The Blues and Blaugrana have met 17 times competitively – and there has been drama and controversy since the Sixties.

These two great rivals currently sit just outside the eight automatic qualifying places in the 36-club league phase table: Chelsea are 12th and Barca one place higher.

The Catalans’ dramatic 3-3 draw at Club Brugge last time out meant they had conceded for the ninth game in succession across all competitions, the club’s worst such run since 2013.

Saturday’s clash with ten-man Athletic Bilbao – recently beaten 2-0 by Newcastle United – halted that flow and kept them second in La Liga. Without Pedri and Marcus Rashford, it was 37-year-old Robert Lewandowski who broke the deadlock early before Ferran Torres netted twice in a 4-0 win.

Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick will have pleasant memories of our corner of west London. His Bayern Munich team were 3-0 Round of 16 winners in the 2019/20 Champions League season, with Marcos Alonso sent off and Lewandowski scoring twice.

However, since a 2-0 semi-final victory in 1966, the Blues have won five and drawn two of the eight games against Barcelona under the Fulham Road floodlights.

And the Londoners, aiming to make up for European points dropped at Qarabag, rose to second in the Premier League with a 2-0 weekend win at Burnley, securing our fourth clean sheet in five top-flight outings. The Blues have also scored in each of our past 17 matches across all competitions.

Chelsea team news

Levi Colwill, Dario Essugo and Romeo Lavia remain out of contention due to injury. Enzo Maresca confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Cole Palmer's recovery from a toe injury is progressing well, but he doesn't expect the England international to be ready to return against Barcelona.

‘Cole is wearing a boot,’ Maresca said. ‘We don’t know when he will be back, but it will be soon. He is already on the pitch and already touching the ball. The feeling is good.

‘At the moment, we are only looking at this game. It’s a Champions League game against Barcelona, that is our focus, and then we will look ahead to Arsenal. I don’t think he will be available for these two games, but he is doing well.’

For the visitors, there are question marks over the availability of former Blues defender Andreas Christensen as he recovers from a calf injury. Pedri, Gavi, Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Xavi Espart all missed their previous match.

Andrey Santos and Barcelona's Marc Casado, Frenkie de Jong, Fermin Lopez and Lamine Yamal are all one yellow card away from a one-game Champions League suspension.

Chelsea vs Barcelona - The history

The Londoners reached the last four of our second-ever European campaign, the 1965/66 Fairs Cup, and entertained Barcelona in a semi-final at the Bridge on 11 May 1966.

The first leg fixture in London had been delayed by torrential rain, although Tommy Docherty liked to claim he arranged the pitch to be flooded by the local fire brigade – he was without key players and fancied the decisive leg at home.

The postponed match became Charlie Cooke’s debut, and he did not disappoint. Inspired by the Scottish winger, waves of Chelsea pressure eventually told, helped by the dismissal of visiting defender Silvestre Eladio for kicking John Hollins just before the break.

Goalkeeper Miguel Reina, father of future Liverpool keeper Pepe, scored one of two own goals that wiped the Blues’ first-leg deficit, forcing a play-off in Spain that Roque Olsen’s team won 5-0.

The long-awaited rematch, played 34 years later, was the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final. On a night of irresistible attacking in a throbbing atmosphere, Gianluca Vialli’s special team – Marcel Desailly, Roberto Di Matteo, Gianfranco Zola et al – tore into Louis van Gaal’s tournament favourites.

The Blues hit three thrilling goals without reply in just nine first-half minutes, but when Luis Figo netted for 3-1, it felt like a lifeline and the Catalans would turn things round in the second leg.

An equally pulsating Round of 16 second leg match on 8 March 2005 featured a Ronaldinho double – one perhaps the best by any opponent at the Bridge – but also superb goals from Eidur Gudjohnsen, Frank Lampard and Damien Duff. Top billing, though, has to go to John Terry’s dramatic header to make it 4-2 on the night and 5-4 on aggregate.

That was the opening chapter in a dramatic trilogy of clashes with Frank Rijkaard’s team. In February 2006, at the same stage, Asier Del Horno’s early red card paved the way for a 2-1 loss at Stamford Bridge. In October the same year, an incredible Didier Drogba strike earned a 1-0 group stage victory.

The first of Pep Guardiola’s two visits to the Bridge as the Catalans’ coach – he never graced the pitch as a player – came on 6 May 2009, the second leg of the semi-final.

The Blues had drawn 0-0 in Spain and were on course for an instant return to the competition's final - after the 2008 loss to Manchester United - after Michael Essien’s stunning volley made it 1-0, only for Andres Iniesta’s last-minute heartbreaker to send the Catalans through on away goals.

Naturally, the Blues encountered Barcelona on the way to our first Champions League triumph in 2012. During the first instalment of this gripping semi-final tie at the Bridge on 18 April 2012, Ramires raced down the left and squared for Drogba, who gratefully drilled into the net for the only goal of the game. The Londoners secured a famous 2-2 draw at the Nou Camp to reach the final.

The Blaugrana’s most recent visit, the first leg of the round of 16 in February 2018, ended 1-1. Willian scored with a wonderful curling strike, but Lionel Messi netted his first goal against the Blues, after drawing a blank in his previous eight games against us.

Know this...

No Champions League team has been awarded more penalty kicks than Chelsea’s two this season.

The Londoners have recorded a passing accuracy of 90 per cent, the third-highest in the competition this season.

Half of last season’s Champions League quarter-finalists finished outside the top eight in the league phase standings, including eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.

When Chelsea beat Real Betis 4-1 last season to claim the UEFA Conference League trophy, it was the first time an English club had ever overcome Spanish opposition in a UEFA final.

Champions League results in 2025/26

The champions of Spain finished second in last year’s league phase table, but bowed out of the Champions League in the semi-finals, with a 7-6 aggregate loss to Inter Milan.

Just 23 seconds into a game against Athletic Bilbao on 22 October 2023, Marc Guiu - now in Chelsea’s ranks - briefly became Barcelona’s youngest and fastest goalscoring debutant, aged 17 years and 291 days.