Chelsea can dump Barcelona out of Champions League if we keep our cool, says Willian

Simon Johnson14 March 2018

Willian has told his Chelsea team-mates they must maintain their cool if they are to knock Barcelona out of the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Antonio Conte’s side are already facing a tough task as they drew the first leg of their last 16 tie 1-1 at Stamford Bridge.

This will be the 14th time that the two sides have played each other in the Champions League and Barcelona have yet to beat Chelsea when they’ve kept all 11 men on the pitch.

And Willian has warned the Chelsea players they must not make their challenge more difficult by falling foul of referee Damir Skomina.

He told Standard Sport: “It is important in these kind of games not to lose any players, we have to keep our discipline.

“The past shows that Chelsea have never lost against Barcelona with 11 men. It is vital we keep all 11 on the pitch until the end of the game.

“We must still play with the same level of intensity as the first leg, no doubt. We have to do a similar game as we did in the first match. We made it difficult for them.

“I believe we can do the same job against them on their own ground as we did at Stamford Bridge. We will go for it.

“I want to go through to the next round and I aim to provide the best of my football to try to help my team-mates. I think we can cause a surprise to everyone.”

Chelsea have found good results hard to come by since the turn of the year with the victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday just their fifth in 16 games.

Conte’s men could still go through without a victory in the Nou Camp, either by winning on penalties following another 1-1 draw or on away goals if they’re tied 2-2, 3-3 and so on.

Significantly, Willian suggests Chelsea travelled to Spain in much better spirits after returning to winning ways against Crystal Palace.

Winning ways: Willian scored the opener as Chelsea beat Palace 2-1
Getty Images

He added: “To beat Crystal Palace before we played Barcelona was really important for us and our confidence.

“There are a lot of things we want to achieve this season and we can’t go up and down in our performances. We have set a standard and have to stay there from now until the end.

“There are eight games to play in the Premier League as well as matches in both the Champions League and FA Cup competitions, so we have to remain at our best.”

Willian is in his fifth season at Chelsea, but the closest he has come to winning the Champions League was in his first year when Atletico Madrid beat them in the semi-final.

In Pictures | Chelsea vs Crystal Palace | 10/03/2018

1/23

The 29-year-old is desperate to go all the way this time and said: “I played against Atletico Madrid in 2014 and it is a motivation for me to get through again.

“When I joined Chelsea, it was in my mind to win trophies and the Champions League was one of my ambitions because they are such a big club.

 Heartbreak: Diego Costa helps knock Chelsea out of the Champions League semis in 2014
AFP/Getty Images

“We want to win things every year because that is the profile of the club, they always want to win here, there is always a winning mentality.

“I have won two Premier League trophies and the League Cup and of course I want more. So let’s try to do something special in Europe this season.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in