What’s your thoughts and predictions in first leg ?
Will give mine later i have mixed feelings on this...

Barcelona advance 4-2 agg...?

Tough to predict but I think Barca takes it. Chelsea is in poor form and Valverde has improved Barcas defense. Hopefully we see good refereeing this tie.

Mixed feelings as well like @tiki

Honestly I think this game won't be great for neutral, Barca didn't do so well last few games but their defence is fantastic since Valverde is there, Chelsea isn't in great form either but it will be battle of Valverde-Conte rather than the players. Much more tactical game than PSG-Real. I will keep an eye on it but match against Besiktas is what I'm gonna watch.

Barca to go through IMO.

I think on paper we must go through, but then Chelsea will probably play the game of their lives with over motivated Pedro-Cesc. Last Barca games also are not impressive, they are effective but not impressive, i think if a team plays it Liverpool style in term of intensity we may suffer, if the game rhythm is slow then we have high chances to get a result in England.

1-2 for Barça hopefully, hope they do not deal with the game softly.

Tough one but it will be a fun one to watch even for neutral fans.
I would like to see lineups before I can judge but I think we are highly unlikely to loose at home ground. Draw is a high possibility imo. I won't be disappointed if we don't progress because we have been awful this season.

Willian looks on fire, Giroud should be a starter fits well in his lone striker role winning aerial duels, in case his team defend deep he can keep the ball and wait for help.
Barça learned to suffer this season without the ball, and hit hard on counters. Chelsea are more comfortable with the ball but they suffer defensively.

Barça will logically have this line up :

4-4-2

———-—- Ter Stegen
——Sergi——Pique——-Umtiti——Alba
——— Rakitic—Busquets—————-—
——Paulinho —————-Iniesta————
———-—Messi———————————
———————-Suarez——

Don’t think Dembele will start or even play. Only change possible may be Paco instead of Paulinho for 4-3-3 risky in England, or Semedo RB and Sergi in midlefield which is also unlikely imo.

i have always been confident when playing barca. even when we got them in the draw i was excited because lets be honest this is quite a rivalry. but now all i can think is its not even gonna be close.. barca are gonna walk through. all the performances we had against them before were all because of that spine of ours(lamps,terry,drogba,cech,cole) and right now that spine is not even close to what it used to be.

anyways theres a reason why we all love football, anything can happen :) COYB

Of course CL is not an exact science, not the most consistent teams go through, the most ready physically and mentally and you need luck factor. Good draws, and no refreing mistakes which are a lot of factors unrelated to strength.
What happened from August to February doesn’t matter much.
Strongest Barca ever lost it in 2010, and Chelsea won it the year they didn’t expected much from that season, and against in form Barça/Bayern... while they didn’t the years they were crowned champions of PL.
It may be an English year this season, Bayern are playable, Madrid and Juve have issues, PSG may be out early and something tells me that our undefeated streak may be our weakness.
I don’t fear City as much as Liverpool, I don’t know why but I see Liverpool going far in the compétition.
Fact that 2nd leg is in Spain is a Huge advantage, in case Barça have to return situation.

And yes, I was also excited with this draw, but I would preferred both teams to play each others on March or April. Both played many games in short period, Barca drew a lot of games lately due to the fact they played 12 games in six weeks, I guess Chelsea too...

On paper Barca would go through.

Chelsea is on a poor form, but so is Barca, despite those wins, if you watch closely, recent games of Barca have been pretty poor.

These 2 have history. It's gonna be tricky and fun!

The players that are gonna be the game deciders are Azpi and Ter stegn. Aside of Hazard and Messi, these two have been solid throughout the season, and Ter has saved Barca just as much as Messi saved them, Chelsea needs to be clinical if they want to win, Barca have been rock solid at the back.

Great game for neutrals tho :D

A lot depends on the ref it's the same payroll from 2011/12 Cakir from Turkey (not even suprised at this point) and we all know how that went down so even if Chelsea was winning 10v12 in the past this squad is far more fragile;

Suarez is on form and Morata not and that could decide the whole matchup while at the same time it will be interesting to see how Busquets adapts to the pace of the game, Barcelona plays very slow compared to Chelsea and their fitness is questionable.

Hazard will probably struggle but that said Messi historically has not managed to do half of the things at the Bridge compared to what he does in La liga, both will ask for the ball and for space.

If Chelsea doesn't get a good result at home the tie is over as Barcelona will play much better at their own home ground, Conte has said that Chelsea needs a perfect game which I agree with.

I got some conflicted feeling for that game, I love both Barca (propably one of my favorite spanish team) and Chelsea (thanks to Drogba in particular) so no matter which goes through, I'll be happy and sad at the same time. I think it could go any way to be fair and contrary to what some seem to say, there is no clear favorite in my mind. Barca have improved in some area but their recent form haven't been the best in the season, Chelsea's form is similar however, I think they haven't improved as much with their new recruit. It will be interesting game for the neutral for sure.

Messi will score in this tie, this game or the leg, mark my words

Amyway about the game, pretty mixed, will leave my predictions just before the game

@amir

You are intriguing everyone here

Do we play Giroud or half fitness Morata?

Messi has never scored against us, but that's all because of Cech. I don't mind who starts at striker (Giroud or Morata) as long as we play a 3-4-3 with Hazard and Willi/Peddy behind them. Hopefully, Rudi/Ampadu start ahead of Cahill because I'll honestly shit my pants if Messi runs at Cahill. As for Luiz, I'd rather not see him go up against Suarez.

I'm going one nil Chels.

@marcus mate even full fitness morata is bit meh.... lol always said we will regret letting costa go and yeap we are paying the price now..

@eden it wasnt only cos of cech. it was the combo of cech and chelsea and even messi let that get in his head while taking the penalty in 2012

Tactics will be simple. if I was Conte i would play Giroud upfront and let him push the defenders with his mass and height. Morata is weak! Morata should be introduced in second half to freshen up the attack and add pace against tired Barcelona defense.

We will be playing defensive there is no doubt about this and only hit them with counter attack. Our wings are going to be our strength.

@Marcus 100% Agreed with that, Giroud need to start and Morata as a supersub in last 20 min of game, thats when he does best. :D