- As blunt Barcelona draw Napoli 1-1 in Italy
On a night that Chelsea fans tried to unfurl a banner commemorating their historic 2012 Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich, it all turned sour grapes for the Blues as they were taught very harsh football lessons by the visitors.
Hoping to celebrate their 2012 victory over the Bavarians in still style, the past indeed counted for nothing as the Blues suffered a humbling 3-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge.
As a video montage of that famous penalty shoout win at the Allianz Arena played on the big screens, the cloth got stuck and ruined the big reveal. It was an ominous sign of things to come on a calamitous night for the hosts.
Everything may have gone right for Chelsea in Bavaria, but nothing went right in west London on Tuesday night.
Though Chelsea remain as ambitious as they were eight years ago, times have changed and they are in a transition season under new manager, Frank Lampard.
It was the former midfielder turned Manager, who lifted the trophy in Bavaria, but he could not have experienced more contrasting emotions here, as he watched his wards given a footballing lesson by a rampant Bayern side.
Indeed, Chelsea look to be already out of the Champions League after suffering a brutal beat-down, losing 3-0 in a depressingly one-sided first leg.
The Blues fought gamely, somehow managing to reach half-time still on level terms. However, Bayern blew them away with two quick-fire goals shortly after the interval.
Cesar Azpilicueta slipped trying to press, Andreas Christensen attempted to cover but, in doing so, broke the defensive line, which allowed Robert Lewandowski to cut the ball back cleverly for Serge Gnabry to open the scoring.
The pair linked up again just three minutes later, with Lewandowski easily winning a duel with Azpilicueta before slipping in Gnabry, who raced away from Christensen before doubling the visitors’ advantage with a cool finish.
Lewandowski got the goal his performance deserved in the 76th minute, after a brilliant break down the left flank from Alphonso Davies.
In Italy, Antoine Griezmann’s good goal can not gloss over how bad Barcelona were against Napoli on Tuesday night.
The Blaugrana may have dominated possession, but they managed just one shot on target at the San Paolo and were ultimately lucky to claim a 1-1 draw
Griezmann did not see much of the ball against Napoli and indeed, the Barcelona forward touched it just six times in the first half.
However, he applied the finishing touch to the one moment of quality the visitors produced at the San Paolo to earn his side a 1-1 draw that makes them favourites to progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Still, a good goal can not gloss over a bad performance. In truth, after falling behind to Dries Mertens’ fine first-half finish, the Catalans never looked like levelling matters against the sixth-best side in Serie A until Sergio Busquets opened up Napoli’s defence for the first time.
On an inspiring run down the flank, Busquets played in Nelson Semedo, who crossed for Griezmann to score from what was Barca’s only effective shot on target all night.
It was an utterly uninspired performance from the Spanish titleholders, whose dream of lifting the Champions League for the first time since 2015 still looks a long shot. – Reports from Goal.com
