Hiddink's tactics frustrate Catalan giants I Cascarino on negative Chelsea I Chelsea dig in to blunt Barcelona brilliance I How Chelsea rated I How Barcelona rated I Hiddink shows he has all the answers I Graphic: How Chelsea kept Barca out

There can be no sweeter sound for a visiting team at the Nou Camp than the catcalls that filled this vast arena at the final whistle. No side in the world can hope to outplay this Barcelona team of many talents, so, if containing them was the extent of Chelsea’s ambitions, the frustration of the locals was testament to a successful mission that has taken Chelsea to within 90 minutes of another Champions League final against English opposition.

Chelsea rode their luck at times and were indebted, ultimately, to a commanding performance from Petr Cech, much maligned of late, but their performance should not be sniffed at, even by those neutrals across Europe who were praying for a home win. In a collision of cultures — skill against will, craft against graft — John Terry and his team-mates had to dig deep and adhere rigidly to their coach’s battle plan, just as Manchester United did in achieving the same scoreline 12 months ago, which was, incidentally, the previous time that Barcelona had failed to score here.

Amid all the eulogies to Barcelona, it was overlooked that they, like everyone else in Europe these days, cannot seem to find a way past the might of the Barclays Premier League’s elite. As much as Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and the rest of them can draw gasps from any audience, this was the fifth time in as many visits that an English team have come away from the Nou Camp unbeaten. A 0-0 draw away from home is not necessarily a positive result in the Champions League knockout stages, but Chelsea will be optimistic that they can finish the job against a Barcelona side who have the small matter of the gran clásico away to Real Madrid before the second leg a week today.

The danger for Chelsea is that, against these opponents, they cannot afford to relax, even for a moment. It was through an unstinting, resolute effort last night that they survived moments of creative genius from Xavi and Iniesta and, best of all, snuffed out the threat of Messi. Ashley Cole will return from suspension in the second leg, but the way that Messi was “rather well neutralised” by José Bosingwa, to borrow Guus Hiddink’s phrase, lent credence to the theory that a right-footed makeshift left back may be better equipped to contain the threat of the little Argentinian, a winger whose instinct is to drift inside rather than hug the touchline.

The half-time statistics showed that Barcelona had enjoyed 70 per cent of the possession, but, for all the probing efforts of Xavi and Iniesta, they did not fashion a clear goalscoring opportunity. Samuel Eto’o flashed a header across goal from Messi’s free kick in the second minute, with Cech nowhere, and Cech did well to go low to his right to save Henry’s shot in the 34th minute, but, if not quite comfortable, Terry and his colleagues reached the interval with their clean sheet intact.

Indeed the half-time scoreline could have been even better for Chelsea, with the best chance falling to Didier Drogba six minutes before the break. The forward had been chasing shadows to that point, but, when Rafael Márquez hit a weak back-pass, he was on to it like a shot. Drogba’s shot lacked the required power or accuracy to beat Víctor Valdés, who blocked the first effort and recovered to stop the forward putting away the rebound. Moments later Frank Lampard tackled Gerard Piqué and almost sent Drogba away again. It was as if light was appearing at the end of the tunnel.

If Barcelona have an Achilles heel, it is their defence. Neither Márquez nor Piqué is a truly authoritative, imposing central defender, although the loss of the former to a knee injury early in the second half that has ended his season was a blow to Pep Guardiola’s team. In Carles Puyol, they had a more than adequate substitute, but his subsequent yellow card means that Barcelona will have only one of their three leading central defenders available for the second leg, a weakness that Chelsea will hope to exploit.

Michael Ballack sent a header narrowly wide from a free kick by Drogba early in the second period, after a foul on Florent Malouda by the increasingly fractious Daniel Alves. Malouda acquitted himself well going forward but, above all, helped out Bosingwa by doubling up on Messi to the extent that Barcelona almost seemed to have stopped looking for their talismanic winger by the hour.

Barcelona seemed to be running out of ideas and, when they did engineer a way through the Chelsea defence, they found Cech at his most imposing. The goalkeeper made an excellent save from Eto’o, who had spun away from Alex and sprinted past Terry, and beat away a fierce shot from Alves, bursting past Michael Essien into the penalty area. Henry then tumbled in the penalty area, having been held back by Bosingwa. The former Arsenal forward pleaded for a penalty and seemed to have a case, but Wolfgang Stark, the referee, was not impressed.

Hiddink sensed that the pressure on his defence was growing and opted for a bold change, taking off Lampard, who had looked isolated in a more advanced role, and sending on Juliano Belletti, the Barcelona old boy, so that Essien, hitherto marginalised on the right, could beef up the centre of midfield. It did the trick, but the five minutes of stoppage time brought some nervous moments for Chelsea, as Bojan Krkic missed with a free header before Alexander Hleb, his fellow substitute, shot straight at Cech. The natives jeered. And how Chelsea loved it.