The sense of occasion was undeniable, the build-up momentous, the pre-game pressure palpable. But Chelsea were not cowed by any of that, and got to work straight away after the referee signaled the start
of the game.
And we could’ve been up by multiple goals not long after, but Enzo Fernandez saw not one but two efforts ruled out; first for an unfortunate handball in the fourth minute and then an unfortunate whisper of a touch to put him offside in the twenty-second.
Barcelona, in the meantime, missed an absolute sitter, but in general, Chelsea were on top. And in the 27th minute we did finally make all our positive play count, and withstand a VAR review, even, as a goalmouth scramble following a short corner resulted in a Jules Kounde own goal to give us the lead.
And then the visitors shot themselves in the foot, as their captain, Ronaldo Araujo, scythed down Marc Cucurella to earn himself a second yellow and an early shower, just before half-time.
Chelsea came out with the right attitude from the break, and had the ball in the back of the net right away …before seeing that precise effort from Andrey Santos ruled out once again, this time for an offside. No matter, we quickly doubled our lead anyway, thanks to an enterprising, delightful, jaw-dropping, star-making individual effort by Estevao.
Barcelona should never be counted out, even down to ten, but thankfully Chelsea had no intentions to do so. Liam Delap opened his Chelsea account after being set up by Enzo (and after VAR overruled the linesman’s erroneous flag) to make it 3-0, and with 20 minutes still to go, we had multiple chances to make the scoreline even more impressive.
We didn’t; but it was impressive enough.
Carefree.
- “Big-game” lineup from Maresca, with a midfield trio of Reece, Moi, Enzo
- Reecey switched to full back at the half, with Gusto making way for Andrey Santos, fresh off his Man of the Match performance on the weekend
- Three games left in the league phase, Atalanta (A), Pafos (H), Napoli (A); still work to do to finish top-eight, but it’s well within our grasps
- Next up: Bring on the Arsenal!
- KTBFFH
