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 said the LaLiga leaders were still hard to beat.
“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.
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.”
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