Barcelona Look to Take Advantage of Chelsea Plight

Real Madrid did their bit for Spanish football breezing past a despondent looking PSG and now it is the turn of Barcelona to continue flying La Liga’s flag on the grandest of European Stages.

Chelsea are the visitors to the Camp Nou with the last sixteen match-up finely poised after a tight 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.

After hammering Girona 6-1 immediately after that strong score-draw against Chelsea in the first leg, Barce have also managed to pick up a point away at Las Palmas but more impressively, three points over rivals Atletico Madrid

However, since that night in West London, the form of the English side has seen them struggling even to compete to qualify for next seasons tournament after back to back defeats to the two Manchester clubs has left the blues five points off Tottenham in fourth.

This is giving Barcelona head coach more impetus ahead of the Champions League tie as their betting odds for progression to the quarter finals with 888Sport are suddenly looking much healthier.

Rumours are rife that Chelsea boss Antonio Conte could be the man to replace Unai Emery at the defeated Paris St Germain or possibly return to Italy as national team boss.

Whether these links are causing Chelsea’s dip in form is a distinct possibility, but the Blues issues have been going on much longer than since Barcelona’s visit to London.

Conte’s displeasure at a perceived lack of support in the transfer market has led the 48-year-old to often play no recognised striker up front, a ploy that will play perfectly into the hands of Ernesto Valverde’s Barcelona.

After Ronaldo fired Real to glory over French opposition, so it is likely that Lionel Messi will do so against English opponents with Conte seemingly on a mission to self-destruct his Chelsea side almost to prove a point.

However, Valverde will still be conscious of Chelsea’s bite and record over his star-studded Barcelona side.

The last time the two played a two-legged affair was in 2012 when Chelsea came away from the Camp Nou with a second leg 2-2 draw.

This proved enough to give the Premier League side a 3-2 aggregate win after Didier Drogba struck the only goal of the game at Stamford Bridge.

That second leg result in Barcelona was all the more impressive for Chelsea considering the Londoners were down to ten men for much of the game after defender John Terry was sent off in the 37^th minute.

The reading of the history books gets a little worse for Barcelona as you have to go back to 2006 for the last time the Blaugrana won a game in 90 minutes over their last sixteen rivals.

However, much has happened in the preceding 12 years with the last few months alone telling us everything we need to know about these two sides.

Chelsea are currently in freefall and now is the time for a Barcelona masterclass and quieten the boys in blue and push Antonio Conte even further out of the Chelsea door.

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