Khaberni - Chelsea achieved a resounding victory over Barcelona with a score of (3-0) on Tuesday evening, as part of the fifth round of the league stage of the UEFA Champions League, at the Blues' stronghold, Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea delivered an outstanding performance throughout both halves of the match, with the Blues' treble scored by Jules Kounde (own goal), Estevao, and Liam Delap in the minutes (27, 55, 73).
With this victory, Chelsea increased their points to 10, in fourth place in the standings, while Barcelona's score remained frozen at 7 points in fifteenth place.
The two teams started the match with the following lineup:
Chelsea: Sanchez - Cucurella - Chalobah - Fofana - Gusto - Caicedo - James - Enzo - Garnacho - Estevao - Neto.
Barcelona: Garcia - Balde - Kounde - Araujo - Garcia - Firmin - De Jong - Torres - Yamal - Lewandowski.
Match Events
The match began with a clear declaration of intentions from the hosts, as Enzo Fernandez scored an early goal in the third minute, but it was disallowed after Fofana’s clear handball intervention before the goal.
Barcelona didn't take long to respond, after successful pressure in the final third the ball reached Ferran Torres inside the box following a special pass from Lamin Yamal, but the Spaniard squandered the chance to open the score in the 4th minute, shooting the ball bizarrely wide of the goal.
Enzo Fernandez scored a goal for Chelsea in the 22nd minute with a rocket shot inside the box, but the referee disallowed it after reviewing the video technology for offside.
Neto was close to scoring after a ball Estevao sent behind the defense in the 24th minute, but his shot went high.
Chelsea appeared as the better and more comfortable side, and succeeded in the 27th minute in taking the lead from a short corner where Cucurella was left unmarked, sending a low cross that ended with Kounde scoring an own goal by mistake in his net after an initial shot from Neto.
Despite doubts about Cucurella's offside, the goal was counted after returning to video technology.
Barcelona tried to hold on but seemed far from its usual pace, amid losing the ball and difficulty in overcoming the Blues' pressure.
Barcelona's suffering continued, and in the 31st minute, Ronald Araujo received a yellow card for protesting, before receiving a second card in the 44th minute after a violent intervention on Cucurella, leaving his team with ten players at a crucial moment, ending the first half with Chelsea leading by one goal.
At the start of the second half, and in the 50th minute, the referee disallowed a third goal for Chelsea after Garnacho received a pass from Enzo from an offside position before he created the ball for his colleague Santos who scored into the net.
Chelsea didn’t wait long to strike again; in the 55th minute, De Jong lost the ball in a sensitive area, Estevao snatched it and sprinted with a wonderful dribble in front of Kounde before firing a rocket shot that nestled in the top corner, adding a brilliant second goal for the Blues amid complete inability from the Barcelona players to match the pace.
At the 69th minute, Pedro Neto almost scored the third after a quick breakaway, but goalkeeper Juan Garcia intervened at the last moment and deflected it to a corner. From the same corner, the ball fell in front of Fofana inside the box in the 70th minute, but he blasted it over the goal.
The Blues didn't delay in widening the gap, as in the 74th minute Barcelona lost another ball in midfield, Neto launched with the attack then passed to Enzo on the flank, who in turn sent an ideal cross that Delap turned inside the net, announcing Chelsea's deserved third goal amid a clear collapse in the Catalan defense.
Chelsea continued its complete dominance, while Barcelona was completely trapped in its areas without the ability to cross the midfield, achieving a deserved victory for the Blues.
Numbers from the Match
According to the "Opta" statistics network, Kounde has scored three own goals in all competitions since joining Barcelona in the 2022/2023 season.
The network added that Kounde is the player who has scored the most in his own net among the ranks of Barcelona since joining the team three years ago.
Estevao (18 years and 215 days old) is the third youngest player to score in each of his first three matches in the UEFA Champions League, after Kylian Mbappe (18 years and 113 days) and Erling Haaland (19 years and 107 days).
Barcelona does not have good memories against Chelsea, having won only once out of eight previous European attempts (two draws and five defeats), and that was in February 2006 in the UEFA Champions League.
Since then, they have played at Stamford Bridge four times without achieving any victory (two draws and two defeats).
