Barcelona are great even without Neymar – Willian


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."