Chelsea vs Barcelona: A Tactical Overview

Lionel Messi vs the Chelsea Defence

The Argentine came up short last time the two teams met.

It would be really surprising to know that Chelsea is one of those rare teams against whom Lionel Messi has never scored. This still does not stop him from being the main threat Barcelona pose. He has a really good record against English teams in the competition.

He has played 8 games against them, and has failed to score in any of them. He will be looking to alter this stat by scoring against a Chelsea defense which looks unstable.

Chelsea recently conceded 4 goals against Watford and 3 against Bournemouth. These string of results has done psychological damage to the Chelsea defence, even though they did keep two consecutive clean sheets after that.

Still, it will be a daunting task for Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger and Cahil to keep Leo Messi out of the game. David Luiz will miss the first leg due to injury while Marcos Alonso is expected to be back for the game. The defence is relatively young and lacks the experience needed for big games like these but, on their day, they can also keep out any team.

Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez have scored more than 55 goals combined this season.The Argentine Magician along with his partner has been in form this season, and will be looking to get past this Chelsea defense and seal the quarter final draw for Barcelona.