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Double European champions!! That is what every Chelsea fan around the world had on their lips after Branislav Ivanovic planted a brilliant header in the Benfica net on 93rd minute mark. Though it is a bit exaggerated, it indeed is a unique achievement in itself. Chelsea have now won the trio of European cups and stand in the company of Bayern Munich, Juventus and Ajax as the only teams to perform such a feat.
The Blues now boast a cabinet containing the Champions League, Europa League, UEFA Super Cup, and 2 UEFA Cup Winners Cups; the latter 3 trophies coming in an other era of the London based club. With this win, Rafa Benitez surely has added a star onto his CV and will pretty much end up with a job at another club next season. To be fair and unbiased, Benitez has managed this Chelsea squad to perfection with his training and rotation methods, though his substitutions during games were a bit awry most of the time.
The match had plenty of talking points, with the absences of Terry and Hazard dominating the pre-match headlines. Benfica were thought of as the underdogs as they were facing the reigning European champions. For Chelsea, it was a straight forward lineup, with Luiz and Lampard in the midfield and Ramires preferred to Victor Moses on the right wing. Benfica though had Maxi Perera ruled out due to suspension, so Andre Almeida slotted in at right-back and Lorenzo Melgarejo started at left-back. Also, Oscar Cardozo and Rodrigo, who did not start against Porto in the weekend, came in for Lima and Ola John.
Starting Lineups
Benfica Starting XI
Chelsea Starting XI
First Half
Both managers had their teams lined up in 4-2-3-1 formations. The midfield duos of both teams were floating players, as they took turns going into the opposition half to attack. The attacking band of Benfica played very narrow and tried to crowd the area around Luiz, overloading him. Meanwhile, Ramires and Oscar stayed relatively wide for Chelsea and Torres looked isolated for most of the time.
Chelsea as usual were slow out of the blocks, their passing was wayward and pressing was erratic , whereas Benfica were playing as a unit. They pressed very high up the pitch and didn’t allow the Chelsea defenders and midfielders any time on the ball. Particularly, when Cech had the ball at his feet, he had no other option but to go long as all the players in Chelsea half were marked closely. This forced Mata to drop deep, sometimes way behind Luiz, to create a passing option and ease the congestion.
Movement: Solid line = forward, Dotted line = backward.
When Benfica had the ball, It was Nemanja Matic who was dictating the terms. The ex-Chelsea player glided past challenges and found his teammates in the attacking third with ease. His ability to provide a passing option for teammates and his passing range were key to Benfica’s 62% possession in the first half. While in possession, Gaitan and Salvio played very narrow, inviting swift interchanges with Perez and Matic. While Matic stayed back, Perez made direct runs into Chelsea half, overloading the already crowded area, forcing the Blues to drop deep. This gave license to Almeida to bomb forward to make overlaps. The Chelsea wingers had a tough time tracking the advances of the Benfica fullbacks and Oscar was booked very early in the match. It seemed as though Benfica had much fresher and faster legs than the Blues. There were many opportunities for the Eagles in the final third but they lacked that clinical end product.
The dominance of Benfica was clearly evident. Matic and Perez were running the show with Gaitan and Rodrigo trying to create a scoring opportunity. Most of the Banfica attacking was concentrated on their right flank. With Gaitan drifting into central areas, Rodrigo, Perez, Salvio and Almeida constituted the side overload, a 4 v 3 situation on the right flank. The following charts show how good Perez and Matic were in the first half and the amount of passing that took place on that right flank.
Chelsea, on the other hand, were chasing shadows all over the pitch. The pressing was not unified and often left empty spaces for Benfica players to run into. Even the shutting down of opposition passing lanes from the Chelsea players was bad. Mata and Ramires were too light and a well-built Matic easily drove past both of them. Luiz and Lampard were sliced open very often, leaving a nervy defense to deal with pacey Benfica counters and Cech had a lot of time on the ball. While Chelsea could have done better with Hazard on the pitch, it was a poor display from the whole team in the first half.
Second Half
There were no changes from either manager during the break and the teams started the second half in almost similar shapes as the first half. As they have always done this season, Chelsea players came out with renewed confidence and motivation. The fact that it was still 0-0 even after such a poor display by them in the first half provided some food for thought.
Though the initial minutes had Benfica replicating their first half dominance, some close calls in their defensive third urged the Blues to turn the match on its head. They now started pressing collectively, disrupting the well established tempo of their opponents. Juan Mata, who had an unforgettable first half, sprang to life and was more involved in the game. Benitez’s half time talk seemed to have spurred the players as they won a number of fouls close to the Benfica box. Without the ball for a relatively long period, Benfica players got unsettled and made some bad decisions after they won possession. They still maintained their 4-2-3-1 shape.
What Benfica did in first half to Chelsea, the Blues were repaying with the very same tactic. Chelsea players targeted the fullbacks of Benfica and tried playing ball behind Almeida and Melgarejo. Oscar, Mata and Ramires drifted onto the flanks, one wing at a time and also the forward surges of Azpilicueta and Cole helped create the overloads. With the numbers advantage, some decent crosses flew in but they were well dealt with by Luisao and Garay. The first goal though came from an unlikely source, a Cech throw from his box. Mata gave the slightest of touches (a very important one) to that aerial throw, which allowed Torres to turn and run at the keeper. Garay was sleeping and Luisao couldn’t do much about a determined Torres who finished calmly after rounding the keeper to celebrate in front of the Blue fans.
Jorge Jesus made substitutions right away after the goal as Lima came on Rodrigo and John Ola for Melgarejo. Gaitan dropped back into the leftback position. These had a knock-on effect as very immediately Benfica won a penalty. Lima’s header was met by Azpilicueta’s hand inside the box. Cardozo took the penalty well and thus, an interesting final 20 minutes were on cards. Both teams now concentrated more on creating the chances from direct runs rather than playing the numbers game. With some good end to end stuff and some poor final third play, the match was anyone’s piece of pie. Torres came close to earning a penalty but was turned down by the referee. Benfica were forced to make their third sub as Garay injured himself. Some brilliant efforts on-goal from Lampard and Cardozo turned on the heat. With Benitez opting not to change his team, the match was poised for another 30 minutes, but Ivanovic had other ideas. His unmarked, lounging header travelled for ages and fell in Artur’s net on the 93rd minute mark. A few last ditch tackles later, Chelsea were crowned the Europa League champions.
PIE Verdict
Benfica were the better side of the night, but Chelsea kept on fighting until the dying seconds and were rewarded with another trophy. While one can argue the nature of the goals, it was an entertaining second half from both the teams. For Benfica though, it is tough luck as they have had a torrid week, losing ground on their league title and now in Europe. They were superior on the field as the following stats suggest.
Fernando Torres had most of his touches on the flanks and most of those were aerials from Petr Cech, whereas Cardozo was involved in some intricate interplays in the middle of the pitch. Though both the forwards scored goals in the match, it was Torres’ goal that set the bells ringing.
The passing charts of the teams in attacking thirds suggest a stark contrast as Chelsea have not even one successful pass inside the Benfica box. Such was the degree of impenetrability from the Blues. As pointed out before, Benfica played the numbers game and always had a player free on the flanks to put in a cross into the box. Benfica had numerous crosses into the Chelsea box, but not even one header was on target. Ivanovic and Cahill were comfortable in dealing with Cardozo.
In the end of the day, Benfica deserved to win the final, but Chelsea were determined and played to their strengths in their 69th match of the season. Congratulations Chelsea FC.
