Chelsea's Fernando Torres leaps over Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Seemingly invincible champions never go down quietly. They tend to exit after a brutal blow to the cabeza that leaves them stumbling in a daze.

Barcelona's stunning elimination from Europe's most prestigious club tournament came three days after a home defeat to Real Madrid. Is this the end of the road for this team and who might Chelsea meet in the final? WSJ's Jonathan Clegg reports.

So it was Tuesday for Barcelona, the reigning king of soccer, which coughed up a one-goal-aggregate lead with a man advantage and 45 minutes to play against an overmatched side from Chelsea that did everything to hold on but park its team bus in front of the goal during their Champions League semifinal.

The ultimate shock came in the 48th minute when Lionel Messi, widely recognized as the greatest player on the planet, clanked a penalty kick off the crossbar, planting new hopes into a Chelsea side that few believed capable of advancing.

When the final whistle blew, Chelsea had managed a 2-2 draw at Barca's hallowed Camp Nou. The result left a team that was seen as perhaps the greatest of all time a goal short in the home-and-home semifinal. Chelsea won the opening leg last week at Stamford Bridge in London 1-0.

"We fought for 90 minutes," Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech said after the match. "We tried to survive."

Barca's stunning elimination from Europe's most prestigious club tournament came just three days after a shocking home loss to Real Madrid that all but sealed the championship of Spain's La Liga for its archrival. Taken together, the dual upsets spelled the end of the sport's reigning dynasty. Since the summer of 2008, when manager Pep Guardiola took over, Barcelona had won a stunning 13 trophies out of the 16 trophies it competed for.

"Their aura of invincibility has vanished," said Roger Bennett, host of the soccer podcast Men In Blazers. "With Pep Guardiola unwilling to recommit to another year as coach, and the exhausted squad in dire need of a refresh, we may have just watched the equivalent of the Beatles' last-ever concert at Candlestick Park."

If Tuesday was the end of soccer's modern-day Beatles, they couldn't have been toppled by a more unlikely opponent. Chelsea's rise is just as astounding as Barcelona's fall.

The club fired its manager in March as it muddled through the English Premier League season, far off the pace set by Manchester United and Manchester City. But while it remains mired in sixth place domestically, interim coach Roberto Di Matteo, a former Chelsea midfielder, has led the club to a string of breathtaking victories in the Champions League tournament.

None seemed more unlikely than this semifinal matchup against Barca, whose dizzying passing attack allows it to score in bunches, especially on its home ground. Barca possessed the ball for 80% of the game, and first-half goals from Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta gave it the lead. Even worse for Chelsea, captain John Terry was tossed from the game in the 38th minute after kneeing Alexis Sanchez from behind.

But in the waning moments of the first half, Frank Lampard sent a through ball to Ramires, who chipped it over Barca goalkeeper Victor Valdes from 12 yards for a crucial away goal that would have served as a tiebreaker.

Then in the second half, Chelsea collapsed all nine outfield players into its defensive third. Messi managed a final strike in the 83rd minute that Cech deflected into the post, but Fernando Torres breakaway goal in stoppage time sealed Chelsea's trip to the final next month in Munich against Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.

They'll play without several of their top players, losing Terry, Ramires and Branislav Ivanovic to forced suspensions, but after bringing down the game's ruling power, Chelsea just might have one more improbable win in them.

Write to Matthew Futterman at