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It was believed there would be no time for sentiments. It was understood that this Chelsea crop isn’t the one Roberto Di Matteo had when he was a player. It has been proved that this is Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea of 2014/2015.
And as expected, Chelsea FC ran riot at Schalke’s fortress. They toyed with their midfield, drilled holes in their defence and side-stepped their keeper at ease with consistency.
The tone of the game was set early with Diego Costa running behind the defence before cutting on to his right foot and unleashing a shot. Ralf Fährmann just about came up with the goods as the ball evaded him, but it caught his leg and went behind for a corner. Cesc Fabregas then delivered a lovely ball in from the left and John Terry beat Howedes to score. All of this happened in the first two minutes, which means Terry now holds the record for Chelsea’s fastest goal in Champions League history.
Jose Mourinho is Portuguese. And Portuguese football is football that possesses flair. He has clearly imparted that to this Chelsea team. At his disposal, the gifted one has creativity and skill, physical presence and strength, lightning swiftness and a street-wise edge if required. The perfect balance, in short. He has a specialist for every position too.
The second goal proves all of this. Chelsea was attacking at speed. Fabregas, their CPU, slows it down and waits for Willian’s run and squares it to him duly. Willian at pace backheels it for Hazard, who then takes charge and runs at defenders before playing a neat diagonal into the path of Willian who slots it home. The keeper would have been disappointed to have conceded at his near post.
After this they even added a third but it was in the form of an unfortunate own goal by Jan Kirchoff. With a three-goal advantage already, and having secured the Group G top spot, there were calculations made by football fans all over the world to ascertain whether Jose would rest a few of his players or continue this relentless pressure.
True to his style there was no relenting. Mourinho seemed like he wanted more, being hungry (read: greedy) as ever. After the break the pressure remained the same. Chelsea kept playing free flowing, swift football without taking risks at all. Before the fans knew it, it was time for another milestone.
Fabregas again played a delightful overhead pass for Willian who squared it for Didier Drogba to tap in. This was Drogba’s 50th goal in European tournaments.
With a blink of an eye Chelsea were at it again. This time Drogba returned the favour to Willian’s Brazilian compatriot, with a delicious cross with his weaker foot for Ramires to head home at an arm’s length.
It ended 5-0, which was pretty humiliating for Roberto Di Matteo whose Champions League victory with Chelsea has allegedly been termed a fluke by a few of his compatriots. Some pretty vocally.
With this huge victory and that too away, Mourinho and Chelsea have rung the warning bells for all the teams that may have to face them. They are unbeaten in all competitions for 19 games this season. Jose Mourinho and his men almost certainly will improve on that front. For this season at least, Chelsea is the team to beat. Be it in the Barclays Premier League or the Champions League.
Here are the other goals :
