In the central match of the fifth round of the Champions League group stage, held in London, Chelsea convincingly defeated Barcelona with a score of 3-0. The Londoners established high pressure from the very first minutes, depriving the Catalan club’s players of initiative, time to make decisions, and space. Marc Cucurella was personally tasked with marking Barcelona’s leader, Lamine Yamal. This individual confrontation, which pitted two Spain national team teammates against each other, was entirely dominated by the Englishman. Chelsea controlled the ball more and threatened the opponent’s goal more often, however, the first goal into the visitors’ net came not without a contribution from Barcelona themselves. After a cross from Cucurella, the ball deflected off Jules Koundé, who then unintentionally misdirected it into his own net. Towards the end of the first half, Barcelona was down to ten men. The referee showed Ronald Araújo a second yellow card for a foul on Cucurella. In the second half, Barcelona looked extremely lackluster. The team led by Hans-Dieter Flick managed to create only one truly dangerous chance against Chelsea’s goal, and this happened when the score was already 3-0. Prior to that, Estêvão and Liam Delap both scored braces, upsetting the visitors twice. After this fiasco, Barcelona, with seven points, is in 15th position, while Chelsea, with ten points, climbed to tenth place in the overall standings. However, the other English clubs lost their respective matches. Manchester City suffered a sensational defeat at home against Bayer Leverkusen with a score of 0-2, and Newcastle, playing in France, lost to Marseille – 1-2. Borussia Dortmund heavily defeated Villarreal at home – 4-0. Ajax remains the only team that has failed to earn a single point. This time, the Dutch club lost at home to Benfica – 0-2. Norway’s Bodø/Glimt succumbed to Juventus in a tight battle – 2-3, Istanbul’s Galatasaray could not break down Union’s resistance at their home stadium – 0-1, Napoli secured a home victory over Qarabağ – 2-0, and the match between Slavia and Athletic ended goalless.
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