Image credit
The much anticipated game is here.
It's Chelsea vs Barcelona , the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 tie. CHELSEA take on Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday night in what promises to be a mouth-watering Last 16 tie. The last time Barça and Chelsea faced each other came in the 2011/12 semifinals, with The Blues winning, 1–0, at Stamford Bridge in the first leg before a 2–2 second-leg draw at Camp Nou, thus sending Chelsea through to the Final, 3–2 on aggregate . Two current Chelsea players, Cesc Fàbregas and Pedro Rodríguez , featured for Barça in the 2011/12 semifinals.
Stamford Bridge
Image credit
When is it?
Tuesday February 20 - ie tonight.
What time is kick-off?
It's a 19:45 GMT start at Stamford Bridge. It promises to be a very diasy game. The last time these two teams it was a 2-2 draw at Camp nou.
Stamford Bridge full to capacity during a match.
Image credit
What is the team news?
Chelsea
David Luiz and Tiemoue Bakayoko missed the final Chelsea training session and look likely to miss out, but Marcos Alonso and Ross Barkley did feature. Is likely David Luiz and Tiemoue Bakoyoko might miss the game against Barça due to injury.
Barcelona
Philippe Coutinho cannot feature because of his involvement with Liverpool earlier in the competiton. Nelson Semedo is serving a one-match ban, but Thomas Vermaelen is fit again.
Image credit
What are they saying?
Antonio Conte:
"On one hand you know this team is one of the best in the world – maybe they are favourites to win this competition," he said.
"On the other hand we must be excited because we have a great opportunity to play a massive game against a really strong team and to show which is our level.
"... We have to try to have the perfect game, the perfect game to try to make the best decisions. For this type of team... they have fantastic characteristics with the ball. But they can have weaknesses without the ball and we have to try and exploit this."
Ernesto Valverde:
"It is clear that the English teams this year are in incredible form, much better than previous years, and Chelsea might be the same.
"Because the English have such a strong league they will all be up there competing. We saw the results last week, huge wins, City are playing incredible this year.
"We obviously wish Chelsea were first in their group so we didn't have to play them."
What's your prediction?
Chelsea will do try to stop Barcelona scoring an away goal, while defeat would be immensely difficult to overcome in the second leg.
It’s a matchup that appears only once in a blue moon — pun intended — as FC Barcelona faces Chelsea FC , aka The Blues, in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 on Tuesday night at Stamford Bridge. Kickoff is at 8.45pm.
The second leg at the Nou Camp takes place on Wednesday 14 March.
As always, the Chelsea–Barça match will be broadcast live around the world. Chelsea vrs Barça is one of the most watch match in the world. I know you won't want to miss such a giant match on the globe. Stay glued to your set for 90 minutes full of entertainment... I know you won't miss this game for anything else. You can drop your predictions about the match in the comment section.
Memories from 2011/12 semifinals
Fernando Torres scored the last goal during 2-2 draw in Camp Nou
Image credit
Image credit
Image credit
Nice
This is going to be an interesting game tonight. Looking forward to the game. Just can't wait to see Olivier Giroud performance in this game.
I hope he starts the game tonight.
Giroud couldn't feature.
I guess they are resting him for the big game on Sunday. Nice game though. Messi scoring for the first time against Chelsea
Yeah, it was a very entertaining game. Chelsea did well they should have won the game. Let's see what's happens in Camp nou.
I can see you love sport :) Football especially :)
you should check this upcoming contest:
https://steemit.com/football/@gym-info/world-cup-2018-russia-football-contest
Lets see what they can do this coming sunday
They can do a lot.