Barcelona vs Chelsea player ratings: Lionel Messi leads the way but Willian puts up a fight for the visitors

A player-by-player look at the two teams

Liam Corless
Wednesday 14 March 2018 22:50 GMT
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Lionel Messi punished error-prone Chelsea as Barcelona advanced to the Champions League quarter-finals with a 3-0 win at the Nou Camp.

After eight appearances without a goal against Chelsea, Messi settled this tie by scoring the equaliser in last month's first leg and two goals here, either side of Ousmane Dembele's first Barca goal, for a 4-1 aggregate success.

Chelsea will feel aggrieved not to have been awarded a penalty for a Gerard Pique foul on Marcos Alonso when 2-0 down. Alonso also hit the outside of a post with a free-kick and an Antonio Rudiger header hit the bar late on.

But in truth the Blues' hopes were ended when Messi struck after 126 seconds, netting through the legs of the hapless Thibaut Courtois as mistakes proved costly.

Messi's second of the night and 100th Champions League goal was also struck through Courtois' legs, after he had tackled Cesc Fabregas in teeing-up Dembele's sumptuous strike.

With Chelsea adrift of the Champions League qualification places in the Premier League, defeat to Leicester in Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final and then to Tottenham on April 1 could result in a premature departure for head coach Antonio Conte.

Conte's best Champions League performance as a boss remains the quarter-finals with Juventus in 2013, while Barca have now reached the last eight for a record-extending 11th year.

So how did the two teams fare? See the gallery above for our player ratings.

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