Retired England international Joe Cole has revealed the best gamehe played in as a professional footballer. Joe Cole spoke about his best game on The Greatest Game podcast hosted Jamie Carragher. According to him, the Champions League encounter between hosts Chelsea and Barcelona is the best match he ever played in. The game was the second leg of their last 16 clash during the 2004/05 Champions League campaign.
The said Champions League match had everything including Ronaldinho smashing up a fridge in the tunnel. The game is famous for thedazzling footwork from Brazilian international Ronaldinho outside the Chelsea penalty area. He bamboozled the whole Chelsea defenceand before they recovered, he had toe-poked it home beyond Czech Republic man Petr Cech in goal. The goal from Ronaldinho came seven minutes from half-time.
Joe Cole recalled how the game didn’t end well for Ronaldinho and Barcelona as they were knocked out by Chelsea despite winning the first leg 2-1. Chelsea won the second leg 4-2 to win the tie 5-4 on aggregate to progress into the next stage of the competition.
In the second leg, Chelsea raced into a three-goal lead in 19 minutes thanks to the goals from Icelandic striker EidurGudjohnsen, Frank Lampard and Damien Duff. Ronaldinho pulled one back from the penalty spot on 27 minutes before he added his second goal in sensational style as revealed earlier. At that point, Barcelona led on away goals before Chelsea took the game away from the Spanish team courtesy the second half goal from Blues skipper John Terry.
Joe Cole said he had not seen anything like the goal from Ronaldinho as he paused the Stadium. The former West Ham United and Liverpool winger was in the starting XI for the game at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea knocked out Barcelona in the round of 16 and they made it all the way to the semifinals before they were eliminated by Premier League rivals Liverpool.