately, the strength of the group was what made Chelsea successful and we had amazing players,” Di Matteo said. “But no team has ever won anything without a manager or a coach.

“The fact I was the interim manager, I didn’t care at all. I didn’t care about my title, they could call me whatever they wanted to. I just wanted to help the club and try to help the players to achieve something special.

“It was about bringing all the little groups of players back together and being able to pull together, understanding that in the dressing room we were one family. If you don’t have a strong group, it’s impossible to be successful. The Barcelona game was a great example of that.”

The Pep factor

Guardiola would have been Abramovich’s dream appointment after sacking Villas-Boas, so beating the Spaniard in his own backyard undoubtedly helped Di Matteo land the full-time Chelsea job – at least for a few months.

Di Matteo acknowledged he was well aware of Chelsea’s interest in other managers, but insisted he never let it distract him from the task at hand.

Pep Guardiola and Roberto Di Matteo greet one another on the touchline

After the game, Guardiola wished Di Matteo and Chelsea ‘all the best for the final’ - Reuters/Albert Gea

“You probably know that there was more than one manager the club was interested in at the time,” Di Matteo said. “But I wasn’t really taking any notice of it or listening to the noise because I was too busy.

“I never saw it as me going up against Pep and I didn’t take any special pleasure from beating his team, not like some colleagues I beat, let’s be honest!

“He’s the best coach in the world and I told him that a few times. He’s a very humble guy, a great guy. He had some nice words at the end of the game when we shook hands. Some conversations remain private, but he did wish us all the best for the final.

“Would I have stayed at Chelsea if we had lost to Barcelona or lost to Bayern Munich? Who knows? I never knew anything about that, but it’s an amazing story and I’m lucky that I was part of it.”

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