Chelsea produced an exceptional performance to brush aside Barcelona at Stamford Bridge and climb up to fifth in the Champions League table.
The Blues controlled the game throughout but their endeavours were aided by Ronald Araújo’s dismissal at the very end of the first half.
Although they were able to beat Barcelona’s trademark offside trap on multiple occasions, Chelsea also have several more goals ruled out throughout the match.
The Chelsea defence showed impressive and improved composure
In the new Champions League format, Chelsea were drawn against two of their fellow teams from pot one: Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
They met the German champions at the Allianz Arena to begin the campaign and, while parts of the performance were impressive, were largely let down by defensive mistakes.
Roughly two months later, the chance came for their defenders to demonstrate their improvements on the world stage, and they certainly proved themselves against Barcelona.
Aside from an early mistake, which led to the best opportunity of the game for Ferran Torres, their work in possession was excellent and helped start multiple attacks.
It was a mature performance out of possession too. The centre-back pairing of Wesley Fofana and Trevoh Chalobah read the game very well, stepping out to win the ball when necessary and doing so successfully the vast majority of the time.
Malo Gusto also delivered an energetic display from right-back in the first half and was crucial to Chelsea winning the ball back quickly throughout.
Cucurella proved himself as one of the world’s best full-backs
The only starting defender not mentioned by name in the previous point is Marc Cucurella. That is because he deserves his own section.
The Barcelona youth product fully deserved the Player of the Match award on the night he met his childhood club in European competition for the first time.
Cucurella collected the Player of the Match award. Source: Jan Kruger - UEFA.
At surface level his key moment was the cross he provided, which caused Jules Koundé to turn the ball into his own net for the opening goal. That alongside the run which put Araújo in a position that led to him picking up a second yellow card.
However, the most impressive part of his performance was the way he dealt with Lamine Yamal.
He came up against his teammate from Spain's victory in Euro 2024 but quickly proved that there were no thoughts of friendship on the night.
Cucurella’s aggressive style left Yamal with such limited space to work with, making the incredibly talented teenager look completely average.
The Ballon d’Or runner up left the field in the 80th minute to ironic cheers from the home fans, having been outplayed by Cucurella and outshone by Estêvão.
It is getting increasingly harder not to get excited about Estêvão
In a fitting moment, the Brazilian teenager became the first Chelsea player to score against Barcelona since Willian, his compatriot and namesake, in 2018.
His solo goal to double Chelsea’s lead can be added to list of ‘coming of age’ moments for the young star in the past few months alone.
It was his third goal in the Champions League so far and he remains the only Chelsea player to score more than once in the competition.
He also became the club’s joint top scorer this season with five goals, along with Enzo Fernández.
Estêvão doubled the advantage for Chelsea at the Shed End. Source: Adrian Dennis - AFP
While every Chelsea player delivered a high quality performance, none of them got the fans inside Stamford Bridge off their seats more than Estêvão.
In the absence of Cole Palmer, he was given the freedom usually afforded to Chelsea’s star of the past two seasons, and delivered in similar style.
There are questions to be asked about how and where he will play when Palmer returns to fitness and João Pedro is available. However, that will undoubtedly be the best kind of headache for Enzo Maresca to have.
Neto's versatility is such an important tool
Having spent the majority of the season as Chelsea’s starting right-winger, Pedro Neto played the majority of the game as a central striker, before briefly moving to the left.
The adaptation was evidently part of a successful plan to exploit the Barcelona high line by utilising the Portuguese forward’s pace in behind the defence.
He has been in excellent form recently from his typical position on the right but continued to impress despite taking on a less familiar role.
It was Neto’s shot which led to a breakdown in communication between Koundé and Ferran Torres to open the scoring; having made an intelligent run to put himself in that position in the first place.
Additionally, he had another chance to score on a counter attack when played in behind through Robert Sánchez’s quick thinking. He breezed past Pau Cubarsí before forcing Joan García into a good save.
Outside of these opportunities, his energy was infectious throughout the match and the plan to use his pace in a central role worked extremely effectively.