Chelsea on Tuesday night reaffirmed their status as reigning FIFA Club World Cup champions with a dominant and historic 3–0 victory over Barcelona at Stamford Bridge — a result many fans are celebrating as the club’s finest-ever showing against the Spanish giants.
The emphatic win also ended Barcelona’s 24-match Champions League scoring streak, a striking statistic that highlighted both Chelsea’s dominance and the Catalans’ difficulties on the night.
Chelsea were already a goal up when the Barcelona captain was shown a straight red card, further compounding the misery of the visitors. However, many Chelsea supporters dismissed the numerical advantage as a factor, recalling the famous April 2012 encounter when a 10-man Chelsea side knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League, despite the dismissal of then-captain John Terry. Tuesday’s script, they argued, only reinforced the psychological grip Chelsea now seem to have developed over the Catalans.
The goals came through an own goal by Jules Kounde in the 27th minute, a brilliant finish from teenage sensation Estevao, and a clinical strike from Delap to seal the rout.
Veritas Nexus also reports that Chelsea’s dominance was so complete that four additional goals were ruled out on technical grounds, denying the Blues a potentially record-breaking scoreline and leaving Barcelona relieved the outcome wasn’t even more severe.
