It was so close to being a brilliant night for Chelsea, however a late Barcelona equaliser leaves them on the back foot heading into the second leg.
After a hectic night of Champions League action, you would be forgiven for missing some of the incidental details from the game at Stamford Bridge.
Never fear, Sportsmail is here to put you right with some of the things you missed from the clash between Blues and Barca...
Blues go eight without defeat
Chelsea were unbeaten in their last seven Champions League games against Barcelona (W2 D5), and continued that record on Tuesday night.
In truth, they hadn't played each other in the competition since April 2012, when Chelsea won 3-2 on aggregate.
Nevertheless, it maintains an impressive record against Barca, and bodes well for the return leg next month.
Barca's away goals
Barcelona are still unbeaten away from home in the Champions League this season, but they haven't been prolific either.
In fact, no Barca player had scored a goal away from the Nou Camp in the current edition of the competition until Lionel Messi's strike.
Barcelona had scored only one goal in their last five away games in the Champions League prior to this fixture, an own goal by Sporting Lisbon's Sebastian Coates.
Messi ends his Chelsea drought...
Lionel Messi scores against pretty much everyone, and scores an awful lot. However, not where Chelsea were concerned.
Messi had played 731 minutes against the Blues in the Champions League without scoring. Against no other team has he played that many minutes without ever finding the net.
That all came to a long awaited end, thanks to an Andreas Christiansen error and a slick low Andres Iniesta pass.
Suarez's wait goes on
Goal and drought are two words which do not obviously go together where Barcelona are concerned.
However, while Messi ended his unprecedented block against scoring where Chelsea are concerned, Luis Suarez is on an even more alarming European slump.
Suarez has failed to score in the last 881 minutes of play in the Champions League, his longest drought in the competition. His last goal dates back to March 2017 against PSG.
The Uruguayan also exploded at the fourth official
Suarez was not impressed when his penalty appeals were waved away just before Barcelona equalised, and he made his displeasure very clear indeed.
Feeling he had been tripped by Antonio Rudiger, Suarez launched a volley of abuse at the official, topped off with a two-fingered Churchill-esque salute.
Suarez didn't get a penalty - all that arose from the incident was a booking - although Messi's goal soon after may have helped him get over it.
Messi boots up for his family
The Argentinian superstar put his faith in those closest to him to help him finally break his goal duck against Chelsea.
Messi wore specially designed boots with Antonella - his wife's name - on his left foot, and Thiago, his oldest child, on the right.
The name of his youngest son, Mateo, was presumably present somewhere too. It all helped Messi senior on the night.
Chelsea's foreign legion
On Boxing Day 1999, Chelsea became the first side in the English top division to name a starting XI without any British players.
That was echoed on Tuesday, as for the first time in a match in the Champions League knockout stages, Chelsea fielded a starting line-up consisting entirely of foreign (non-English) players.
With Gary Cahill, Danny Drinkwater and Callum Hudson-Odoi on the bench, it was left to Chelsea's foreign legion to get the job done.
Ancelotti, Becks and Martinez in attendance
The meeting of two of football's greatest teams unsurprisingly brought the great and the good of the sport to watch the action unfold.
Former England captain David Beckham was there with his children, presumably supporting Chelsea given his Real Madrid connections.
Belgium manager Roberto Martinez was also present, keeping an eye on Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois. Former Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti was another watching on, ex-Swansea boss Paul Clement at his side.
Zzii_Bess
137
Chelsea played well against Barca..70% of people are saying they are going to lose but they are the one who score 1st..If they keep the momentum then they might surpass Barca in 2nd leg cause they have away advantage but they also have disadvantage because they are playing in Camp Nou..Hope they do well..Wish this season UCL come to England..
Đaiveed ♥
127
Great performance from both teams, Chelsea played quite an amusing and exciting football game, they kept on hold to their ball possession,made accurate passes had lots of chances in target, thanks to Hazard for providing that accurate pass and a big thanks to willians has he spotted the ball not too far from inside the box... that goal was amazing obviously one of the best goals have ever seen scored by any EPL team in the UCL.... well for Barcelona we were just too good! likely we would have won the game 2-1 we missed lots of dramatic chances and that was really painful... the players played quite well and I can see that the GOAT made splendid perfection yesterday when he finally broke the deadlock of scoring against Chelsea great pass from iniesta a quality player with lots of experience, Messi did absolutely well
Cavincoler
111
The issue is that if we went in today at 1-0, the game at the Camp Nou would be on a knife edge for Barca, they would have to play knowing that one slip up would mean needing 3 goals to advance whilst having to score 2 to avoid penalties anyway. Now however Barca can go comfortably into that game and play without anywhere near the kind of pressure. They can go forward to score and finish us off knowing that worse case scenario and we hit them on the break, they only need to score once again to level it. The lack of worry and pressure of a Chelsea goal will allow them to play freely in front of their crowd and put us to the sword.
Damian-Damson
97
Iniesta wasn't selfish. it was an easy goal for Messi!. The assist was outstanding! Thanks to Legend Bek for watching!
Indeed he wasn't cause only missed so far away on one long shot. Meanwhile for Suarez he kept trying to convince a penalty chance to the referee with ridiculous dives(the referee wasnt convinced tho xD) . Messi's outstanding positioning was the only reason barça was able to keep up with the blues as the other players failed to take advantage of their golden chances. Well played for both teams tho. It's a bad decision to play through domination against the blues as they are one of the specialists in counter attacks.
Mt Wali
59
His game changed when he was hit with the Ball on his face,and that weak me.Hhe played better than Hazard. You are the Chelsea's hope.... #WILLIAN.
Crisofiso
57
Christiansen should have been taken off, he was shaky the whole time, he had a single pass to make and he threw the ball out for corner in favor of Barcelona and from that moment I realized how nervous he was, I wonder how did Conte not see that, I thought he needed to be sub off and bring on Cahill. His inexperienced and nerves cost Chelsea dearly and I believe it could be detrimental for Chelsea should he be fielded in the second leg. Playing at the camp in front of a huge crowd would be a problem for him.
U.S.A3052497
29
After 731 minutes he finaly scored against chelsea, lol hes about to retire😂
background
21
It's mostly because Sergi Roberto's not that solid defensively so he always finds himself out of position or needs at least one more person to support him. A lot of people have been bashing Paulinho, and I won't deny that he played pretty bad, but often times he also has to cover for Roberto and make runs offensively, which kind of forces him to play the safe way instead of pushing forward. I'm hoping that Semedo plays in the second leg since he was suspended for this one.
redboy21
19
Chelsea were so solid all night but it only takes a momentary lapse in concentration and a small error for this Barça side to punish you! Hopefully that error doesn't affect Christensen too much, he's been decent this season but was slightly off tonight.
podkill
17
They put too much focus on Hazard. It kinda payed off since Eden wasn't able to do anything today. Similar to how we played Messi. We tried to suffocate him and we kinda managed. If only we didn't commit that stupid mistake.