Chelsea FC (12th, 7pts) vs FC Barcelona (11th, 7pts)*
*Standings at beginning of Matchday 5
Competition/Round: 2025-26 UEFA Champions League, League Phase, Matchday 5
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Marc-André ter Stegen, Gavi, Pedri (out)
Chelsea Outs & Doubts: Levi Colwill, Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia (out)
Date/Time: Tuesday, November 25, 2025, 9pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 8pm GMT (UK), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 1.30am IST (India, Wednesday)
Venue: Stamford Bridge, London, England
Referee: Slavko Vinčić (SVN)
VAR: Christian Dingert (GER)
How to watch on TV: TUDN (USA), SONY TEN 2 (India), SuperSport (Nigeria), Movistar (Spain), others
How to watch online: Paramount+ (USA), Amazon Prime Video (UK), Sony LIV (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others
Following a dominant win over Athletic Club on their historic return to Camp Nou at the weekend, Barcelona travel to London for a massive European night as they face reigning Club World Cup champions Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in Matchday 5 of the league phase of this season’s Champions League on Tuesday night.
Barça come into this one knowing anything but a victory will all but end any realistic chance of them finishing in the Top 8 and securing automatic qualification for the Round of 16. PSG may have won the Champions League last season going through the Playoffs but there’s no guarantee history will repeat itself this time around, and having to play two extra high-pressure games in the middle of what already is a wild January-February calendar in Spain is not at all ideal for Hansi Flick and his troops.
So three points on Tuesday are essential, and Barça must play their best game of the season so far. They’ve shown signs of improvement in the wins over Celta Vigo and Athletic, but their last European game was a disaster: Barça’s defense was exposed by a Club Brugge side that’s not anywhere near good enough as Chelsea but could have easily scored five or six against a helpless Blaugrana backline, and the Catalans cannot have a repeat of that dreadful defensive performance if they want to take all three points in this one.
The gap between La Liga and the Champions League has been a lot more noticeable this season, and Barça have struggled to adapt to the increase in quality and physicality of their four continental games so far. Even the big win against Olympiacos was a lot harder than the 6-1 scoreline suggests, and their other victory in Europe away to Newcastle was also hard-fought and needed two moments of brilliance by Marcus Rashford and inspired performances by Frenkie de Jong and Pedri in midfield to find a way past the Magpies that night.
Chelsea will provide a monster test, and despite their inconsistencies this season due to the youth in their squad they’re second in the Premier League and have a lot of talent up front even without the injured Cole Palmer, including the exciting 18-year-old winger Estêvão whose name is butchered so badly by English commentators that it makes the skin of this Brazilian writer crawl.
Enzo Maresca’s side like to build patiently from the back and will invite Barça’s press looking to play passes in behind the Blaugrana high line, and will look to feed their quick and skilled wingers as many balls in space as possible to replicate the impact Carlos Forbs and Brugge had against the Catalans. They could choose to pack the midfield a little more in this one and play the excellent Reece James alongside the also excellent Moises Caicedo, pushing Enzo Fernández up into a number 10 role to have a more compact defensive shape when they don’t have the ball.
A fascinating matchup in this one is Lamine Yamal versus Marc Cucurella: the two are good friends in the Spanish national team and have looked forward to this duel ever since the draw was made back in August, and will relish the chance of testing themselves against each other. Cucurella has come a long way since his days in La Masia, and will be counted upon to try and contain a rapidly improving Yamal who has looked healthier in recent games and is quickly getting back to his devastating best.
This is a great test for Barça and it promises to be a highly entertaining game between two young and attack-minded teams. If Barça were in a better position in the table, there’d be less stress involved and we might enjoy this a lot more even if ended in a high-scoring draw; but given the absolute necessity of three points, which would also be huge for Chelsea in their own fight for the Top 8, this profiles as a tense and must-win game in which Barça simply cannot afford to fail.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Joan; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsí, Balde; Eric, De Jong; Yamal, Fermín, Rashford; Lewandowski
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Sánchez; Gusto, Fofana, Tosin, Cucurella; James, Caicedo; Neto, Enzo, Garnacho; João Pedro
PREDICTION
Barça have improved since the disaster in Belgium, but Chelsea are a different animal. I think we’ll put up a much better fight this, but I unfortunately don’t see us winning it: 2-2 draw.
