With a relentless display of attacking football, Chelsea made it look easy as they powered past a Barcelona side that were down to 10 men at Stamford Bridge with a convincing 3-0 win — a record win in their history against the Catalan giants and a result that puts them temporarily among the last 16 of the Champions League league stage table.
The game was played at a very high tempo from the start, and Chelsea saw one of their first goals disallowed for handball, while Ferran Torres hit the side netting from an unmissable opportunity for Barcelona. The home side took over, kept firing on all cylinders, and in fact, another header by Enzo Fernández was called offside without the Blues waiting long before getting the breakthrough. Marc Cucurella’s low cross irritated the defenders in the Barça box, and Jules Koundé, in an awkward position, fouled the ball into his own net to hand the Londoners the lead they had been seeking.
The Blaugrana’s revival prospects were even more thrown to the dogs when Ronald Araújo, just before the break, was shown a second yellow for a terrible tackle on Cucurella and so the visitors had only a mountain to climb.
After the interval, Chelsea were totally in charge. Estévão raved everybody’s mouth open with an incredible individual effort and coolly putting the ball in the net to make it 2-0 for the Blues, and then, on top of that, substitute Liam Delap wrapped up the triumph with a calm finish to the far post after a smart counterattack led by Fernández.
The Londoners have not lost in their last six encounters, whereas the Catalans see the increasingly realistic threat of a champions league play-off as a way to remain in the competition.
