Thursday 15 March 2018 07:39, UK
Chelsea were unfortunate to go down 3-0 to Barcelona in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie at the Nou Camp on Wednesday, according to the club's former midfielder Steve Sidwell.
Antonio Conte's side exited Europe's premier club competition 4-1 on aggregate, although Sidwell says that scoreline was not a true reflection of how well the Premier League champions played over the two legs.
"They went a goal down early and they could easily have crumbled," the Brighton midfielder told The Debate.
"But they stayed on it, they stayed on the front foot and I have not seen Barcelona defend as much as they did tonight, last-ditch tackles.
"Chelsea were fantastic and deserved more out of the game. And over the two games I do not think Chelsea could really have played much better."
In the end, Chelsea were undone by another Lionel Messi masterclass as the Argentine scored the 99th and 100th Champions League goals of his illustrious career.
However, with a little bit more luck and a better final ball, the outcome could have been much different in the view of Mark Schwarzer.
"You have to give them some credit because of the way they approached the game," said the former Chelsea goalkeeper.
"Automatically, by playing Olivier Giroud up front, they showed that they wanted to put Barcelona under a bit more pressure and they wanted to stretch them possibly a little bit.
"They were unlucky, Barcelona hit them at the right time. They were really unlucky in the first leg, hitting both posts, conceding through one mistake that killed them in that game.
"And then today in the Nou Camp, they hit the crossbar again and the final pass just was not quite there today and in the end they just lacked that bit of a clinical end product."
