Chelsea take note of Man United's master plan for

beating Barcelona



When preparing for Chelsea 's Champions League semi-final against Barcelona, Roberto Di Matteo can always ask his boss for Guus Hiddink's number.



But he might also want to give Carlos Queiroz a call.



Hiddink would certainly be worth contacting, given how close he came to guiding Chelsea to victory against the Catalans at the same stage of the competition three years ago.

Questionable: Chelsea's Michael Ballack (right) screams at referee Tom Henning Ovrebo

Chelsea were as disciplined as they were determined, using their strength and power to combat the flair and finesse of their opponents.

In the end they were beaten by a stoppage-time strike from Andres Iniesta that carried Barcelona through on away goals, as well as some seriously questionable refereeing by Tom Henning Ovrebo.



Di Matteo is sure to study tapes of those matches but he should also grab a copy of Gary Neville's recently published autobiography and then give Queiroz a bell, too.



Meticulous planning: Carlos Queiroz

Manchester United lost two of the three finals they contested between 2008 and 2011 to Barcelona but they also beat them in the semi-finals four years ago and, in his book, Neville explains how.



The master plan, says Neville, was devised by Queiroz, then Sir Alex Ferguson's assistant.

It's a knockout: Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Edwin van der Sar celebrate after beating Barcelona in the semi-final in 2008

In training Queiroz was so meticulous he used sit-up mats to mark the positions he wanted the players to occupy

'Carlos was obsessive,' wrote Neville. 'We'd never seen such attention to detail. We rehearsed time and again, sometimes walking through the tactics slowly with the ball in our hands.

'But the instructions were simple. Ronaldo up front tying them up. Carlos Tevez dropping on to Yaya Toure every time he got the ball. Let their centre halves have it. They couldn't hurt us.

'With Park and Rooney out wide the (United) full backs had two hard-working wingers to help shackle Messi and Iniesta.

The winner: Paul Scholes grabbed the only goal against Barcelona in 2008

'But the really complex part was for Scholes and Carrick. Carlos had worked out precise positions for each of them. Suffocation was a necessary tactic.'



Barcelona did not score over 180 minutes and United won through Paul Scholes's second-leg goal.



