Estevao outshines Yamal as Blues dismantle Barcelona

Lamine Yamal and Estevao are both 18, both possess a magical left foot and both are already at home on the Champions League stage.

- LAWRENCE OSTLERE AT STAMFORD BRIDGE

They have another thing in common: Yamal has spent most of his young life being compared to Lionel Messi, preordained as Barcelona's next legendary figure at only 14 years old; Estevao was dubbed "Messinho" when he first emerged at Brazilian club Palmeiras.

Both have understandably tried to shun the comparison, and yet there were undeniable flickers of a famous Messi goal here at Stamford Bridge. Estevao still had defenders to beat when he received the ball in the inside-right channel 30 yards from goal. What he did next will be remembered for a long time by those who witnessed it, drawing Pau Cubarsi towards him before shimmying around the defender's legs, holding off Alejandro Balde and crashing a right-footed shot into the roof of the net.

Cubarsi didn't fall to his backside like Jerome Boateng did in the face of Messi's weaving run a decade ago. There was not the same subtlety in the feint, nor the deft dinked finish. But on a night when the two best 18-year-olds in the world took up station on opposite sides of the same pitch, the only flecks of greatness came courtesy of Chelsea's number 41.