Champions League 2018: Results, Top Scorers After Tuesday's Round-of-16 Games
February 20, 2018
The UEFA Champions League round of 16 continued on Thursday as Chelsea and Barcelona drew 1-1 in the first of two meetings and Bayern Munich assembled a 5-0 lead in the first leg of their clash against 10-man Besiktas.
Lionel Messi scored for the first time against Chelsea in his ninth attempt facing the west Londoners and converted an all-important away goal at Stamford Bridge to cancel out Willian's second-half opener.
Thomas Muller scored twice as Bayern took full advantage of Domagoj Vida's early sending off at the Allianz Arena, with Robert Lewandowski and Kingsley Coman each adding to the scoreline in the second period.
Cristiano Ronaldo remains the runaway leader in the Champions League's top-scorer stakes after netting 11 this term, at least four more than any other player in the competition.
Read on as we recap Tuesday's entertainment from the tournament's round of 16, complete with an updated look at the Champions League top scorers.
Tuesday's Results
Chelsea 1-1 Barcelona
Bayern Munich 5-0 Besiktas
Champions League Top Scorers
1. Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid: 11
2. Roberto Firmino, Liverpool: 7
3. Harry Kane, Tottenham Hotspur: 7
4. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool: 6
5. Sadio Mane, Liverpool: 6
6. Wissam Ben Yedder, Sevilla, 6
7. Edinson Cavani, Paris Saint-Germain: 6
8. Neymar, Paris Saint-Germain: 6
9. Vincent Aboubakar, Porto: 5
10. Robert Lewandowski: 5
Recap
Chelsea may have been considered underdogs heading into Tuesday's meeting against La Liga leaders Barcelona, and their chances of scoring seemed stunted with both Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud on the bench.
Eden Hazard instead started as a makeshift, malleable false nine alongside Pedro and Willian, and after a goalless hour, it was the Brazilian who whacked the opener low into the bottom right corner of Marc-Andre ter Stegen's goal, per writer Nooruddean Choudry:
Willian had previously hit the woodwork on two occasions, and even though it was the Blaugrana accounting for a major share of possession—almost 75 per cent, per WhoScored.com—the hosts hit first.
Chelsea had done a superb job of controlling Barca's attack and stifling their weapons, but a mistake from Andreas Christensen allowed Messi in to finally net against the west Londoners, per football writer Kristan Heneage:
Andres Iniesta steadied the ball expertly for the Argentinian, and Chelsea's clean sheet wilted under pressure, meaning Antonio Conte's side are now under extreme pressure to make an attacking impact at the Camp Nou in the second leg.
Bayern are not under quite as much of a burden and danced to a 5-0 win at home to Besiktas, although the early red card picked up by Vida changed the script dramatically, per Match of the Day:
Coman and David Alaba helped tee up Muller's first before Lewandowski played puppeteer to set up the former for a simple second.
Joshua Kimmich got down the right flank to cross for Muller to add Bayern's third in the 66th minute as manager Jupp Heynckes saw his men uphold a sterling record when he gets on the scoresheet:
Lewandowski entered Tuesday's meeting outside the Champions League's top 10 scorers but edged in thanks to a late brace, the first thanks to a fortunate rebound before Muller set him up to grab his team's fifth of the night.
Besiktas have a mountainous task awaiting them in Istanbul for the return leg on March 14, while Barca will feel upbeat about their chances of advancing after securing an essential away goal in London.