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The Ivorian striker came up trumps as he netted the winning goal to give Roberto Di Matteo's side a fighting chance in the Champions League semi-final second leg in Barcelona

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By Wayne Veysey at Stamford Bridge

When Coronation Street were casting for a football man to make a surprise guest appearance, they opted for Bill Kenwright rather than Didier Drogba.

The Everton chairman’s theatrical connections and experience guaranteed him a gig that is beyond Drogba, despite his lust for centre stage and camera lights.

Nevertheless, the Ivorian went through his full repertoire of theatrics in front of 38,000 souls at Stamford Bridge and a global audience. The Norman Wisdom falls, the screams of pretend anguish, the quick rolls on the ground, the clutch of the face as if it has just been re-arranged by a juggernaut.

At times, he stayed on the turf for so long (some observers estimated around six minutes of the 90-odd that he was on it) that you wondered whether he was having a siesta.

It was cynical, theatrical and frustrating - the kind of ham acting that is deserving of no greater stage than the local amateur dramatics society.

But then there was Drogba’s other side, the one that has been dulled only slightly by the march of Father Time.

The power, the aggression, the ability to keep an entire defence on its toes through sheer bloody-minded brilliance.

In Chelsea’s biggest match of the season against the best club side in the world, Drogba was a one-man strikeforce. Part battering ram, part sparkling diamond.

The gap between the Ivorian and his attacking midfielders was, at times, big enough to park half a dozen buses. Roberto Di Matteo, reckoning the only way stop Barcelona was to defend deep, hound them and swamp the midfield with energy and power.

But Drogba was incredible. His raw-boned battle with fellow 34-year-old Carles Puyol was like watching two veteran cavemen slug it out for the spoils to take back to the weaker members of the family.

But the biggest trophy came Drogba’s way when he raced into the box on the cusp of half-time and put the finishing touch to the brilliant counterattack that began when Frank Lampard robbed Lionel Messi of possession and set Ramires free with a brilliant first-time pass than he will remember in his dotage.

It was Chelsea’s only clear-cut chance of the evening (by contrast, Barcelona had 24). It takes a special player to take advantage of such rare moments and Drogba proved that he remains, even at such an advanced age, an outstanding predator.

Di Matteo had got one of his big calls right, just as he did at Wembley on Sunday when Drogba set Chelsea on their way to thrashing Tottenham 5-1 with a strike straight out of his scrapbook of wondrous goals.

Fernando Torres spent most of the evening warming up on the touchline. The Spaniard has improved over the last month but he was not trusted for a minute to take the field against opponents he scored goals against for fun back in his early 20s.

For the marquee matches, Di Matteo has put his trust in the same old stagers that Chelsea know they will eventually have to live without.

The question is, how long can the likes of Drogba go on? Richard Attenborough, a Chelsea life-president, might admire the way in which the striker slips into character and full simulation mode.

But tomfoolery aside (although it was deliciously ironic that the likes of Sergio Busquets harangued him for theatrics), he remains too irresistible to be dispensed with by a wave of Roman Abramovich’s hand and the owner’s best wishes.

A one-year contract has been on the table for months. Drogba wants double that in order to remain at a club he has decorated for seven years.

Is there room for manoeuvre? Should there be? On an evening such as this, Drogba looked like he could go on acting badly and performing brilliantly well into his mid-30s.

The striker has scored a relatively meagre 13 goals this season, a fifth of the number than Lionel Messi has plundered for Barcelona.

That puts into perspective those who claim that Abramovich should cave in and just give Drogba the 24 months he wants and feels he deserves.

Has he reached the time of life where he picks his games and can only excel on those occasions when the juices really flow?

Maybe. But it is some quality to put the best player of his generation in the shade.

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