A LOT has been said and written in the wake of Chelsea’s dramatic Champions League victory over Barcelona, and plenty of it has been anything but positive.

A victory for anti-football?

A triumph of negativity over natural talent? An embarrassment to the attacking ethos of the English game?

Absolute nonsense.

Chelsea’s performance in the Nou Camp might not have thrilled the senses in the manner of some of Barcelona’s displays in previous rounds of the competition, but the twolegged victory that took the Blues into next month’s final with Bayern Munich nevertheless represents one of the greatest achievements any English side has managed in Europe for many a season.

To fully appreciate its beauty, and despite every argument to the contrary, I still think that’s the right word, we must examine why we watch football in the first place.

If it is purely to marvel at fleet-footed attackers and carefully-constructed passing moves, then Chelsea’s performance will have left the senses dull.

They hardly spent any time at all in Barcelona’s half, their efforts on goal were few and far between, and the two goals they scored were breakaway efforts that owed little to multiphase passing movements.

But if you want to see non-stop excitement and a scoreboard that frantically ticks over, you’re watching the wrong sport. Football appeals precisely because its matches do not finish 10-10, a scenario that is the logical end point for those who would argue against the kind of game plan that Chelsea executed so superbly on Tuesday.

Football’s magic, perhaps more than any other sport, is that it is premised upon an equal contest between defence and attack. There is more than one way to succeed, and just because a victory owes more to defensive virtues than attacking ones does not make it any less valid or worthwhile.

For all that it lacked attacking brilliance, there were still plenty of qualities to admire in Chelsea’s performance in the Nou Camp.

Organisation, determination, commitment, unselfishness. An unshakeable belief in your own ability and the strength of character required to overcome countless obstacles while still remaining focused on the ultimate goal.

With one obvious and quite staggering exception – and even by John Terry’s standards, that first-half kick at Alexis Sanchez was a remarkably stupid act – Chelsea’s players displayed incredible reserves of discipline and resolve to see the job through.

Faced with the best club side in world football, and hampered by a man disadvantage, they somehow triumphed, riding their luck at times but eventually reducing Barcelona to a level of impotence that has rarely been witnessed before.

Surely that is worthy of applause? The qualities that came to the fore on Tuesday might not be as instantly gratifying as the innate natural talent of a Lionel Messi or a Xavi Hernandez, but in terms of providing inspiration to the next generation of players or supporters, they were even more worthwhile.

Any youngster watching Frank Lampard cover every inch of the pitch would have been left in no doubt as to the value of effort and desire. Similarly, the sight of Branislav Ivanovic and Jose Bosingwa slotting in at centre-half and performing so assuredly against some of the best attackers in the world was a perfect response to those who claim it is impossible to overcome the odds when they are stacked against you.

And Roberto Di Matteo also deserves credit for formulating a game plan that squeezed the central area and afforded Barcelona time and space on the flanks, safe in the knowledge that the art of crossing is anathema to the Catalan purists.

No one wants football to become a game in which stopping your opponent from scoring is the sole objective. But similarly, is there really any appeal in watching a sport that does not place any stock in the art of defence?

It was telling that in the aftermath of the game, it was all but impossible to find a Barcelona player decrying Chelsea’s tactics.

Barca boss Pep Guardiola certainly didn’t, praising his side’s vanquishers as worthy winners.

In part, that speaks volumes for Barcelona’s class. Losing graciously is a skill that is to be greatly admired. But it is also because those associated with Barcelona know just how difficult it is for an opposition side to contain them, particularly when that side is forced to play for more than an hour with ten men.

Teams try to do it in La Liga every week, and they invariably fail. If it was that easy to shut down Barcelona, everyone would do it.

The fact they don’t simply underlines the extent of Chelsea’s brilliance in a game that will live long in the memory.