Lamine Yamal and Estevao are both 18, both possess a magical left foot and both are already at home on the Champions League stage. They have another thing in common: Yamal has spent most of his young life being compared to Lionel Messi, pre-ordained as Barcelona’s next legendary figure at only 14 years old; Estevao was dubbed “Messinho” when he first emerged at Brazilian club Palmeiras.
Both have understandably tried to shun the comparison, and yet there were undeniable flickers of a famous Messi goal here at Stamford Bridge. Estevao still had defenders to beat when he received the ball in the inside-right channel 30 yards from goal. What he did next will be remembered for a long time by those who witnessed it, drawing Pau Cubarsi towards him before shimmying around the defender’s legs, holding off Alejandro Balde and crashing a right-footed shot into the roof of the net.
Cubarsi didn’t fall to his backside like Jerome Boateng did in the face of Messi’s weaving run a decade ago. There was not the same subtly in the feint, nor the deft dinked finish. But on a night when the two best 18-year-olds in the world took up station on opposite sides of the same pitch, the only flecks of greatness came courtesy of Chelsea’s No 41.
It was the second goal in a 3-0 win which sent a clear message across Europe that Chelsea, the world champions, are contenders in the year’s Champions League – albeit against a 10-man Barca team in the second half. Chelsea are temporarily up to fourth in the standings, at least before Wednesday night’s games, and their target of finishing in the top eight of the league phase is eminently reachable. Barcelona started the night on the same points but their hopes of automatic progression to the knockout stages now look remote.
Mikel Arteta will no doubt have been watching with notepad in hand ahead of the London derby at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Chelsea are Arsenal’s closest rivals in the Premier League, and while it is hard to imagine the team who stuttered to such a flat defeat by Sunderland a few weeks ago putting up a title challenge, victory this weekend would move Enzo Maresca’s side to within four points of the league leaders.
Arteta will no doubt have taken copious notes on Estevao. The Brazilian was direct and threatening with the ball at his feet but his game was more polished than just dribbles to the byline. His decisions in full flow were almost always right, his weight of pass was usually judged to perfection, and he even used his slight frame to hold the ball with his back to goal and set up a couple of telling counter-attacks.
By contrast, Yamal showed some of his effortless running with the ball but found very little joy against Marc Cucurella, who was typically dogged in his task. One Cucurella tackle in the box brought roars and chest bumps among the Chelsea defenders. Yamal went missing long enough for his parents to start getting worried, and when he finally found some space around the box he made the wrong choice, dinking an ambitious pass to nobody in particular when the shot was on.
For all their similarities, there is one obvious difference between Estevao and Yamal. Barcelona and Spain have been flogging their prodigy for a couple of years now, and it has been virtually relentless. Yamal has struggled with a groin injury this season but has still been required to start 12 games, while Estevao has started his last three Champions League games – scoring in each – but has mainly featured from the bench in the league.
That is partly a result of Chelsea’s riches, with a squad that can produce two entirely different but equally talented XIs three days apart. It is also down to Barcelona’s horrendous spate of injuries this season which has seen Hansi Flick with few options to choose from each week. It might explain a slightly withdrawn Yamal, although he didn’t seem fatigued so much as uninterested by the end here, the spirit knocked out of him by Cucurella’s gnattish defending.
Barcelona did make it easy, and Maresca’s plan was clear from the second minute when Enzo Fernandez dropped back into his own half to receive a pass from his defenders. There he might normally take a touch and consider his surroundings, but instead he hit a first-time pass with pre-planned clarity over Flick’s kamikaze high line, a trench dug within an arm’s reach of the halfway line, and Chelsea repeated the trick over and over again.
Barcelona made a wonderful early chance when Ferran Torres slipped into the box and somehow contrived to bodge his shot wide of the far post with only Robert Sanchez to beat, but that was about the sum of their attacking threat. Chelsea continued their strategy of firing direct passes over the top and they created some clear sights of goal. Enzo twice had first-half goals denied, rightly, first by Wesley Fofana’s handball in the build-up and then by an offside, before Pedro Neto – playing as a No 9 – wasted a huge opportunity when Estevao slipped him through on goal and the Portuguese tumbled off balance before shooting over the bar.
But finally the breakthrough came when Barca slept on a short corner – they have previous for that particular crime in the Champions League. Cucurella’s low cross found Neto and a panicky Jules Kounde bundled the ball into his own net. Ronald Araujo was booked for dissent a few minutes later and was sent off moments before half-time for clattering into Cucurella, so clearly a second yellow that he was marching to the pavilion before Stamford Bridge had finished appealing.
Etsevao added Chelsea’s second midway through the second half as Chelsea dominated, before Liam Delap came off the bench to add the third.
Yamal’s night ended in the 79th minute, trudging off the field and shaking his head as he pulled on a jacket. Estevao’s ended two minutes later to a standing ovation. This was arguably Chelsea’s best performance since the Club World Cup final, on a night when they showed what might be possible this season. But it was also the night when Estevao conjured memories of Messi, and won the battle of the two best 18-year-olds in the world.
