Rewind back to the 21st of February 2012 and Chelsea were playing Napoli in a match that ended 3-1 to our opponent then the follow up game Chelsea beat Napoli 4-1 at Stamford Bridge to go through to the next stage winning 5-4 on aggregate, the blues then went on to win the Champions league in a remarkable fashion beating Benfica in 2 games, beating and drawing against Barcelona and then beating Bayern Munich on penalties with the last kick off the ball.
Come back to the present day and Chelsea have just been beaten in Paris by PSG 3-1, their next game is Stoke City in the Premier League before playing PSG in the return leg at Stamford Bridge. An interesting fact about this is that we played Stoke the last time before we needed to turn a big deficit around, which makes you wonder could history really repeat itself?
It will be a tough ask but with Chelsea’s history and character, no one should be writing us off just yet. Anything is possible with Chelsea.We will really need to be at our best in that match though and have a much improved performance than last night.
After the loss at the weekend you would expect Chelsea to have come out the traps early and try to get an early lead but instead it was PSG that came out strongest and had a few chances early on, it was infact in the 3rd minute when the french side took the lead.
A header from captain John Terry went the wrong way once again and this time straight into the path of Lavezzi and he smashed it into the goal, this was not the start Chelsea wanted. The London side then tried to get a few chances on target and did for stages of the game look in control.
There were a few tackles flying in and Ramires picked up a yellow card and suspension in the 12th minute leaving Chelsea a bit bare in the defensive midfield area with the Brazilian now out and Mati? out due to being ineligible to play in the Champions League having already played this season with Benfica. It wasnÂ’t until the 27th minute when the blues got back on level terms, Oscar was brought down in the box and it was a penalty to Chelsea which Eden Hazard coolly scored from the spot.
There was then a few more chances before half time including a fantastic strike from Eden Hazard which unluckily came off the post, almost giving Chelsea the lead but it wasnÂ’t to be. No more chances materialised into a goal and then it was half time.
The teams came out for the second half and it was in the 60th minute before the next goal came, unfortunately for Chelsea it was PSG that took the lead again this time with David Luiz scoring an own goal, a shambles in the defence once again and there was nothing Luiz could do but watch on as the ball was struck off him into the back of his own net.
In the 66th minute PSG striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic went down injured, he was then substituted off and looks set to miss the return leg against the blues which will be a relief for Chelsea as they look to turn the 2nd leg around in their favour.
Back to the game though and PSG were trying their hardest to get another goal but the majority of shots ended up off target, in the 2nd half Chelsea were poor only getting 2 shots at goal one from Oscar that was off target and the other from Hazard which was blocked.
The game went on and it looked like Chelsea were going to hold on and take a narrow defeat back to Stamford Bridge for the second leg.
3 minutes added time and Chelsea just had to keep their defence in check and the match would be over, this just wasnÂ’t meant to be though, another poor defensive display as PSG breached the Chelsea defence once again as Pastore took a shot from the right side of the box and got the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal, a goal which Cech really should have been saving but after looking slightly out of form recently he just couldnÂ’t stop the ball from going in, the PSG crowd and players went wild as the final whistle blew with Chelsea having no more chances to try and get another away goal.
The game ending 3-1 to PSG and Chelsea suddenly have a mountain to climb.
We have a good record at Stamford Bridge though and the typical Chelsea character of never giving up which Jose will no doubt be reminding the players of at every possible minute. It may be a different team to the class of 2012 but it is overall an improved team with arguably better players and of course Mourinho as manager. The one thing we are missing though is a Didier Drogba type player to get that crucial goal and save us this season.
After the game Jose hit out at his misfiring team and explained why he started Schùrrle up front instead of his recognised strikers. He said:
“I’m not happy with my strikers, I have to try things,” said Mourinho.
He continued ”With Andre, at least I know we have one more player to have the ball, we have one more player to associate with the other players. Football is also about scoring goals. That is for strikers, for real strikers. I had to try.”
With an angry manager and a few bad results in recent weeks the team must now show us what they are made of in the remaining games of the season to turn it around. So Chelsea team of 2014, we need a hero. WhoÂ’s ready to step up and take that job?
