BARCA'S GUARD OF HONOUR; We'll play the attacking game.. it's the only way I know says rookie Pep.

Byline: OLIVER HOLT

THE face of Lionel Messi, creased with an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile, stared out from the news stands around the Nou Camp yesterday.

Barcelona's genius was pictured on the front of the Sport newspaper lying on his side across a giant map of Europe.

England, it almost goes without saying, was obliterated by the ball the Argentina winger was leaning on.

And the headline suggested that the 21-year-old, who is currently the best player in the world, was feeling confident ahead of tonight's clash with Chelsea.

'Viva La Champion,' it said in capitals. A little presumptuous maybe but the form Messi is in, it is going to take something special to stop him.

Barcelona, just as they were last season, are the final obstacles to the crushing dominance of English sides in the Champions League.

But what a beautiful obstacle they are, the most beautiful barrier that football ever created.

What a beguiling, mesmerising challenge they pose to the might of the Premier League and England's hopes of winning the competition for the second successive year.

In Pep Guardiola, they have a coach who shares Arsene Wenger's messianic commitment to the beautiful game and who hates the idea of winning ugly.

In Messi, their jewel, they have a player who has scored 34 goals in all competitions this season and is the leading contributor to a team which has already hit the back of the net 94 times in La Liga.

Barcelona are also the leading scorers in the Champions League this term with 29 and Messi leads the individual scoring charts with eight.

Even more than they were under Guardiola's predecessor, Frank Rijkaard, Barcelona are a beautiful team to watch, a free-flowing attacking force that thrill those who go to see them.

Messi seems to score candidates for goal of the season almost every other week as part of a fearsome attacking trident made up by Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o.

And a cursory look at their season so far shows that this Barcelona team have developed a happy habit of annihilating the opposition.

They crushed Sevilla 4-0 a week ago, Malaga 6-0 last month, Deportivo La Coruna 5-0 in January, Real Vallodolid 6-0 in November. And so on, and so on.

Chelsea are far too stubborn and talented a team to succumb to that kind of humiliation.

It is possible that their power and strength may even make Barcelona look fragile and vulnerable, particularly as they face another huge test against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu at the weekend.

Still, Barcelona's verve and breathtaking style of football explains why an air of eager anticipation is gripping the city ahead of the first leg of this semifinal.

Large crowds gathered in the sunshine outside the Nou Camp yesterday afternoon to cheer as the players arrived for training and drove into the club's underground car park.

And when Guardiola, who took over from Rijkaard in the summer, spoke about the game, it soon became clear that he and his players have a sense of mission about what they are trying to achieve.

There is always an extra intensity about the desire for success here.

It is underpinned by fierce Catalan nationalism and desperation to beat their traditional enemy Real Madrid, who they lead in this year's title race by four points.

That intensity has found new expression in the fact that Guardiola is Catalan-born and a hero of the side that won the European Cup under Johan Cruyff in 1992 at Wembley when a free-kick from Ronald Koeman proved sufficient to see off the challenge of Sampdoria.

Guardiola's appointment was a gamble when he was promoted from running the youth team but the gamble has paid handsomely as Barcelona have become the European torch-bearers for attacking football.

They are much more than just Messi, Eto'o and Henry. In Xavi and Iniesta, they have two of the most devilishly clever midfielders in the game, too.

There is so much to admire, in fact, that Guardiola was praised yesterday for creating a team that has embraced the principles of Total Football, a kind of nirvana of pass and move.

"If people say that I am a student of Cruyff, then I am flattered by that," Guardiola said. "I will make sure that I follow what he taught with dignity.

"We will not give up our principles as long as I am coach of this team. Barcelona has an obligation to play attractive football and I will not dishonour that.

"There are always things that go through your mind when you play a side as good as Chelsea, but I am the optimistic type and I have great faith in my team."

Guardiola was wide-eyed about the position he finds himself in with the two legs of the semi-final against Chelsea sandwiching the clash against Madrid, which could take them a giant step closer to the Spanish title.

He talked of Chelsea being a 'mythical team' and admitted there was a danger that their power could be decisive unless Barcelona dominate the first leg.

In the end, though, he kept coming back to the romance of it all. "There is no other way I know except playing attacking football," Guardiola said.

"Today, I am just as happy as a boy living a dream."

How Guardiola's men reached the semi-finals..

GROUP STAGE Sep 16: Barcelona 3 Sp Lisbon 1 Oct 1: Shak Donetsk 1 Barcelona 2 Oct 22: Basle 0 Barcelona 5 Nov 4: Barcelona 1 Basle 1 Nov 26: Sp Lisbon 2 Barcelona 5 Dec 9: Barcelona 2 Shak Donetsk 3 KNOCKOUT 1ST ROUND Feb 24: Lyon 1 Barcelona 1 Mar 11: Barcelona 5 Lyon 2 QUARTER-FINAL Apr 8: Barcelona 4 B Munich 0 Apr 14: B Munich 1 Barcelona 1

Champions League top scorers, 2008-9

8 Lionel Messi, Barcelona 7 Steven Gerrard, Liverpool Miroslav Klose, Bayern 6 Lisandro, Porto 5 Emmanuel Adebayor, Arsenal Didier Drogba, Chelsea Thierry Henry, Barcelona Alessandro Del Piero, Juventus Karim Benzema, Lyon 4 Dimitar Berbatov, Man Utd; Robin van Persie, Arsenal Wayne Rooney, Man Utd.

TEN teams you didn't know were in this season's champions League

Aktobe (Kazakhstan) Buducnost Podgorica (Montenegro) Dudelange (Luxembourg) Santa Coloma (Andorra) Levadia (Estonia) Murata (San Marino) NSI Runavik (Faroe Islands) Pyunik (Armenia) Rabotnicki (FYR Macedonia) Valur (Iceland)

..and for a few more fascinating Euro facts, head this way

Champions League? You're having a LAUGH

Some of the stranger facts in the chequered 53-year history of the European Cup

Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor (right) has been caught offside more than any other player in this season's competition.

The flag has gone up against him 19 times or once every 23 minutes he has been on the field.

While England have three teams in the semi-finals, the first UK participants eliminated were Llanelli and Linfield. Both fell in the first qualifying round last July.

Linfield were knocked out by Dinamo Zagreb while Llanelli went down to Ventspils of Latvia.

Next season's competition has been reworked into a qualifying format which requires advanced calculus to work out but the bottom line for English teams is that the top three in this season's Premier League go automatically to the group stage while the fourth-placed team will have to play one two-legged tie to reach the group phase. Scotland's champions will go straight to the group stages but their runner-up will have to play two qualifiers.

Contrary to popular belief, the tournament's original rules did not specify that participating teams had to be champions of their domestic league. The organisers initially invited the teams they thought would attract most fan support.

Representatives of 10 countries have won the 53 European Cups. England or Spain will hold the outright lead after this year's tournament....

England 11 Spain 11 Italy 11 Germany 6 Netherlands 6 Portugal 4 Scotland 1 Romania 1 France 1 Yugoslavia 1

Last year's Manchester United-Chelsea clash was the third final with two teams from the same country.

AC Milan beat Juventus in 2003 while Real Madrid triumphed over Valencia in 2000.

Liverpool's Alan Kennedy is the only British player to have scored the winner in two European Cup finals. He scored the only goal against Real Madrid in 1981, then struck the decider in the penalty shootout against Roma three years later.

CAPTION(S):

PARTY TIME AC Milan celebrate in 2003 EARLY KO Linfield go out to Dinamo Zagreb in qualifiers ED MASTER Van der Sar saves from Anelka and United win the trophy KING KENNEDY Liverpool's Alan Kennedy scores the winner in 1981 and lifts the trophy THE FINAL? NO STUBBLE Barca boss Pep Guardiola is confident of victory tonight HANDS UP WHO'LL WIN? Lionel Messi has dazzled in the tournament