Chelsea enjoyed a huge Champions League victory as they beat Barcelona 3-0 at Stamford Bridge. The match turned ugly for Barcelona after defender Ronald Araujo was sent off before half-time. Chelsea played with confidence, created many chances, and even had three goals ruled out before finally scoring their goals.

 

Chelsea thought they had scored early when Enzo Fernandez put the ball in the net after just four minutes, but it was cancelled because of a handball in the build-up. Minutes later, Barcelona could have taken the lead, but Ferran Torres curled his shot wide. Chelsea kept pushing, and Fernandez scored again, but this time it was disallowed because Trevoh Chalobah interfered from an offside position.

 

Chelsea finally broke the deadlock in the 27th minute. Pedro Neto missed a shot, but his involvement helped the team as Marc Cucurella crossed the ball, Neto flicked it on, and Jules Kounde knocked it into the net. It gave Chelsea a deserved 1-0 lead.

 

Barcelona’s problems got worse just before half-time when Araujo, who had already been booked for arguing with the referee, received a second yellow card for a late tackle on Cucurella and was sent off.

 

Chelsea kept scoring after the break, but their luck stayed strange at first. Andrey Santos thought he had made it 2-0, but his goal was ruled out for offside after the ball slowly rolled over the line.

 

Just four minutes later, Estevao made sure the second goal counted. He beat two Barcelona players on the right side of the box and smashed the ball into the roof of the net.

 

Chelsea stayed in control and added a third goal. Substitute Liam Delap ran onto a pass from Fernandez and finished calmly. The flag went up, but VAR showed he was onside, and the goal stood.

 

Barcelona were poor in attack and only managed five shots, with just two on target, even though they had scored in their previous 24 Champions League games. Chelsea stopped them completely.

 

Estevao was the standout player, scoring and creating three chances, more than anyone else on the pitch. At 18 years and 215 days, he also became only the third teenager to score in his first three Champions League starts, joining Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland.