Chelsea and Barcelona played out a thrilling 1-1 draw in their first leg tie of the UEFA Champions League knockout stages at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday evening.

Victor Moses started for the hosts and was solid defensively as Chelsea hugely stemmed the flow of their visitors fluidity.

Chelsea struck the woodwork twice in the first period through Willian who first cut onto his right foot and unleashed a curling strike that smashed the post, with Andre Ter Steven rooted to the spot.

Despite Barcelona bossing possession and trying to break down their defensively compact opponents, it was the Brazilian that went close again four minutes to the break, hitting the post yet again as the Barcelona goaltender was left scrambling.

Croatia international midfielder Rakitic was lucky that he was still on the pitch at half-time, he received a yellow card for a tactical foul in the 28th minute and a rough foul he committed on N'Golo Kante seven minutes later was not punished.

Willian was third time lucky two minutes after the hour mark after he recieved a threaded pass from Eden Hazard on the edge of the box to send a thumping strike in.

But the Catalan side soon capitalised on a rare piece of poor defending from Chelsea to equalise, Lionel Messi finding the bottom corner to score his first goal in nine attempts against the Blues thus, finely setting up the return fixture.

Victor Moses put in a good shift for Chelsea for the entirety of the clash.

Emmanuel Chinaza

Photo Credit : chelseafc.com