It’s at the knockout stage of the Champions League where football fans get to witness the very best matches of the season.

Those not up to the challenge are either removed from the competition or relegated to the Europa League, and now only the best 16 clubs remain.

And last night, one club who have been tipped by many to go all the way were on show.

Barcelona weren’t at their scintillating best but they did enough to secure a 1-1 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Willian gave the hosts the lead but Lionel Messi ensured the advantage sits with the Blaugrana with his first ever goal against Chelsea.

The Blues did an impressive job of stifling Barcelona’s threat until a mistake from Andreas Christensen allowed Messi to score.

Tactical analysis has emerged

Tactical analysis of the match, produced by YouTuber Nouman, shows how Chelsea were able to prevent their Spanish opponents from playing fluent football by limiting the space between the defence and midfield.

As Messi was unable to find space, he was forced to drop deep to receive the ball.

Chelsea's zonal defensive scheme

It was a clever gameplan from Conte, who also utilised a zonal defensive scheme that saw his players move to the side of the pitch where the ball was.

The Italian was happy for Barcelona to have a free man available on either flank as it meant he could get more players surrounding the ball.

Chelsea were well deserving of their goal but the lack of a No.9 - Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud were on the bench, with Willian, Eden Hazard and Pedro starting - meant they didn’t have a target man to hold the ball up.

As a result, the Premier League side struggled to maintain possession and would ultimately have just 27 per cent of possession.

Check out Nouman’s entire video below.

Chelsea have to score at the Camp Nou in next month’s return leg and Conte has challenged his players to “do something incredible”.

"We have to respect the opponent and when you play against Barcelona you know very well that if you go box to box that is crazy,” Conte said, per BBC Sport. “The game could not only be 1-0 but 2-0, or 4-0, 5-0, 6-0.

"We can try to do something incredible in the Nou Camp and we must play an intelligent game - we are not stupid."