Zimpapers Logo

LONDON. — Barcelona’s Lionel Messi had to wait 12 years and endure a goal drought of eight games against Chelsea but he finally broke his duck in Tuesday night’s 1-1 Champions League soccer last 16, first leg draw.

The last time Barca played Chelsea, in a semi-final in 2012, Messi whacked a penalty against the bar which allowed the London side to claw their way back to an unlikely win at the Camp Nou.

The diminutive Argentine atoned on Tuesday, giving Barcelona a precious away goal as he strode on to a pass from Andres Iniesta in the 75th minute and calmly side-footed the ball home to cancel out Willian’s opener for Chelsea 13 minutes earlier.

“For us he is the best player in the world. He’s not just any player,” Barca midfielder Ivan Rakitic said of Messi, who has now scored 98 Champions League goals compared to his Real Madrid rival Ronaldo’s 116 in the competition.

“We have a lot of faith in him. We know that what we need to do is free him up as much as possible. And it’s not easy for him, he gets so little space, it’s hard for him.”

Tuesday night’s Champions League encounter was the ninth time that Messi had faced Chelsea, a run of games stretching back to 2006 when the sides met in the competition’s group stages.

That kicked off a series of often epic encounters between the teams in the following six years. Yet even during the 2011/12 season, when Messi scored 73 goals for Barcelona, he failed to find the net in the two games he played against the Londoners.

Despite his record against Chelsea, and the approach of his 31st birthday in June, he looked like Barcelona’s most likely route to goal on Tuesday, finding space in Chelsea’s otherwise disciplined defence and linking up dangerously with Iniesta on several occasions before the pair worked the equaliser.

“We see that so often from him, either with his scoring or his passing for goals,” Barca defender Samuel Umtiti told reporters. “In the big matches he makes his mark.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea manager Antonio Conte believes the English champions can do “something incredible” by knocking Barcelona out of the Champions League at the Camp Nou on March 14, despite blowing a lead to draw the first leg of their last-16 tie 1-1.

Willian gave reason to a bold team selection from Conte on Tuesday by putting the English champions ahead just after the hour mark, having also hit the woodwork twice before half-time.

However, Barca pounced on a very rare Chelsea mistake on the night as Iniesta intercepted a slack pass by Andreas Christensen and squared for Messi to slot home his first goal in nine appearances against Chelsea.

“We must be realistic. We are talking about Barcelona. They show tonight to be a strong, fantastic team,” said Conte.

“We have showed that if we are ready to work very hard together defensively, but continue to have the right feeling when you win the ball when you have the chance to score, we can try to do something incredible at the Nou Camp.”

Conte named a front three without a recognised centre-forward with Willian and Pedro Rodriguez either side of Eden Hazard, while the 21-year-old Christensen started in place of club captain Gary Cahill. And Conte refused to pin the blame on the inexperienced Dane for conceding.

“I think it was a great performance, an incredible performance. We’re talking about a player he’s only 21. It’s great that he can play this game with this maturity. I am very happy. For me he was one of the best players tonight,” added Conte.

Barcelona enjoyed nearly 70 percent of the possession, but lacked the penetration to open up Chelsea’s well-organised defence.

“At times it seemed like a handball match, because they sat back and waited. It is difficult when they have eight players behind the ball,” said Barca midfielder Rakitic.

However, Conte defended his tactics, saying it would be “crazy” to approach facing Barcelona any other way.

“When you play against Barcelona you know very well that if you want to face them box-to-box then you are crazy and you go to lose the game, not 1-0, (but) 4, 5, 6-0,” said Conte.

“You must play with intelligence, especially if you know that (Barca) level is up on us. You must play an intelligent game, we are not stupid.” Chelsea’s former Barca midfielder Cesc Fabregas, though, stressed the importance of going to Catalonia in three weeks’ time with attacking intent rather than just trying to keep Barcelona at bay for as long as possible.

“We have to go there to attack and score because 90 minutes defending at the Nou Camp is an eternity,” said Fabregas, who played for Barca between 2011 and 2014. “It is a suicide mission.”

Messi’s goal was the first a Barcelona player has scored in an away Champions League match for six games. And whilst Barca boss Ernesto Valverde welcomed the slight advantage gained from a sub-standard performance, he warned Chelsea possess the threat on the counter-attack to still land a knockout blow.

“It is very important to have scored here and logically both teams will respect their own style in the second leg. They have the attacking resources to cause us problems. It is important to have the advantage, but it is far from decided.” — Reuters