Tonight Chelsea face an absolutely massive task in Spain that could see their European ambitions completely destroyed.

Guus Hiddink’s men face up to the favourites for this years competition in what promises to be a mouth-watering occasion. It will take a tremendous amount of team spirit, combined with quality and skill to get the two time Premier League champions through this tie.

The loss of Ashley Cole will mean Jose Bosingwa steps in at left back to try and counter the attacking influence of arguably the best player in the world, Lionel Messi. Otherwise, Chelsea look fully equipped to pack out the midfield and give Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka the best possible chance of scoring an away goal to take back to Stamford Bridge.

Both sides are packed with talent so it is difficult to work out where tonight’s game will be won. Chelsea have only beaten Barca on four occasions, as opposed to the Spanish side’s five victories.

Chelsea will be looking to dominate the midfield battles. The likes of Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Michael Ballack must all dominate Iniesta and Xavi. The Spanish side will clearly look to play a quick passing game to breach the Chelsea defence.

The recent form of Chelsea goalkeeper, Petr Cech, has come under increased scrutiny and as Barcelona will be looking to kill the tie in the first leg, the Czech international will have to be on top of his game.

The basis of Chelsea’s success under Jose Mourinho was Cech leading from the back, allowing the defence the time and movement to deal with attacking problems easily. If Barcelona look to exploit Cech then it could be one of the very few weak points in the West London side’s armour.

Leadership will also be vital. John Terry will still be hurting from the final defeat to Manchester United last season. Terry will need to pull out a big performance to martial his side through their most important game of this year’s campaign. Terry will also be paramount to stemming Barcelona’s attacking influence.

Hiddink will no doubt want to get one over on the club he faced during his time at Real Madrid. It is likely he is to be very shrewd with his tactics and considering the talent Barca will have on display, this is no surprise.

He has to deploy a clever system in order to impose his Chelsea side on the game. Sitting back and consolidating will knock work as it allows Barca to build up pressure and eventually pick off a goal or two.

As for Barcelona, the defence of the Spanish side has come under recent criticism especially the keeper, Victor Valdes, and captain, Carlos Puyol. Both of these players have been going through rough patches, but are likely to play as they are two of the most experienced players in the Spanish side.

The attacking combination that Barcelona go with is unknown, it could be Henry and Messi or it could be Messi and Eto’o, but the one thing that is guaranteed is that whoever plays, they are likey to give Chelsea a few headaches.

Chelsea will get through this one with vocal support from the fans and with a massive team performance. They have to keep Barcelona’s influences quiet, while at the same time imposing themselves on the game. If all of this unfolds then there is no reason why they can’t go back to the Bridge with a one or two goal advantage.

With a few World Cup qualifiers taking place midweek, (Northern Ireland won 3-0 in San Marino and Ireland beat Georgia 2-1 at home) most other teams engaged in some friendly action. David Beckham equaled Bobby Moore’s English record of 108 caps for an outfield player as England hopped over to Spain. Their performance was as flat as a pancake though and with a non-existent attack, were beaten 2-0. England did have their share of possession at times, but could only muster up a couple of chances with Shaun Wright Phillips and Carlton Cole both blowing glorious opportunities.

Spain is on a 29 game unbeaten run at the moment with 27 of those being wins. It’s a little hard to judge England’s strength at the moment though as Jermaine Defoe, Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand, Michael and Wayne Rooney were all absent. It looks like it’s about time manager Fabio Capello found a goalkeeper though as the squad can’t rely on 39-year-old David James much longer. If England are going to go anywhere on the world scene they need to get a good young keeper between the posts and they better get him some experience soon.

In EPL news, Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs, the team’s longest serving player of all time, has signed a one-year extension to his contract that will take him to the end of 2009-2010. The 35 year old has been at United his entire career and has been a first-teamer since 1991.

Chelsea has signed 62-year-old Dutchman Guus Hiddink to lead the club until the end of the season after sacking Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari. Hiddink is also currently the manager of Russia’s national team and will continue in that role until the end of the season.

It seems that Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is getting under the skin of his players too now, not just the fans as Liverpool defender Daniel Agger has threatened to walk out on the club if he doesn’t get more playing time. The 24-year-old Denmark international, who hasn’t signed a contract extension may try to buy out the rest of his contract in the summer. “It’s never nice for a footballer to not play regularly. That is something I will not hide. But my situation at the club is that he [Benitez] doesn’t want to let me play. I feel I am good enough. Therefore, it irritates me when I don’t play.” Agger said.

Former England manager Sven Goran Erikkson is staying true to his recent trend of getting hired and then fired from everywhere he goes because of poor results. He could get the deserved sack again soon from his current job as Mexico’s national manager as the squad has only managed to win one game since he took over and were beaten again this week 2-0 to the USA in a World Cup Qualifier.

Erikkson has been linked to the Portsmouth job after Tony Adams was fired, but why Pompey or anyone else would want him remains a mystery to me. Erikkson has a brutal track record lately of taking over teams, failing miserably and then leaving town with a nice cash settlement. Just ask England, Manchester City and now Mexico.

Thanks to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, Chelsea has made it to the FA Cup Final after beating their hated London neighbours 2-1 in front of 88,000 fanatics in today’s semi final at Wembley. I suppose some credit can be given to Chelsea too.

Fabianski looked out of his league right from the opening whistle and was caught out of his net on numerous occasions. Perhaps he mistakenly put down the wrong team on his betting slip before the match and was trying to rectify that on the pitch with his odd decisions and positioning. But, it was the Polish international’s 24th birthday, so God only know what he got up to last night. However, somebody should tell him he’s the one who should be receiving presents not giving them out as he did with Chelsea.

Wenger, who, I think is extremely overrated as a manager, will probably be raked over the coals by Arsenal supporters for his team selection, tactics, and substitutions for the game. For some reason Arshavin started on the bench and then Adebayor was taken off in the 83rd minute and replaced by Bendter, And funnily enough, it only took Chelsea about 30 seconds to go ahead for good as Drogba sealed the deal in the 84th as he easily rounded an onrushing Fabianski who was yards out of his area and deposited the ball into the empty net. Of course Wenger had no clue what to do next as he had just taken his top scorer off the pitch.

Theo Walcott, one of only two English players on the pitch for Arsenal (Kieran Gibbs, being the other), put the Gunners ahead in the 18th minute after his weak shot struck Chelsea defender Ashley Cole’s hand and dribbled past keeper Petr Cech.

Florent Malouda tied it up 15 minutes later and Chelsea looked more likely to score again as Anelka hit the post shortly after. It looked like Arsenal were content with a 1-1 score line and were trying to reach the 90 minute mark, while Chelsea wanted the end the affair without having to go to extra time and possibly penalty kicks.

Chelsea won’t know who they play until tomorrow (April 19th), when Premier League leaders Manchester United take on sixth-place Everton at Wembley again. The groundskeepers probably won’t get much sleep overnight though as the pitch was coming up all over the place. Wenger, of course, made sure he placed blame on the state of the field during his post game TV interview.

Chelsea could still possibly pull of a treble on the quiet this year as they have a shot at the EPL championship, the FA Cup and the Champions League, where they play Barcelona next. Interim manager has done a great job with the team and I’m sure the club will try and entice the Dutchman into staying after the season ends. However, Hiddink is adamant that he’s going to return to his other job as the manager of the Russian national team.

Meanwhile, it looks like Arsenal will likely end up in fourth place in the league, but have been impressive in the Champions League, where they take on Manchester United next.