Uwakwe Benched As Barcelona Beat Unlucky Chelsea Yet Again To Win UYL

Chelsea's dreams of lifting the UEFA Youth League were dashed by Barcelona yet again, as the U19s came up short 3-0 in the showpiece at the Centre sportif de Colovray in Switzerland on Monday afternoon.

Trailing by two goals, the Young Blues were unlucky not to equalize as Hudson-Odoi and Brown saw their efforts hit the woodwork and bar in the second half

This is the second successive time in three meetings the London club would be falling to the Catalan outfit, though it would no longer be as a result of Messi's effervescence this time around as three well taken strikes from Alejandro Marqués (two) and Abel Ruiz put paid to the fortunes of Joe Edwards side.

Chelsea's first team had earlier met Barcelona in the senior tournament this season, and though they were able to avoid defeat in the first meeting at Stamford Bridge(1-1), they were powerless at Camp Nou by the same scoreline with which they lost today, with Nigeria's Victor Moses featuring over both legs of the tie.

Nigerian talented duo in the Chelsea youth ranks, Faustino Anjorin and Tariq Uwakwe, seem to be well behind in the pecking order in the selection for the UEFA competition, with both having made a combined four appearances.

While Uwakwe who was an unused substitute in the defeat to Barcelona has made three appearances which came in games versus Qarabag, Atletico Madrid and Roma respectively, logging 148 minutes in total, Anjorin has played only 10 minutes of UYL football for the club this season, coming on in the 4-2 win over Atletico Madrid in the first stages.

The defeat meant Chelsea failed to pick up their third UEFA Youth crown in four seasons, having won twice previously, in the 2014-2015 and the 2015-2016 campaigns.

Emmanuel Chinaza

Photo Credit : fcbarcelona.cat