Guardian:
Lionel Messi breaks his duck against Chelsea to earn draw for Barcelona
Daniel Taylor at Stamford Bridge
In the end, it turned out to be a harsh reminder for Chelsea about the realities of the Champions League and, unfortunately for Andreas Christensen, a personal ordeal for the player who has been trusted by Antonio Conte to assume a position in the heart of the team’s defence.
Christensen has filled the role with distinction for the most part this season but his wayward pass in the 75th minute was a calamitous mistake that could have serious ramifications for his team’s hopes of reaching the quarter-finals. Chelsea had been leading, courtesy of Willian’s goal, and showing all their better qualities.
Yet no side can defend this generously and expect to get away with it. Not, at least, when the opposition has Andrés Iniesta and Lionel Messi among its front line.
Messi’s goal was his first against Chelsea in nine attempts and in that moment the advantage swung towards Barça ahead of the return leg. Chelsea had looked vulnerable as soon as Christensen committed the defender’s sin of playing the ball across the front of his own penalty area. If the pass was intended for Cesc Fàbregas, it was not entirely clear.
The ball went from one side of the pitch to the other and, in his desperation to cut it out, César Azpilicueta put his team in even more danger by lunging in and failing to make contact. Iniesta was free. Messi, as always, was backing him up. And it is tempting to think Chelsea might live to regret that combination of errors in the second leg at the Camp Nou on 14 March.
Nonetheless, Conte refused to blame Christensen, who was chosen ahead of the experienced Gary Cahill. “No, absolutely no, no, no,” he insisted. “Christensen’s performance was great, incredible. He is only 21 years old, it’s great that he’s able to play this game with his maturity and personality. He was one of the best players tonight. A top, top game and I’m very pleased for his performance.”
Even so, it was still a frustrating night for Conte and his players bearing in mind the 13-minute spell when they had the lead and seemed to have the measure of their opponents.
Eden Hazard had frequently unsettled the visiting defence. Thibaut Courtois was scarcely troubled in Chelsea’s goal and the home side could also reflect on two moments in the first half when Willian tried his luck from 20 yards out and – agonisingly, almost implausibly – both shots came back off the woodwork.
The first was just before the half-hour mark when the ball thudded off Marc-André ter Stegen’s left-hand post. Ten minutes later, Willian tried again from the same distance, 20 yards out, and this time his shot ricocheted off the other upright.
Stamford Bridge howled with anguish but these were encouraging moments for Chelsea and when Willian tried for a third time, in the 62nd minute, he had seen a small gap inside the right-hand post and picked it out beautifully.
More than anything, the frustration for Chelsea was exacerbated by the sense that the team currently seven points clear at the top of La Liga might be running out of ideas. Barça had played every kind of pass bar the killer variety.
They did not manage a shot on target in the first half and it was unusual, in particular, to see Luis Suárez looking as subdued as he did in the opening 45 minutes. These are the occasions – the big nights, under the floodlights, with the Champions League anthem blaring – when Suárez usually loves to compete with Messi for the leading role. Not here, though.
Instead, the narrative came back – as it often does – to the little guy wearing Barca’s No 10 shirt. Messi did not invent the art of dribbling but he has certainly taken it to its highest level.
One early slalom left Antonio Rüdiger in such a fix it was difficult not to feel a pang of sympathy for the defender. Messi then proceeded to remind everyone that too much time had been wasted in the build-up to this match analysing his lack of goals in these fixtures.
His movement, his distribution, the deftness of touch – as much as Chelsea’s fans must have wished the ball could avoid him, they will surely realise these are moments to treasure. And Messi, true to form, had not yet finished with Rüdiger.
Equally, Messi’s influence had waned after the interval and Chelsea were looking relatively comfortable as the game reached the final quarter of an hour. They had defended stoutly, with N’Golo Kanté having one of his better performances in front of the back four.
Chelsea did not start with an orthodox centre-forward but the speed and movement of Hazard, Willian and Pedro always made them dangerous on the counterattack. Willian’s goal was a peach and, frankly, it felt ludicrous that Conte is widely assumed to be on his way out in the summer. Stamford Bridge, once again, felt like a happy place.
Yet this was a big night for Christensen, only 21, and there were some tell-tale signs, perhaps, in the first half when he misdirected what should have been a routine pass and sent the ball out for a corner.
His next mistake was far more serious and, though Messi will inevitably dominate the headlines, the goal would never have been possible had it not been for Iniesta’s brilliant anticipation. Messi was waiting, unmarked, and was never going to let Chelsea off the hook.
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Telegraph:
Chelsea 1 Barcelona 1: Lionel Messi punishes single mistake to take crucial away goal to Nou Camp
Sam Wallace
When it finally came, perhaps Chelsea thought that the first goal Lionel Messi would score against them after all those games would be something truly remarkable, one of those moments that defied explanation and could simply be filed away as an act of genius that no mortal could stop.
Instead, the first goal Messi scored against Chelsea in nine games and 730 minutes – the 98th of his Champions League career – came from a rank poor pass from Andreas Christensen, the kind of hostage to fortune that might well have been converted by West Bromwich Albion. That it came amid one of the most intense, well-drilled Chelsea performances in Europe of recent years was Antonio Conte’s misfortune – of all the club’s meetings with Barcelona in recent history and it had to be his.
At the point Messi scored, 75 minutes into a classic Champions League tie, Barcelona had enjoyed around 75 per cent of the possession and zero per cent of the goals – the tie itself was tipped marginally in favour of the home team by virtue of a second-half Willian strike. Conte’s team had played Barcelona off the back foot, but they had played them brilliantly and Messi himself had not been afforded enough of the space he usually seeks out.
When the equaliser came, it felt like a gift. There are so many ways in which Messi and Barcelona can break the hearts of their opponents and perhaps they would have done so anyway at the Nou Camp on March 14, regardless of what might have been achieved by Chelsea in this home leg.
But this magnificent team, unbeaten in their domestic league this season, do not need any assistance to score a goal and, unfortunately, that was what Chelsea’s young Danish defender gave them.
Messi celebrated with the vehemence of a man who seemed to know that was one small kink ironed out of the great history he has written, and you could sense the deflation among the home support. “If you make mistakes against opponents like Messi and Andres Iniesta, you pay,” Conte said later.
The Chelsea manager rightly refused to blame Christensen, arguing that it was a fine balance at all times between youth and experience, to try to find the right players to carry out his game plan.
He was so close to getting it right, including the decision to drop Gary Cahill in favour of Christensen, and there was still a spark of hope in Conte afterwards that his team can reach the quarter-finals, however difficult it might be. Certainly the form of Willian suggests he is reaching top gear with a brilliant, brave performance in which he carried the fight to Barca at all times.
This was not a night for attacking players to stand around with their hands on their hips complaining about lack of service and so Willian worked hard for every chance, struck a post twice in the first half and buried his chance with the one decent sight of goal that he was afforded. He had looked impressive against Hull City in the FA Cup on Friday, but it is one thing doing it against the Championship strugglers and another stepping it up against Barcelona. For a start, Hull had 18 per cent more possession than Chelsea managed against Barcelona in this first leg.
That was always going to be a problem and there were periods of the first half when Chelsea had to adjust to life without the ball. Barcelona finished with around 73 per cent of possession over the 90 minutes – depending on whose statistics you read – and yet by the end Conte’s players had adapted well to a new way of playing that involved Willian and Eden Hazard breaking on their opposition.
They tried to get out quickly and switch the play when possible, with Antonio Rudiger on the left side of the defence often looking to hit a long diagonal in the direction of Victor Moses on the right wing.
Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic pulled the strings for Barcelona from deep midfield, but they did so at a safe distance as far as Chelsea were concerned. Rakitic rode his luck in the first half after an early booking for a foul on Willian and two challenges after that which could have got him in trouble.
As for Messi, we were treated to a few moments in the first half when he spun and ran at Chelsea, and one glorious feint which had Rudiger standing on the wrong foot as the great man glided past him.
Messi is at the stage of his career when the reverence for him in the opposition is unmistakable, and there are few on the pitch who can recall a time when he was not the king – even if on this occasion his goal was among the easier ones he has scored.
The Barcelona possession count edged up past 80 per cent during the first half, with Conte urging his side forward, encouraging them to put pressure on the away team’s back four. Hazard dragged Barcelona’s defence left after 33 minutes and then Willian took the ball in space in the middle and hit a right-footed shot against Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s left post. He clipped the other post eight minutes later.
The rehabilitated Tottenham Hotspur old boy Paulinho had a quiet night, eventually substituted having headed wide a cross from Messi after 15 minutes. N’Golo Kante covered the breadth of the pitch and he was a formidable barrier against Barcelona, who were arguably at their least dangerous when they were attacking corners.
It was from a Barcelona corner, claimed by Thibaut Courtois, that the Willian goal began.
The Chelsea goalkeeper dropped the ball quickly at the feet of Cesc Fabregas, from where it went left to Hazard, right to Willian and, eventually, Chelsea’s corner was won on the left side.
Hazard spotted Willian outside the Barcelona area in a promising amount of space, and the Brazilian stepped past Busquets to shape a right-footed shot inside Ter Stegen’s left post.
Before the Barcelona equaliser Chelsea might have had a second when Willian broke down the right and elected not to pass to his unlikely breakaway partner, Kante.
From Christensen’s ill-advised pass across the face of his goal that Cesar Azpilicueta was just inches from reaching, Iniesta created the goal for Messi. In that moment the tie changed, and it had taken only one slip of concentration.
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Mail:
Chelsea 1-1 Barcelona: Lionel Messi takes advantage of Andreas Christensen's mistake to finally break his duck and spoil the Willian show at Stamford Bridge
By Martin Samuel
He wasn't the man of the match. That was Willian. His team didn't have the best chances. Those fell to Chelsea. Yet if Barcelona approach the second leg as undoubted favourites, and they do, it is Lionel Messi that is responsible. Again.
One chance, one goal. That is all he needs. And Messi got it because he, allied with Barcelona's relentless forward drive and immense levels of possession, will terrify any opposition. Raw defenders in possession, in particular.
Andreas Christensen hadn't looked happy with the ball at his feet all night. He had already sliced one attempted pass behind him for a corner in the first half. Yet Chelsea kept trying to play their way out of trouble, giving their least experienced defender the ball in tight spots as Barcelona harried and chased. Something had to give, and eventually it did.
Christensen received the ball deep on the left and as Barcelona closed played a suicidal pass across his own back line to the right side. Miscued, misplaced it turned into a 50-50 for Cesar Azpilicueta, one the Chelsea man was a substantial outsider to win.
He dived in, going to ground rashly in sheer desperation, missing his tackle, and allowing Andres Iniesta to slip the ball inside. When it became apparent who was waiting, there was no doubting the outcome. No side have held out longer against Messi than Chelsea, 730 minutes of football until this point.
His first game against them was the last Barcelona victory in their meetings, almost 12 years ago to the day, but he has never scored – before Tuesday night. So that is another record broken. The finish was perfect, assured, near post. Never in doubt. Yet for a time, Barcelona's advantage in this tie was.
It was fitting, perhaps, that Willian was temporarily off the pitch when Barcelona's goal occurred, receiving treatment on a bloodied lip. He didn't deserve not to be on the winning side, so at least he was not literally present when Chelsea conceded.
For if this was an excellent team performance, given the low expectations for Chelsea in this tie, it was arguably Willian's finest 90 minutes in a blue shirt. He hit the right post, he hit the left post, before finally getting his rightful reward with a goal after 62 minutes. Third time lucky, some said. But there was nothing lucky about it.
Eden Hazard played a curling pass across the edge of the area, and Willian did what he does best, sizing it up before as good as passing it into the net from 20 yards out. In these moments, he reminds of no-one more than Thierry Henry, the same glorious precision in front of goal, shots stroked so delightfully they have the accuracy of passes, and only slightly more power. Frank Lampard is another antecedent, the way he would maraud upfield, always with an eye for the goal, as much as the killer pass.
And while Barcelona may have had the superior passing statistics, Chelsea came closest to scoring and were more than worth their draw. The English team that looked to have pulled the shortest Champions League straw will travel to the Nou Camp next month with a small reserve of optimism few thought possible when this draw was announced.
They have shocked this team before, in considerably more desperate circumstances, and there have now been eight meetings since the last Barcelona win on February 22, 2006. In that period there have been two Chelsea wins, and six draws – but that is why the advantage remains with Barcelona this time.
A low scoring draw will still do them; 0-0 and they progress on away goals, 1-1 and the match goes to extra time. Still, it's better than many hoped. Before this first leg, a lot of Stamford Bridge regulars were more concerned with damage limitation.
Yet if there has been a theme this week it is that possession, in itself, can be a false indicator, and so it was on Tuesday night, too. Chelsea often played Wigan to Barcelona's Manchester City – but with one, big, difference. Chelsea had more shots at goal, as many shots on target and the two closest shaves of the 90 minutes. Barcelona have every right to fear them, and the prowling Willian in particular, when the teams reconvene.
True, for long periods Chelsea were observers in their own stadium, as Barcelona hogged the ball – reaching 81 per cent possession at one stage – yes they may have misplaced passes and then been forced to watch Barcelona control the play for minutes on end, and yes, N'Golo Kante may have mustered two touches and one tackle in the opening 29 minutes, but Chelsea could have led at half-time, and by more than one.
It is immensely energy sapping trying to contain Barcelona's brilliance, but Chelsea did so. Luis Suarez was barely in it, apart from one save and one dive, while Messi was mesmerising but his wider influence often limited.
Of course, his intelligence is always apparent, his wit, his will, his genius ability to conjure a chance from nowhere, and it was unfortunate that his moment of finest creation fell to Paulinho who appeared to have his Tottenham head on. Using it, he steered the ball wide of the target.
Chelsea had the best of it overall, lengthy exercises of keep ball aside. Antonio Conte gambled by playing Hazard through the middle upfront, a ploy that has not always worked against considerably inferior opposition in the Premier League this season. On this occasion, however, it paid dividends.
Ably supported by the outstanding Willian, Hazard matched Messi in the battle of the tens, found space, teased Barcelona's defensive midfield and, on occasions, terrified their full-backs. Barcelona did not look like a side unbeaten in La Liga this season, Chelsea far from a team with four wins in 13.
It was a short period towards the end of the first half, that could have seen Chelsea pull clear. In the 33rd minute, Hazard fed Willian who cut inside, drifting past Sergio Busquets before unleashing a shot of such venom, goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen could only look on helplessly. It hit his left post and rebounded out, fortunately to Barcelona's advantage, and the danger passed.
Seven minutes later, pretty much the same again. Willian once more, on the opposite side of the penalty area, striking ter Stegen's right post with a shot from outside. At least the Barcelona goalkeeper had time to dive this time.
Nor did the pressure abate as, three minutes before half-time, Chelsea floated a free-kick in, only half cleared by Barcelona's back line. The ball fell to Hazard on the volley on the edge of the area, his shot considerably closer to the target than was first imagined as it disappeared over the bar.
Yes, we know what we think will happen on March 14, but Chelsea have surprised before. Messi may be on the scoresheet, but that doesn't mean he is guaranteed a berth in the quarter-finals, too.
CHELSEA (3-4-3): Courtois 6.5, Azpilicueta 7.5, Christensen 6, Rudiger 7, Moses 7.5, Fabregas 6.5 (Drinkwater 83), Kante 6.5, Alonso 6.5, Willian 9, Hazard 8, Pedro 6 (Morata 83)
Subs not used: Caballero, Giroud, Zappacosta, Cahill, Hudson-Odoi
Goals: Willian 62
Bookings: Rudiger, Morata
Manager: Antonio Conte
BARCELONA (4-4-2): Ter Stegen 5.5, Segi Roberto 7, Pique 6.5, Umtiti 6, Alba 7, Rakitic 6.5, Busquets 6.5, Paulinho 6.5 (Vidal 63), Messi 8, Luis Suarez 6.5, Iniesta 7 (Gomes 90)
Subs not used: Cillessen, Denis Suarez, Dembele, Digne, Vermaelen
Goals: Messi 75
Bookings: Rakitic, Suarez, Busquets
Manager: Ernesto Valverde
Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey)
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Independent:
Lionel Messi ends goal drought against Chelsea to hand Barcelona crucial Champions League away goal
Chelsea 1 Barcelona 1: Messi's well-taken finish changed the complexion of the tie after Willian's opener and Barca will take a slender advantage back to the Camp Nou
Miguel Delaney Stamford Bridge
Barcelona come away from Stamford Bridge with the slimmest of possible advantages in a Champions League knockout, and that so fittingly reflecting the engaging tightness of this game, but so frustratingly coming from the one moment that Chelsea had allowed the gap between the teams to become so tangibly evident.
It also allowed Lionel Messi to inevitably end what had been one of the most notable negatives on his record, as he finally got his first goal against Chelsea and Thibaut Courtois. He did so inevitably exploiting the space offered up by a kamikaze Andreas Christensen pass. That gave Barca a 1-1 draw and means Chelsea simply have to score in the return in three weeks, having also undone the ingenuity displayed by Willian.
This was the greater frustration for Antonio Conte and his side. Willian’s goals had many of the same qualities as his manager’s game plan: he so expertly calculated the exact angles and space allowed to maximise the tightest of openings, in the same way his manager had worked out how to reduce the much-discussed gap between the English champions and Spanish leaders.
Over 90 minutes’ work, and so many hours on the training ground, were then undone by one slip. The Argentine great was ultimately given such an easy goal, after so many difficulties against this team.
Then again, that shows the level of side Chelsea were playing in Barca, the level of star they were up against in Messi, and the different kind of quality to this match.
Whereas so many of their pulsating past meetings have ultimately involved games exploding to produce some epic events, this was all about exploiting the finest of margins, the smallest of spaces.
It is also why one of Conte’s shows of angers will have felt more justified.
With Hazard as a false nine and the remaining nine outfield players charged with sitting sturdily before striding out – and that best displayed by the mostly brilliant Antonio Rudiger – Chelsea had initially done a fine job of so frustrating Barca.
It did somewhat play into the English side’s feet that this was probably as constrained and compact a Barca as they’ve ever faced. Whereas they used to flow out from possession, here they continue to build with it before abruptly striking, the players all so close together so that they’re always moving en masse.
It means two different individual things for this team, that are going to end up deciding this tie. One is that Messi is at the centre of everything more than before in terms of position, but also in terms of influence. To a much greater degree than ever before, the attacks come through him. It is often as if there can’t be a key moment without him, as he was to prove so emphatically.
Even before his strike, there was the free header created for Paulinho, and then an opportunity from a set-piece for Gerard Pique.
The other consequence is that, as compact as Barca are and as much as it allows them to control games, they are so suddenly open if you do manage to successfully counter against them and get in behind.
So it was on the two occasions that Willian it the frame of the goal. He rarely needs much invitation to strike from distance, but the space that opened up in front of him for both strikes implored him even more. He twice hit the ball so cleanly, but not quite clinically accurate enough.
The Brazilian was evidently just warming up, however, and finding his range as well as finding the space.
The one thing about games like this that necessarily involve the most reduced space and smallest of gaps is that they also involve the players most adept at ingeniously maximising such limitations.
It’s just that, while everyone expected that would eventually come from Messi and Iniesta, it initially came from Willian. On 62 minutes, he superbly used the reduced space to his benefit, as he used Barca defenders to shield himself from Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s eyeline before expertly guiding the ball around the goalkeeper and yet somehow inside the post.
This was clinical, and so classy.
There is an argument that Chelsea should have pressed home from there rather than dangerously sit on their lead but, whatever tactics you decide, they’re always going to be rendered moot when a defender does something as cataclysmic as Christensen.
It must have felt so unfair for Conte. After a match that had displayed how much he had drilled his side to shut down all space, the defender – normally so reliable – opened it up with the type of pass you might have expected from a Barca creator. To just gift it to them made it all the more galling.
In that kind of situation, the rest of the Chelsea backline was always going to struggle, and players like Iniesta and Messi were always going to take advantage.
They now take the advantage to Camp Nou and, even if it as slim as it can possible be, it gives Conte and his side an even bigger job for that return.
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