Sports
Lionel Messi goal felt like a hammer blow but Chelsea have recovered from self-inflicted setbacks against Barcelona before
It felt like a hammer blow, felt like it should be some sort of defining moment in another epic tie between these clubs.
Self-inflicted setbacks always feel like that, always seem to promise crueller repercussions, always seem to have greater significance.
That is why despondency was etched deep, not just into Andreas Christensen’s features but into Antonio Conte’s, into the outstanding Willian’s, into the thousands who poured from the Bridge deflated.
A solitary defensive aberration, punished by the regal composure of Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi, means the odds now favour Barcelona’s progression to the last eight. Of course they do.
Yet not only can Chelsea go into battle brandishing a record of eight games against Barcelona without defeat, not only do you have to go back a dozen years for their last reverse in the Nou Camp, there was enough in this captivating opening leg to give Conte considerable grounds for optimism.
Willian’s performance, for a start.
In a first half which featured territorial domination form Barcelona but a marked reluctance and inability to get Thibaut Courtois involved, sweetly-struck Willian efforts hit an upright apiece.
On both occasions, Marc-Andre ter Stegen was statically powerless as first his left and then his right post came to the Barcelona keeper’s assistance.
Willian was the wild card in Conte’s pack, one cutting run from deep ended only by the naked cynicism of Ivan Rakitic.
That is why it was no surprise when he sent Chelsea ahead.
Despite the clanging warnings of the first half, Willian was allowed to linger in his own exclusion zone just outside the penalty area for a corner.
When it reached him, via Hazard, there was only one item on the agenda and it was a finish that will get better with every viewing.
The dart to the side of Sergio Busquets gave him the room, the inside of his right boot did the rest, bending his hit around Rakitic and around colleague Antonio Rudiger.
It will go down as a finish in keeping with Willian’s status as a Chelsea performer – under-rated.
Willian has to be a key factor in Conte’s gameplan in the Nou Camp in three weeks’ time.
His fantastic contribution here would have been of even greater significance had Christensen not inexplicably sent a defensive cross-field pass into the path of Iniesta who eluded a desperate and ill-advised Cesar Azpilicueta and not only teed up Messi’s duck-breaking strike, but teed up what should be an epic second leg in Barcelona.
It should not be one that Chelsea approach with a lack of confidence despite Messi’s equaliser and despite some indifferent domestic form.
Possession and heat map-wise, it will be more of the same but with 73 percent of the ball here and with 887 passes to Chelsea’s 325, Barcelona had four fewer attempts at goal.
Even with Messi’s ball-on-remote-control brilliance, there was a distinct lack of incisiveness in this Barcelona display and even saddled with the thankless task of being a false nine, Eden Hazard showed enough to suggest he will be a considerable threat on the Catalan counter.
Likewise Willian, who might actually have headed off Barca’s comeback had he found N’Golo Kante at the end of one particularly threatening breakaway.
But this was, unsurprisingly, a contest of fine margins, just as the renewal in Barcelona is likely to be, just as it was back in 2012 when Chelsea, with ten men after the dismissal of John Terry, recovered from two goals down to draw and go through to the Champions League final.
Examples of recovering from self-inflicted setbacks do not come much starker than that.
Similar heroics will be required next month but for all the despondency after one costly moment, do not put those heroics past them.
