Chelsea manager Antonio Conte decided to drop captain Gary Cahill to the substitutes' bench for the 1-1 draw against Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night, and Blues fans were quick to praise the Italian afterwards for making the big call.
The west London outfit's skipper looked to be in line to start against the La Liga leaders having made the XI in the 4-0 win against Hull City in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Friday night, but Conte instead decided to go with a three-man defence of Andreas Christensen, Antonio Rudiger and Cesar Azpilicueta against the likes of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.
Cahill had been dropped for the 3-0 win against West Bromwich Albion earlier this month having been a part of the defence that lost 4-1 against Watford, and the trio that started against Barca certainly did well, even if a rare mis-placed Christensen pass led to Lionel Messi's equalising goal for the visitors.
Chelsea supporters took to social media to give their thoughts on Conte's big decision, and while one said "Conte finally seeing the light about him", another said "Conte is a tactical genius".
Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…
https://video.footballfancast.com/video-2015/conte-replacements.mp4