Football writer Alex Keble reports on Tuesday's UEFA Champions League matches featuring Premier League clubs.
Chelsea exploit Barca’s high line to claim their best Champions League result since 2021 final
Chelsea 3-0 Barcelona
A thrilling night under the floodlights for the Chelsea supporters – defined by blistering attacking football and a mauling of one of Europe’s best teams - ended with olés, and rightly so.
This was arguably Chelsea’s biggest Champions League scalp since they beat Manchester City in the 2020/21 final. In the process, they perhaps announced their intention to go all the way this season.
Tonight they had the tactical strategy to exploit a kamikaze high line, the energy and determination to beat the Spanish champions and the star players to suggest they could be a serious challenger.
Estevao’s brilliant solo goal in the 55th minute eclipsed anything Lamine Yamal was able to do on the other side, and indeed Yamal was kept quiet by the all-action performance from Marc Cucurella, who was again Enzo Maresca’s leader on the pitch.
Estevao, incidentally, became just the third teenager in Champions League history to score in each of his first three starts, after Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland. He is the most exciting Brazilian player of his generation and, on this showing, already a superstar capable of playing on the biggest stage.
It was a mature performance from Estevao, his team-mates, and from the head coach, who foresaw Barcelona’s wild high line (a staple of Hansi Flick) and deployed Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho and Estevao as a speedy front three tasked with making constant runs in behind.
The midfielders hit them early, leading to countless offside goals and the flurry of activity that eventually culminated in the 27th minute breakthrough, when Jules Kounde got his feet in a tangle to let the ball dribble over the line.
Barcelona were reduced to 10 men soon after, with Ronald Araujo shown a second yellow card in the 44th minute following a clumsy challenge in a frantic, end-to-end contest that was again forced by Maresca’s tactical response to the high line.
Even when down to 10 men, Barca refused to sit back, as this screenshot from just minutes after the red card shows.
Chelsea duly accelerated away, with Liam Delap adding a third goal in the 73rd minute, with a simple tap-in following another carving open of the Flick high line, providing scenes Chelsea fans haven’t seen since Tottenham Hotspur’s absurd high line when down to nine men in 2023/24.
The icing on the cake was a clean sheet, with Chelsea becoming the first team to stop Barcelona scoring in 53 games.
Watch: Chelsea players and fans celebrate a famous win
+3 in the #UCL. ✊ pic.twitter.com/exOlvyJxad
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) November 25, 2025
Maresca’s side, up to fourth in the league phase, are now in a healthy position to qualify automatically.
More to the point, it leaves supporters, basking in a magnificent performance, wondering if Maresca’s UEFA Europa Conference League and Club World Cup successes are a sign he has assembled a cup team capable of winning Chelsea their third Champions League trophy.
The manager, however, is not getting carried away.
“A good win, but to be honest, no more than that,” Maresca told TNT Sports, although when the subject of Estevao was raised, his mood clearly lightened. “It’s a huge night for him – and I think it’s a huge night for all the club, all the fans.”
Those same fans will now also be relishing the visit of London rivals and Premier League leaders Arsenal to Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
See: Chelsea match report and line-up
Guardiola’s 10 changes backfire to leave Man City needing a result at the Bernabeu
Manchester City 0-2 Bayer Leverkusen
“I wanted [to make] 11 [changes] but I don't have the player to do 11,” Guardiola told TNT Sports before the game. “Today we need fresh legs in everything and that is why we start with them.”
Man City were anything but fresh. A very flat and disjointed performance at the Etihad Stadium was punished by Bayer Leverkusen in the first half, with Alex Grimaldo giving the visitors the lead in the 23rd minute following a swift counter-attack.
Guardiola, realising he had changed too much, made a triple substitution at the break, but in the 54th minute, a glancing header from Patrik Schick shocked the Etihad crowd. Not since 2013 have Man City lost at home to a German team – when Guardiola was in the opposition dugout with Bayern Munich.
It leaves Man City on 10 points from five games and most likely needing more than six points to be sure of finishing in the top eight. That means they have to win their last two matches and, before that, take something from a trip to Real Madrid in a fortnight.
That is the price Guardiola, so often the master at squad rotation, has paid for all those changes.
“Maybe it [10 changes] is too much,” Guardiola conceded when speaking to TNT Sports after the game. “Seeing the result, maybe it’s too much.”
All of a sudden Man City have lost two matches in the space of four days, and have lost two of their last four home matches in the Champions League, as many as in their previous 37. Guardiola will expect a big reaction at home to Leeds United on Saturday.
See: Man City match report and line-up
Quickfire Aubameyang double stuns Newcastle, but Howe’s team cannot afford to wallow
Marseille 2-1 Newcastle United
It was a little wild in the first half, but not unlike the magnificent victory against Man City last weekend, Eddie Howe’s explosive Newcastle were 1-0 up at the break and looking good for another superb victory.
Then, out of nowhere, ex-Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored five goals and registered three assists in eight Premier League matches against the Magpies, equalised 21 seconds into the second half – rounding Nick Pope as he charged too far out of his goal – and then completed the turnaround just four minutes later, a poacher’s finish that proved to be the winner.
“The effort was good. The 15 minutes at the start of the second half cost us,” Eddie Howe told TNT Sports. “The goal straight after half-time changes the feeling around the stadium. It was a lapse of concentration from our perspective and then we didn’t maybe react well enough from there.”
By the final whistle, Harvey Barnes’s sixth-minute strike felt like it happened an age ago.
It was a gut punch for Howe and his team (Newcastle had never previously lost a Champions League away game when winning at half-time), yet they must immediately pick themselves up and go again.
It is vital they don’t let defeat in the Champions League undo the good work of Saturday’s win, especially given they are still eighth in the league phase – and in desperate need of points to climb back into the top half of the Premier League.
Up next is a trip to Everton on Saturday.
See: Newcastle match report and line-up