One thing the Spanish press agree on in the aftermath of Chelsea's victory over Barcelona is that Pep Guardiola's side were unlucky. "A very cruel defeat" reads the headline on the El País website. "[Barcelona] were very close to scoring through Alexis [Sánchez] – who hit the bar – and Pedro – who hit the post – but did not have the bit of luck needed to beat a great [Petr] Cech," writes Francesc Aguilar in Mundo Deportivo.

Most of the papers agreed it was a case of Spanish beauty against English beast – and the beast won. "Barça's plan was as delicate as the curtain of rain in London ... there are fields that require physical endurance and extreme focus and there are few venues like Stamford Bridge," writes Ramon Besa in El País. "Locked in their lair, like wounded animals, the men in blue repulsed all Barça's attacks," says Miguel A Herguedas in El Mundo.

For Santi Giménez in AS, the tie had mythic undertones. "Stamford Bridge is somewhere Barça are very uncomfortable and Chelsea are a thoroughly unpleasant rival for [Pep] Guardiola, who was forced to suffer the sentence of Sisyphus. [Barcelona] drag a stone up the side of a mountain and every time they reach the top, the rock falls down the slope again. Or to put it another way: they went to Stamford Bridge and rained headers over and over again against a Blue Wall."

For Aguilar, Chelsea and Didier Drogba are feared opponents for Barcelona. "Chelsea have become Pep's bête noire, the one team he has not beaten among the 55 opponents he has faced. Meanwhile, Didier Drogba scored his 11th goal against a Spanish team."

The return leg will be at the Camp Nou but the Spanish press believe Barcelona still face an struggle to reach the final. "Getting to Munich is now difficult for Barcelona," says Besa. "[1-0] is one of the worst results that can occur in the first leg, especially if the rival is Chelsea, a team bestial when defending and deadly when it comes to seizing its opportunity."

On paper, Barcelona should win at home but as Herguedas reflects: "All that remains is whether the logic of football will find a chink in the blue wall."