Chelsea 1 Barcelona 1: Blues their own worst enemy as Lionel Messi scores his first ever goal against them to cancel out Willian’s strike
With 15 minutes to go and 1-0 up, Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen played a horror ball at the back that ended with Messi firing the equaliser
IT was a pretty pointless statistic, anyway.
Lionel Messi, perhaps the greatest player to ever walk planet earth, had never scored against Chelsea in eight attempts.
As if something as trivial as that would ever bother him, the little maestro finally broke his duck.
He finished with his customary class and composure, and it did not seem to bother him one bit that it was against Chelsea.
Messi scores, no matter who the opposition are. That is just the way it is.
His 75th minute strike protects Barcelona, giving them the comfort of an away goal after cancelling out Willian’s rasping effort 62 minutes in.
This is Barcelona’s tie to lose now.
They are unbeaten in the Champions League since last April, when Juventus damaged them with a 3-0 victory in the quarter-final.
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Barcelona, with five European Cups, are a vengeful bunch.
They are responded to Willian’s goal, stepping it up to protect their unbeaten run in this season’s competition.
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INTERACTIVE STATS - CLICK on the categories to find out how the teams fared
Chelsea, thrown around Stamford Bridge like a dog with a toy, have it all to do in the second leg.
What a shame because this place had come alive when Willian left Sergio Busquets eating dirt when he turned him on the edge of the area.
The Brazilian had already hit the woodwork twice, but this one finally beat Barca keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Chelsea were up and running, on the way to securing a slender first-leg lead after Willian had put then in front.
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The fans were on their feet, with the atmosphere a throw back to the days when these two were European equals.
It does not feel like that any more.
Barcelona, seven points clear in La Liga, are far superior, prodding the ball around the Bridge as if they owned the place.
No matter how much possession they had, the Blues were always in it.
Memorably the two best chances of the first half fell to Antonio Conte’s side.
Willian was behind both of them, twice smacking the woodwork with efforts from the edge of the area. Ter Stegen was nowhere near either of them.
That was the best of Chelsea, growing into this game after an unforgiving opening half hour. Barca, classy and composed, passed the ball around Stamford Bridge at will.
The only thing they forgot to do was to put the ball in the back of Thibaut Courtois’ goal.
It felt like it was coming.
Barcelona are always bubbling, always threatening to beat a man, always looking to remind people just how good they are.
These famous Catalans are always capable of doing that.
Whenever Messi stepped it up, whenever that No 10 shirt appeared somewhere near the ball, something special looked likely to happen. One first half run, wriggling like an eel past Cesc Fabregas and Antonio Rudiger, even drew gasps of appreciation and applause from the home fans.
Credit to Chelsea, they can do classy.
Those blue shirts were swarming all over him, sending extra men to keep him company whenever he was on the ball.
Barcelona, boasting 80 per cent possession during a first half spent feeling their hosts out, are bristling with confidence.
Paulinho missed their first big chance, steering a header wide when Messi found him lurking at the far post.
Chelsea recovered, settling into this first leg when Ivan Rakitic was booked for clattering into Willian.
Finally they started to believe, humanising this magnificent Barcelona side and realising it was 11 men against 11 men.
Andres Iniesta, scorer of one of the most dramatic goals in Barca’s history when he notched a belter here in 2009, was subdued.
Inexplicably, this little magician could not find his range of passing out on the left. Every time he went to make one of those fizzing passes into the feet of a team-mate, he found one of those grateful blue shirts.
Willian was one of them.
The attacking midfielder lit up the place, feeding off Eden Hazard’s enthusiasm whenever Chelsea tested Gerard Pique and Samuel Umtiti back there.
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Conte’s men had finally decided to give it a go.
Chelsea’s manager was getting into it, demanding a second yellow for Croatian star Rakitic when he collided with N’Golo Kante 37 minutes in.
Honour among thieves and all that, but there is no place for that sort of behaviour from the technical area.
Suddenly his team shape looked inspired, with Hazard drifting in and out of those centre forward positions.
Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud, both benched, will probably disagree.
Hazard had the final say of the first half, volleying an effort over the bar when Marcos Alonso’s dig from the left fell from the sky. They got there in the end.
Chelsea made the breakthrough, with Willian sending Busquets out for a hot-dog before wrapping his boot around the ball from the edge of the area.
Barca responded, with Iniesta finally playing a killer pass into the onrushing feet of Messi.
He made no mistake, beating Courtois with a heavenly finish.
Unquestionably, this guy is a footballing god.