Barcelona; A long and smooth way to the Final

FC Barcelona get achieved the UEFA Champions League final gives thanks to goalscoring bonanzas by the like Samuel Eto'o, Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry, along with a few expert defending.

UEFA Champions League Group C
Josep Guardiola's men struck a remarkable 18 goals in the group stage, and after kicking off their campaign with a 3-1 win over Sporting Clube de Portugal at Camp Nou they never looked back. The high points of their group stage campaign were a 5-0 victory at FC Basel 1893 and a 5-2 rout of Sporting in Lisbon before, with first place already secured, a largely inexperienced side lost Barcelona's final game 3-2 to UEFA Cup finalists FC Shakhtar Donetsk.

First knockout round
Olympique Lyonnais 1-1 FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona 5-2 Olympique Lyonnais (agg: 6-3)

A trademark free-kick from Lyon captain Juninho after just seven minutes, coupled with some intense first-half pressure, had the French champions believing they might just bring Barcelona's sojourn in Europe to an early end. Instead, Henry marked his return to France with a 67th equaliser and the second leg at Camp Nou turned into a rout. Henry struck twice inside the first 27 minutes in a stellar performance, Messi and Eto'o chipped in with further goals and Seydou Keita came off the bench to add a late fifth.

Quarter-finals
FC Barcelona 4-0 FC Bayern München
FC Bayern München 1-1 FC Barcelona (agg: 5-1)

The knowledge of what happened to Lyon a month earlier at the Camp Nou failed to prevent Bayern from suffering the same fate, with the four-time European champions being torn apart by a Barcelona side who needed only the first half of the first leg to decide the tie. Two goals from Messi and another from Eto'o set the tone before Henry completed the masterclass with Barcelona's fourth in the 43rd minute. Bayern were at least spared further embarassment in the second leg, with French international Franck Ribéry giving them a 47th minute lead before Keita levelled for the Catalans.

Semi-finals
FC Barcelona 0-0 FC Chelsea
FC Chelsea 1-1 FC Barcelona (agg: 1-1, Barcelona win on away goals)

Given what had gone before, Barcelona's eventual success against Chelsea could not have been more different. Their flamboyant attacking football came up against the granite wall of a Chelsea defence superbly marshalled by captain John Terry, clearly on a mission after missing his chance to win last season's final against Manchester United FC in a penalty shoot-out. His side made the perfect start to the second leg, with Michael Essien smashing home a candidate for goal of the competition after just nine minutes, a volley from outside the area which gave Víctor Valdés no chance. Sadly for the Ghanaian, it was his failure to clear his lines in the third minurte of added time that allowed Iniesta to send a clever snap-shot past Petr Čech and put Barcelona into the final.

from: uefa.com