Chelsea will be hoping Lionel Messi will draw blanks again in their Champions League round of 16 game at Stamford Bridge tonight.
The Argentina international has failed to scored against the English champions eight consecutive times, and will be hoping to find the back of the net for the first time, but Antonio Conte and his charges are planning a strategy against the forward, widely considered the best player of all time.
If Chelsea stand a chance of making the quarter final, Lionel Messi has to be stopped.
And his style and purposefulness means Chelsea cannot assign one man to him. The whole team needs to sacrifice and produce a collective effort to halt the runs and defense splitting passes, Messi is capable of producing in games of this magnitude.
Conte is not ignorant of this fact and has told his players to defend as a team, in order to handle Messi successfully.
“I hope to continue this tradition [of Messi not scoring against Chelsea] but I repeat we are talking about a fantastic player. The Italian coach is aware that it will be difficult to keep the Barça No.10 out across the two legs.
We must have great respect, but at the same time we must try to be excited to play this type of game and this challenge. We are talking about one of the best players in the world but, for sure, we have to work together, work with the team and not only with one player to try and stop him.”
Antonio Conte, Sport
