Despite entering Tuesday's second leg against Paris Saint-Germain down by the score of 3-1, Chelsea managed to find a 2-0 win and advanced to the semifinals of the Champions League.
Heading into the tie, it looked like the 2-0 scoreline would be hard to reach. Shutting down an offensive side like PSG for an entire match was a tall order. However, the French side made job easier. Understandably, Coach Laurent Blanc asked his side to sit back and defend without risking opening itself up on the attack. A conservative tactic like this is usually employed by most sides, but a team like PSG, which is strong in the attack, is not particularly good at executing this plan. The end result was a team that not only looked lost at repelling Chelsea's attack, but ultimately fell victim to it.
More importantly, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, this team's top scorers were unable to step up. Edinson Cavani, who was purchased this summer to take some pressure off the big game continued to flop for his team and missed a huge chance to put the tie away. His value continues to drop exponentially and one must ask whether he is ready for prime time and big games.
As for Chelsea, the game was really a masterstroke by manager Jose Mourinho. The coach was seemingly dealt a death blow when top star Eden Hazard was injured early in the match but his substitute Andre Schurrle stepped up and scored the opening goal.
Then Mourinho did something he had not tried all year. He put all three of his strikers on the pitch at once. That's right. All three scorers, who have done everything but score this year, were given complete confidence from their coach to deliver. For those who need a refresher, Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto'o and Demba Ba have all been lambasted by their manager for not scoring goals; sadly when they are not scoring they are virtually useless on the pitch. Torres has scored eight goals for Chelsea this season while Eto'o has 11; Ba only has six overall. But when Mourinho needed his strikers to step up, they did just that. Ba scored in the 87th minute to tie the aggregate at 3-3 and give Chelsea the away goals advantage.
But the masterstroke from Mourinho did not end there. As his players celebrated he ran toward the pileup and started to give instructions on how to protect the lead from what would undoubtedly be an aggressive PSG side.
So can Chelsea go all the way in this Champions League? Bayern Munich remains the top side in the competition but has shown signs of frailty of late. Real Madrid is in a slump that could not have come at a worse time. Finally Barcelona has looked weaker by the season and Atletico is inexperienced. Mourinho is a proven winner in this competition and could very well lead an inconsistent Chelsea to the promised land.
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