Chelsea romped to a dominant 3-0 win at home to 10-man Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday, while Pep Guardiola’s much-changed Manchester City went down to their first defeat of the campaign against Bayer Leverkusen.
In a battle between the second-placed sides in the Premier League and La Liga, Chelsea emerged emphatic winners thanks to goals from 18-year-old Estevao and Liam Delap after a Jules Kounde own-goal had given the 2021 Champions League winners a first-half lead.
The visitors played just over half the encounter a player down following captain Ronald Araujo’s dismissal for two bookable offences on the stroke of half-time.
After stalling last time out — Chelsea being held 2-2 by Qarabag and Barca drawing three-apiece with Club Brugge — both sides came into the match at Stamford Bridge looking to get their campaigns back on track.
Victory propelled Chelsea to fifth in the league phase standings on 10 points.
“It’s a big win, especially because the other team was Barcelona,” Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said.
After two Enzo Fernandez strikes were disallowed for offside, the hosts finally took the lead on 27 minutes.
A short-corner routine ended with Marc Cucurella firing the ball across the box. Pedro Neto’s attempted flick towards goal had the Barcelona defenders tying themselves in knots before France international Kounde inadvertently knocked it into his own net.
The game took a decisive turn in the 44th minute when Araujo received a second yellow card for a poor challenge on Cucurella.
Much of the pre-match build-up centred on talk around the young starlets on both sides, but it was Chelsea’s Estevao who stole the show over Barcelona’s Spain winger Lamine Yamal.
A moment of magic by the Brazilian teen put the game beyond the Spanish champions as he received the ball on the right before beating two defenders and lashing it into the roof of Joan Garcia’s net five minutes before the hour.
“I don’t really have any words to sum up how I’m feeling right now,” Estevao told Amazon Prime. “It really was the perfect night.”
Substitute Delap then put the game to bed in the 73rd minute.
A second defeat has the Catalans down in 15th spot, but Barcelona coach Hansi Flick insisted he was “really positive” about their chances of automatic qualification to the last 16.
“We’ve got players coming back now and there are three games to play and nine points to win,” the German said.
Guardiola surprisingly rested the majority of his stars at the Etihad, with Erling Haaland, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Gianluigi Donnarumma all left out of the starting line-up as Man City went down 2-0 to Leverkusen.
A first loss of the campaign for Man City, coming hot on the heels of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Newcastle in the Premier League, leaves the 2023 winners on 10 points.
“I take full responsibility, still I think the players that started were exceptional players but we missed something needed at the highest level,” Guardiola said.
“I think playing every two or three days we need to make changes but seeing the result, maybe it’s too much.”
While defeat shall likely not prove fatal to their hopes of reaching the knockout stages, it was a chastening 100th European match in charge of City for Guardiola.
Slack defending allowed Alex Grimaldo the chance to put the away side in front in the 23rd minute, before Patrik Schick glanced in a second half-an-hour later. (JapanToday)
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