Barcelona are still as fearsome as ever even without Neymar, according to Chelsea attacker Willian.
Willian’s 62nd-minute strike was cancelled out by Lionel Messi as the teams played out a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
His Brazil team-mate Neymar may have left Barca for Paris Saint-Germain last year, but Willian believes that the Spanish giants remain one of the finest teams on the planet.
“I think Barcelona are Barcelona, with or without Neymar,” Willian said.
“Of course Neymar is a great player but they have Messi, they have [Andres] Iniesta, they have [Luis] Suarez.
“They have really good players so Barcelona is always Barcelona.”
While he opened the scoring, Willian also struck the post twice during Tuesday’s clash.
And despite Chelsea’s failure to beat Barca, the 29-year-old still believes his team can reach the quarter-finals with a result at Camp Nou on March 14.
“Of course, we can go there and do a great job again. It will be a completely different game,” Willian said.
“To play there is totally different. But I think we can go there with this mentality. We can go there with great spirit and try to win the game.”
Source: www.goal.com