Cucurella gave perfect lesson in how to defend Yamal, says Rooney

Marc Cucurella showed full-backs across the world how to deal with Lamine Yamal during Chelsea's eye-catching Champions League win over Barcelona, believes Wayne Rooney.

After Jules Kounde put through his own net and Ronald Araujo received a red card for two bookable offences before half-time, goals from Estevao and Liam Delap saw Chelsea pull clear at a jubilant Stamford Bridge.

It was the Blues' biggest margin of victory over the Blaugrana in the Champions League, as they became just third side to beat them at least five times in the competition, after Bayern Munich (10 times) and Paris Saint-Germain (six).

While Estevao was one of the stars of the show, Barca's own teenage sensation, Yamal, was kept quiet.

The Spain international had 66 touches throughout the game, the fourth-most among Barca players, and created a team-high two chances.

But he only managed a single shot – with an expected goals (xG) value of 0.07 – and was substituted with 10 minutes to play, with Dani Olmo taking his place.

And England legend Rooney believes Yamal's international team-mate Cucurella deserves much of the credit for making the winger a non-factor.

As well as drawing the foul that led to Araujo's red card, Cucurella won three of the five tackles – both game-high figures. 

Cucurella also contested 18 duels and won eight, more than any of his team-mates, enjoyed more touches than any other player on the pitch (97) and completed 55 of his 63 passes.

"Cucurella's given the best training lesson you could have for dealing with Lamine Yamal tonight," Rooney said in his role as pundit for Amazon Prime Video.

"Cucurella was absolutely incredible, probably the best performance I've seen from a left-back for a long, long time. To do that tonight, he's a serious player."

Since Cucurella's debut for Chelsea in August 2022, they have won 49.4% of the Premier League games in which the left-back has started (42/85), compared to 34.1% of those he has not (14/41).

Since the start of the Club World Cup, Cucurella has made more club appearances (24) than any other defender from Europe's top five leagues, also contributing to more clean sheets than anyone else (11). He ranks joint-fifth for tackles won (35) and joint-second for interceptions (28).