Barcelona player ratings as Lionel Messi plays hero and Paulinho has Champions League night to forget

Chris Bailey 01:56 21/02/2018
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  • Barcelona were having a torrid time at Stamford Bridge before Lionel Messi did what he does best and rescued his side from defeat against Chelsea.

    Messi and Co will take a precious away goal back to the Nou Camp after capitalising on Andreas Christensen’s blunder at the back, despite the best efforts of an inspired Willian.

    Below, we’ve taken a closer look at who shone and who suffered in the 1-1 draw in the first leg of this round-of-16 Champions League clash.

    STARTING XI (4-4-2)

    Marc-Andre Ter Stegen – Virtual passenger. Willian could have had a hat-trick and the German would have been blameless. 6

    Sergi Roberto – Found Chelsea’s pace hard to deal with and offered very little as an attacking outlet, too. 5

    Gerard Pique – Made a Barcelona-best five clearances at the back and offered calm in face of Chelsea’s nippy attackers. 7

    Samuel Umtiti – Most combative Barcelona player but rash in the challenge against the trickery of Hazard and Willian. 6

    Jordi Alba – Found little joy down the left against a robust Moses, couldn’t exploit a very compact Chelsea. 5

    Paulinho –  Hauled off at the hour-mark for good reason. Never on same wavelength as team-mates and slow on the break.  5

    Ivan Rakitic – Easily bullied off the ball and gave away a dangerous free-kick in the first half. No penetration. 5

    Sergio Busquets – Civilisations could rise and fall in the amount of time Busquets makes it looks like he has on the ball.  7

    Andres Iniesta – Nothing was truly coming off for him until he was presented with Christensen’s gift. How he made it count. 7

    Luis Suarez – Anonymous in first half but only player to truly test Chelsea after the break with several twisting dribbles. 6

    Lionel Messi – Nine games later, Messi has finally scored against Chelsea. Livelier in the first half before his lethal finish. 7

    SUBSTITUTES

    Aleix Vidal – Ernesto Valverde went for the conservative option – ahead of Ousmane Dembele – and was solid enough in place of Paulinho. 6

    Andre Gomes – The game was up when he entered the fray in injury-time after Iniesta enjoyed a rare full shift. N/A

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