Barcelona average without Lionel Messi, Chelsea should NOT be scared - Steve Nicol
BARCELONA are an average team without Lionel Messi and Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Chelsea have an opportunity to go through.
That is the damning assessment of former Liverpool star-turned-pundit Steve Nicol.
Chelsea learned their Champions League fate on Monday when they were pitted against Barcelona in the last-16 draw.
Although Antonio Conte’s title defence hasn’t been as spectacular, the Blues have been more comfortable in Europe.
Barcelona meanwhile, are five points clear of Valencia at the top of La Liga, and eight ahead of Real Madrid.
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Chelsea have an opportunity in this game no question. Messi and Ter Stegen, but the rest are struggling big time
But Nicol thinks they are a pale of a shadow of the club without Neymar, who joined Paris Saint-Germain over the summer.
“You take Ter Stegen and Messi out of Barcelona right now - they are an average team,” Nicol told ESPN.
“They are not playing well at all. Going forward since Neymar left, the amount of chances they make, I don’t know the stats, but it seems to be half of what it used to be.
“Chelsea have an opportunity in this game no question. Messi and Ter Stegen, but the rest are struggling big time.”
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Nicol went on to suggest Luis Suarez has been below par this term, adding: “Luis [Suarez] is having an absolute shocker - he got one at the weekend, but he couldn’t hold it up.
“He must have been offside a thousand times.
“Almost nothing went right for him and that’s what it’s been like for him recently.
“If I’m Chelsea, I wouldn’t be scared as I was last year.”
