Uefa Champions League

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PREVIEW BARCELONA VERSUS CHELSEA
Who gets through to the quarter finals?
Chelsea has an unenviable task of knocking out FC Barcelona from UEFA champions’ league this night at Camp Nou 8.45 Nigerian time. 6 teams have already qualified, 2 more to join this night to complete 8 teams, but the big question is can Chelsea get the work done? Having watched Manchester united get dumped out of the champions’ league by a Spanish mid table club last night, one would be forgiven for wondering how Chelsea will cope with Spanish giant Barcelona in a cold European night in a famous ground. The problem Chelsea have here is that, Barca have a valuable away goal, so if the match ends in a goalless draw, Barca qualifies on away goal rule, so Chelsea needs to score and hope Barca don’t score themselves though that’s a pipe dream.
As a matter of fact, you need to go back to 2007, the last time an English side won at Barceona. It was Liverpool who did that and that’s more than 10 years ago, then Obama wasn’t even elected into office. But Chelsea just won at Madrid not long ago when Bashuayi late stunner gave Chelsea a thumping win over Athletico Madrid during the CL group stage in a match nobody gave them a chance. Indeed not too long ago in 2012 Chelsea knocked out Barca from cl and went on to win their first ever cl trophy in Munich. However, so much have changed since then, this current Chelsea team doesn’t have the swagger and team spirit of that generation. They are currently having managerial crisis and sit 5th in the premier league table.
That being said, we know what to expect this night, Barca will get the lion share of ball possession this night. They will inevitably win the midfield battle don’t be surprised if Chelsea hardly touch the ball, then expect Chelsea to hit them on the counter, though it may not be effective. It’s definitely going to be attack versus defence that’s for sure. Expect Messi to mesmerise again. Chelsea really need to stop Messi but again, the question is who can stop him, he has proven time without number that he’s unstoppable. Make no mistakes this match promises to be a swashbuckling encounter, if any team have the history of getting a result against Barcelona, its Chelsea. Let’s see how this one goes!
Injuries and doubts: no fresh injuries concern for both sides.
Star man.: this’s no brainer Lionel Messi is the star man. The 5 times world best player will decide this tie on his own, previously he had never scored against Chelsea in his career but he made a mockery of that statistics a forth night ago at Stamford Bridge. He makes the difference for his team, without Messi, who will ever fear Barca?
As for , Chelsea I will go with Hazard, the mercurial Belgian has proven he’s a world class talent, probably the only world class player in the whole of Chelsea team, no wonder Real Madrid is dying for him.
Predicted Scores: Even the most diehard Chelsea fan knows the task that lies ahead of them this night. Barca is by far the favourite to go through this night, but draw is the safest bet. I got my last prediction horribly wrong so I am going to be coy on this one. I expect Barca to qualify nonetheless. (Think you can predict better than Mossy? Send in your predictions.