1) Zola’s big dipper, 2000
Chelsea’s pre-Abramovich flourishes of the late 1990s made for some memorable European evenings at Stamford Bridge - Mark Hughes’ late clincher against Vicenza in the Cup Winners’ Cup, for one. But their first foray into Champions League territory was still waiting for a statement result even after negotiating the qualifying round and two group stages.
In April 2000, with Gianluca Vialli’s side unbeaten domestically since Boxing Day, that opportunity presented itself with the visit of Barcelona, whose Champions League form up to that point read: Played 12, Won 9, Drawn 3, Lost 0, Scored 36.
Within the space of eight first-half minutes, Chelsea were 3-0 up, a flurry sparked by a textbook Gianfranco Zola free kick which felt like the moment they had finally arrived at Europe’s top table.
Luis Figo, though, planted the seeds of away-goal paranoia by pulling one back in the second half, and made the second leg far from a formality...
2) Rivaldo’s revenge, 2000
...and the visit to Nou Camp turned out to be an onslaught, led by the imperious, emphatic left foot of Rivaldo.
Chelsea’s two-goal advantage was wiped out before halftime and, despite Tore Andre Flo being gifted an away goal, Barcelona stormed back again to take the tie to extra time.
Referee Anders Frisk - remember the name - had the easy task of awarding Barcelona a stonewall penalty in the 99th minute. Rivaldo, who had slammed an earlier spot-kick wide of the post, went the same way again and made sure Chelsea had been put firmly in their continental place.
3) Chelsea get Frisked, 2005
The Swedish referee was back with his whistle at the Nou Camp five years later, kicking off the rich genre of Chelsea’s European-based perceived injustice by sending off Didier Drogba for going in enthusiastically on Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes.
1-0 up at the time, Chelsea’s ten men finally collapsed under the weight of Barcelona’s second-half assault. But then...
4) Ronaldinho’s toe, 2005
...as they had five years earlier, Chelsea tore Barcelona apart at Stamford Bridge, racing into a 3-0 lead within nine first-half minutes. Once again, though, that euphoria was dampened - Ronaldinho slotted home a penalty and then produced a goal none of the other 21 players on the pitch could have even conceived of, let alone had the brass balls to attempt.
With Barcelona heading through on away goals, it was left to a combination of John Terry’s magnetic set-piece presence and a touch of the dark arts from Ricardo Carvalho to ensure a 5-4 aggregate victory.
5) Del Horno’s reducer, 2006
One of the intriguing subplots to this enduringly frazzled head-to-head is that Lionel Messi - for whom a barren goalscoring run tends to consist of a game or two - is yet to score against Chelsea in eight matches stretching back all the way to 2006.
That year, an 18-year-old Messi arrived on the ploughed field that was the Stamford Bridge pitch as a marked man. His nominated assailant was Asier Del Horno - a left-back whose Chelsea career is so forgettable that he may as well have just been signed for that particular job - and he got to work early...
...only for the referee’s patience to finally run out before half time as Del Horno crashed into Messi near the corner flag. Perhaps it was a long-term project: 12 years later, Messi remains without a goal against various packed Chelsea defences.
6) Jose says hello, 2006
A fleeting, off-field moment, but one that sums up the simmering tensions and volatile egos of this fixture rather neatly.
The nonchalance of the slap itself, the unbroken Mourinho stride, the domino effect of bewilderment that works its way down the line of Barcelona players from Puyol to Van Bronckhorst to Eto’o: who else could have pulled that off but Jose?
7) Drogba’s twist, 2006
A forgotten gem among the various soap-opera and action-hero storylines from the last 18 years of this match-up. Drogba’s Chelsea highs and lows were even more pronounced in the Champions League (sent off in the 2008 final, converting the winning penalty in 2012) but this goal helped condemn Barcelona to second place in their group in 2006/07.
In the end, neither side claimed the bragging rights, as they both collided with Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool in the knockouts.
8) Lampard’s surprise, 2006
Carefully treading the thin line of “did he mean it?”, Frank Lampard’s 180-degree hoodwinking of Valdes at the Nou Camp in 2006 is the opportunist equal of Ronaldinho’s Stamford Bridge cheekiness 18 months earlier.
9) Iniesta intervenes, 2009
A bona fide modern European classic that could comfortably occupy a Top 10 feature all on its own. A tense 0-0 draw at the Nou Camp set up a chess game between Guus Hiddink’s resurgent Chelsea and Pep Guardiola’s treble-hunting, geometry-defying Barcelona.
Michael Essien belted home a 9th-minute volley to give the hosts the semi-final advantage, which introduced 81 minutes of high drama: four Chelsea penalty appeals, a red card for Eric Abidal, Michael Ballack’s one-man attempt to surround referee Tom Henning Ovrebo and an apoplectic Didier Drogba breaking the fourth wall to address the nation through the Sky Sports cameras after the final whistle.
Somewhere, amid all that, Andres Iniesta beautifully sliced through the chaos in the 90th minute to send Guardiola down the touchline and Barcelona into the final.
10) Ramires scoops Chelsea out of a hole, 2012
Chelsea had to wait three years - and go through three more managers - to have their semi-final revenge. Once again, it delivered from the first minute to the last. Barcelona wiped out Chelsea’s first-leg lead, Gary Cahill’s hamstring gave in, John Terry was sent off for an inexplicable knee to the thigh of Alexis Sanchez, and the visitors prepared themselves for a beating. And then...
Even allowing for Lionel Messi slapping a penalty against the crossbar in the second half, and Gary Neville emitting an other-wordly noise as Fernando Torres galloped through the expanse of Nou Camp green to settle the tie once and for all, nothing compares to the surrealness of Ramires latching on to a hopeful Frank Lampard through-ball and producing the most inch-perfect chip over Valdes.
The lesson after all of this for the 2018 edition? Expect the very unexpected. Maybe even Lionel Messi will score this time.
