With today’s win against Schalke away, Chelsea have secured their spot in the next round of the Champions League and remain unbeaten in all competitions. Jose Mourinho was focused on getting the win vs former Chelsea manager, Roberto Di Matteo.
Before the match fellow writer Tom Webb put out the lineups for both sides and here is how the teams lined up.
Chelsea came out with their expected starting XI. Thibaut Courtois and Cesar Azpilicueta both kept their place in the defence ahead of the unsettled goalkeeper, Petr Cech, and Brazilian, Filipe Luis. On the wings, Willian stayed in the team and Schürrle remained on the bench alongside Drogba, Mikel, Ramires, and Zouma.
Schalke came out with a lineup that consisted of players such as Klass-Jan Huntelaar, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Kevin Prince Boateng, and World Cup winner, Benedikt Howedes.
First-Half
The game started off with Chelsea leading within two minutes from a Cesc Fabregas corner that captain John Terry neatly headed into the back of the net. Chelsea then sat back a bit and started dominating possession a bit more. The following 27 minutes leading up to the second Chelsea goal mainly consisted of Nemanja Matic winning the ball back when possible and Chelsea maintaining possession and waiting for Schalke to make a mistake so that the Blues could pounce on it. The only moment of real danger was a Schalke shot that Cahill attempted to block, but instead deflected it and the ball ended up hitting the crossbar and subsequently getting cleared by the away side. In the 29th minute some beautiful build-up play between Willian and his teammates allowed Willian to take a shot from the right side of the 18-yard box that would result in a goal and 2-0 lead for the West London club. Later on Diego Costa rounded the goalkeeper, but sadly the naturalized Spaniard slipped and could not score the third for the Blue’s. A few minutes before half-time, Mourinho’s men gained a corner which ended as an own goal for RDM side courtesy of Jan Kirchhoff.
First-Half ends 3-0
Second-Half
To start off the second-half RDM took off the own-goal scorer Kirchhoff and introduced Christian Clemens. Not much happened until Ivanovic took a shot that was a bit too high and sadly did not end up in the back of the net. In the 63rd minute, Boateng was taken off and replaced by German youngster Max Meyer. Three minutes later Chelsea manager Mourinho subbed off Costa and replaced him with Ivorian striker and Chelsea legend, Didier Drogba. In the 75th minute Oscar was replaced by Ramires and Chelsea really took off then. A few minutes later a ball over the top of the German defense put Willian in on goal and the Brazilian squared the ball across to substitute Drogba who tapped the ball into the back of the net to put his team up by four. Fun fact about Drogba: he is also now the first African player to score 50 goals in the Champions League. In the 78th minute, two minutes after the fourth goal, Eden Hazard turned a defender and put another ball over the top of the German defense to play Drogba in; however, this time instead of scoring, the African crossed the ball back across for Ramires to head the ball down into the goal and thus putting Chelsea up by five! A few seconds after the goal Schurrle came onto the field to take Fabregas spot which meant that Ramires who replaced Oscar would slide back next to Matic and Schurrle would go to the right side of the attack and slide Willian into the middle of the attacking three. In the 89th minute Schalke player, Clemens took a shot from about 30-yards straight into the hands of Courtois and in the 90th Schalke won their first corner in a long time.
Game ends;Â Schalke 0-5 Chelsea FC
Chelsea win the game 5-0 and will now finish at the top their group in the qualifying stages and go through to the knockout round. Another impressive performance from the English side in Europe as they look to Keep The Blue Flag Flying all the way to the final.
