Chelsea beat Barcelona 3-0 at home on Tuesday night to keep up their impressive form and put themselves right back in the mix for automatic qualification from the group.
The Blues were on the front foot from the early stages at home. They had already had two Enzo Fernandez efforts disallowed by the time their goal went in.
Enzo Maresca’s men had dominated at set pieces, but then chose to play one short, which caught out the Barca defence. A nicely worked routine played in Marc Cucurella, and he cut back to find Pedro Neto, whose flick bounced around between Jules Kounde’s legs on the line and went in.
Up until this point Barcelona threatened – Ferran Torres missed a glorious chance after some sloppy Chelsea play against the press handed him the ball in the box.
But not long after the goal, Barcelona captain Ronald Araujo decided to throw it away. Having already picked up a yellow for dissent, totally unnecessarily, the central defender went flying into a challenge on Cucurella which was even more reckless. He walked, and with him it felt like Barcelona’s hope went too.
If that was a Chelsea player (and let’s face it, we’ve seen some truly insane yellow and red cards in recent years) we’d be going crazy.
As it was, Maresca’s team were set up for a perfect second half. They were a goal up, a man up, and playing a team which likes to operate with a high line and attacking mentality. Half time sub Andrey Santos scored a third disallowed goal just after half time to make that clear.
It wasn’t long before the Blues had more goals which actually did count – Estevao made a brilliant run through the defence and scored from a tight angle. Then Liam Delap got a long-awaited goal to seal the game.
From that point on it was just a matter of slowing the game down and playing to full time.
MOTM – Marc Cucurella
Analysis
Cole Palmer and Estevao on the bench chilling.
Cole Palmer and Estevao on the bench chilling.
After looking a level below Bayern Munich in the first round of fixtures in the Champions League, this was a big chance for Chelsea to show how they’ve improved since September.
Barcelona’s style of play, with a high line and a lot of attacking players, suited the Blues, who used their three quickest attackers from the start to test the Barca back line. It worked a treat, and they took apart the Catalan side on a number of counter attacks.
While the defence and midfield kept a dangerous offensive unit quiet, the wingers and attackers were already ready to spring on the counter, and the Blues posed a fearsome threat at set pieces too. The red card changed the game – but it came in part because Enzo Maresca’s team had put Barca under such pressure before.
Teams
Chelsea
Robert Sánchez
Malo Gusto
Wesley Fofana
Trevoh Chalobah
Marc Cucurella
Reece James
Moisés Caicedo
Estêvão
Enzo Fernández
Alejandro Garnacho
Pedro Neto
S**ubstitutes
Filip Jorgensen
Tosin Adarabioyo
Benoît Badiashile
Liam Delap (s 59′)
Jamie Bynoe-Gittens (s 75′)
Andrey Santos (s 46′)
de Jesus João Pedro
Jorrel Hato
Tyrique George (s 83′)
Josh Acheampong (s 82′)
Marc Guiu
Facundo Buonanotte
Barcelona
Joan García
Jules Koundé
Ronald Araújo
Pau Cubarsí
Álex Balde
Eric García
Frenkie de Jong
Lamine Yamal
Fermín López
Ferran Torres
Robert Lewandowski
Substitutes
Wojciech Szczęsny
Diego Kochen
Raphinha (s 62′)
Marcus Rashford (s 46′)
Andreas Christensen (s 62′)
Marc Casadó
Martin Gerard (s 80′)
Dani Olmo (s 80′)
Marc Bernal
Dro Fernández
Roony Bardghji
Stats
Statistic Chelsea Barcelona
Ball possession 56% 44%
Expected goals (xG) 1.89 0.79
Total shots 15 5
Shots on target 6 2
Big chances 3 1
Big chances missed 2 1
Accurate passes 456 (88%) 349 (84%)
Fouls committed 18 12
Corners 4 0
Quote of the game
“I don’t really have the words to sum up how I’m feeling right now… It was the perfect night… It was definitely the most special moment in my career.” Estevao on his superb goal.