Today when my beloved team, Chelsea, was facing the indomitable Barcelona in the UEAFA Championship games for the week, I was at work and was dying to go home and by the time I left work it was half time. Chealsea was up on Barcelona 1 – 0.
I knew by the time I get home the second half would be over. I come home and open the door politely and the big guy who happens to be my son is shouting Three and Zero. I figured since Chelsea was already one goal up, they must be the ones who won the game.
From everything I found out once at home, young Estevao Willian stole the show as Chelsea thrashed Barcelona 3-0 at Stamford Bridge.
His stunning strike helped secure all three points for Enzo Maresca’s side, who also had three early efforts ruled out.
Chelsea had taken the lead through a Jules Kounde own goal before Ronald Araujo was sent off for a second yellow before half time.
Estevao then doubled the home side’s lead after the restart with a sublime solo goal.
The Brazilian drove into the Barca penalty area before firing a right-footed strike into the roof of the net.
Estevao proved to be the star of the show in west London thanks to his heroics.
His strike makes him just the third teenager to score in each of his first three starts in the Champions League.
Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland have both previously achieved the feat, although the latter was older than Chelsea’s latest phenom.
The 18-year-old received a standing ovation as he was replaced by Tyrique George with seven minutes remaining.
The other superstar in that game was Lamine Yamal who had a difficult time in the tight game but his reputation as one of the best young football players is known by every football fan in the world so he heard Chelsea fans yelling at him but that is football.
Yamal struggled throughout the evening on what was his first career appearance against a Premier League side.
He was ultimately taken off by Hansi Flick in the 80th minute, with Dani Olmo replacing him.
Estevao’s ‘best moment’
It is nice to see Reese James the Chelsea captain having a great time with the young squad and they know the whole world is in front of them and James himself already has two of the biggest football trophies, UEFA champions in 2021 under coach Thomas Tuchel where he was a big part as a right back and they beat Manchester City in the finals when nobody expected them to achieve that.
Reese James also helped Chelsea to win the World Cup Trophy this year held in the US where all those young players standing in front of him played big roles. And don’t forget that Enzo Fernandez was a key part of the Argentina team who are the current holders of the World Cup trophy.
This team looks good for now and tomorrow. That is a good plan for the management. It looks good for those young players in the team going forward. Their captain is only 25 years old and they are ready to go to the next level.
As for Estevao, the new arrival continues to impress since completing his move from Palmeiras.
Estevao has now scored in each of his first three Champions League starts.
Having been made to wait until the summer to join Chelsea, he has now scored five goals in 17 appearances across all competitions.
Reflecting on his goal, the forward told Amazon Prime: “It all happened very quickly for me, it sort of happened before I knew it.
“I just found some space, wiggled my way through and then scored that goal. It was such a special moment for me in my career. I hope to score many more.
“It was definitely the best moment of my career so far. I want to score many more for many years. I’m so grateful that my family were here watching me.”
Estevao’s goal inspired Chelsea to a win which has seen them climb up the league phase standings.
The Blues now sit fifth ahead of Wednesday’s action, with the top eight sides after the final matchday advancing directly to the last 16.
Chelsea are up to fifth in the Champions League table after seeing off Barca.
There are many interesting things for me in this particular game. Chealse rarely plays Barcelona and when they do it has been dramatic like what happened in 2012 in Barcelona when Chelsea was facing Barca at the semi-finals of UEFA. At home Chelsea won their game 1-0 which meant it was a very tight lead when Chelsea took the game to Barca at home.
Ten-man Chelsea hold off Barça to reach final
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
This was a crazy game by every measure and the players delivered from both sides.
Second leg in Barcelona was bound to be the decider of which team makes it to the final game in the UEFA championship that year. With a few minutes left in the game, Barcelona was 2-0 and Chelsea had to score goals to tie the game and qualify for the UEFA finals.
That is exactly what they did with the crazy goal coming from the one striker, Fernando Torres who had faced so many hustles because nobody trusted him and there he was in the very last minute of the game scoring a goal to bring Chelsea to 2-2 tie at the end of the game and take the team to the UEFA Champions finals.
Incidentally, the championship game that year was played in Germany where the other giant of European football, Bayern Munich had made it to the finals.
This meant Chealsea was going to fight for the UEFA championship trophy against Bayern at their home and it looked good for Bayern. Plus, John Terry, the best Chelse defender got a red card in the game against Barcelona in the and he was barred from playing in the finals.
It was one heck of a football game and Chelsea won their first UEFA Championship Trophy thanks to the likes of Didier Drogba and Petr Cech their magnificent goal-keeper. But that is another story for another day.
The one thing I will never forget about that game is that my son who is now a big guy was a young kid then, but he knew more about football than me and when we were watching games he often asked me to keep quiet but he really liked Fernando Torres, the Chelsea player who was being hammered by fans but who took the team to their first UEFA Championship game which they won.
