MESSI STINGS THE BLUES Willian was sensational but Barca legend finally broke his duck as defensive error costs Chelsea dear
FOR a while, Willian cut an unlikely bloodied hero, dashing to the touchline for treatment on a facial wound.
The bloody nose, though, eventually belonged to Chelsea, self-inflicted and giving them a brutally tough task in Barcelona.
This should have been about Willian’s brilliance.
His second-half hit nudged Antonio Conte close towards a first-leg lead.
But a moment of selfimplosion, allied with Lionel Messi’s predictably supreme composure 15 minutes from time, means the odds are in Barca’s favour ahead of the return at the Nou Camp in three weeks’ time.
Messi’s finish was unsurprisingly clinical and Iniesta’s assist unsurprisingly slick, but the initial error belonged to Andreas Christensen.
It was one defensive lapse of a disciplined Chelsea performance and it cost them dear.
Just how dear, considering their excellent recent record against Barcelona, remains to be seen.
But they will need to be firing on all cylinders against the La Liga leaders in Spain.
No one more so than Eden Hazard. Jose Mourinho, Conte, his national manager Roberto Martinez, we have heard it from them all – Hazard is knocking on the door of the club owned by Messi and fellow global superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
Or as his former boss Jose put it, Hazard is dining at the next table.
Yet one of the issues with Hazard is that too often, it has been feast or famine and it is consistent brilliance that gives you the gold card to Messi and Ronaldo’s club.
Turning up in big games helps as well and at least Hazard made a prominent appearance here.
There were few false steps from the false No.9, but without a central foil, it was a fairly thankless task.
His early inquiry from distance was not far off the mark and one dash and drag-back caused a little discomfort, but he cut an isolated figure on too many occasions.
For that, you could shift your gaze towards his manager Conte on the touchline.
But the unavoidable truth is that Chelsea simply could not prise possession from more accomplished opponents.
Messi has it on some sort of retractable lead, going long or short, aerial or ground-hugging, he always looks in control.
The peachy cross which should have been converted by Paulinho’s head was not hit, it was persuaded.
For all their territorial domination, that was the only clear chance Barcelona created in a first half that saw two sweetly-struck Willian efforts rebound back out from an upright apiece.
On both occasions, MarcAndre ter Stegen was statically
powerless. The first smashed the right post, and then left 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 Croatia’s Ivan Rakitic.
That is why it was no surprise when he skilfully powered Chelsea ahead.
Despite the clanging warnings of the first half, Willian was allowed to linger unaccompanied just outside the penalty area for a corner.
When it reached the Brazilian, 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 his own colleague Antonio Rudiger.
It will go down as a finish in keeping with Willian’s status as a Chelsea performer – underrated.
And it would have been of greater significance had young Dane Christensen not inexplicably sent a defensive cross field pass into the path of the wily Iniesta.
The Spain veteran eluded a desperate Cesar Azpilicueta and not only teed up Messi’s duck-breaking strike, but teed up a what should be an epic second leg in Barcelona.