Chelsea travel to Barcelona on Wednesday knowing that they have to get a result away from home if they are to reach the quarter-finals of this season’s Champions League.
The Premier League champions were massive outsiders coming into the first leg, after a series of poor results domestically, but they put in one of their best performances of the season, only to draw after a defensive error allowed Lionel Messi to capitalise. The tie could have been very different, as Willian was denied by the post twice before finally scoring on his third shot to beat Marc-Andre Ter Stegen in the Barcelona goal.
Despite the late goal from Messi, Chelsea are very much still in with a chance of qualifying for the quarter finals. Their record against Barcelona features a lot of draws and a 2-2 final score on Wednesday would be enough to see them knock out one of the pre-season favourites for the competition.
Barcelona vs. Chelsea Predictions
Everything points to a Barcelona win, but there’s something about this fixture and Chelsea will undoubtedly cause the Catalan side some difficulty. A final score of 2-2 is by no means out of the question and the first leg showed that Barcelona had be weak defensively when players run at them.
Barcelona vs. Chelsea Betting Tips
- Barcelona to win: 20/51
- Draw: 15/4
- Chelsea to win: 29/4
- Final score 2-2: 15/1
- Olivier Giroud to score anytime: 33/10
Head to Head
- 68% of away sides to draw the first leg of a Champions League knockout tie 1-1 progress to the next round (23/34).
- This will be the 14th meeting between these sides in the Champions League. Only two fixtures have been played more often in the competition (Bayern vs. Real Madrid 18, Barcelona vs. AC Milan 15).
- Six of the 13 previous meetings have ended in draws (46%). Of all fixtures to have been played at least 10 times, only Chelsea vs. Liverpool has ended level more often (50%, 5/10).
- Chelsea are unbeaten in their last eight Champions League games against Barcelona (W2 D6), with their last four visits to Camp Nou ending level.
- Chelsea have been shown four red cards in Champions League games against Barcelona, accounting for 33% of their total red cards in the competition (4/12).
- Barcelona have only lost four of their 39 Champions League knockout games at home (W25 D10), with Liverpool the only English team to win there (2-1 in February 2007).
- Chelsea have already won at Atletico Madrid this season. They could become only the third team to win away at two Spanish clubs in the same Champions League campaign after AC Milan (vs. Barcelona and Deportivo in 2000/01) and Roma (vs. Real Madrid and Valencia in 2002/03).
- Barcelona have won 23 Champions League games against English clubs, more than any other side in the competition.
- Six of Willian’s nine Champions League goals for Chelsea have been from outside the box. Since he joined the Blues in 2013, he’s scored more from distance than any other player in the competition.
- Lionel Messi scored his first ever Champions League goal against Chelsea at the ninth time of asking in the first leg. He’s scored more goals against English clubs than any other player in the competition (18).
- Luis Suarez has failed to score in the last 881 minutes of play in the Champions League, his longest drought in the competition. His last goal came back in March 2017 against PSG.
- Eden Hazard has set up his teammates for a shot on 23 occasions in the Champions League this season, the joint-most alongside Neymar.
Barcelona Team News
Andres Iniesta is in a face to be fit for Wednesday’s game and could miss out. His absence is compounded by fellow midfielder Denis Suarez also missing out after suffering a groin injury against Espanyol last week. This means that Andre Gomes will partner Paulinho, Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic in the midfield.
Chelsea Team News
David Luiz is very likely to miss out with a knee injury, while Tiemoue Bakayoko could also be left out of the side, despite returning from suspension as a late substitute against Crystal Palace at the weekend. Ross Barkley has played just three times since joining from Everton and also looks unlikely to feature at the Camp Nou.