Why Chelsea Crashed Out!
A frustrated, shocked and distraught Jose Mourinho could only just gape in disbelief as his team crashed out of the 2014/2015 prestigious Champions league, to 10 Man Paris Saint Germain in London.
“We lost because we could not stand the pressure” he Continued:
“Clearly some of my players couldn’t cope with that pressure. The individual performances were not good enough. When you concede twice from two corners, it’s about a lack of concentration, a lack of responsibility to cope with the markers and the space you have to control. So we deserved to be punished with this draw. Sorry, this defeat.”
Personally I thought Chelsea had it in the bag when Eden Hazard scored the penalty to give Chelsea a 2-1 lead in extra time, off a Thiago Silva ‘Handballing’ in the penalty box.
Only for the same Thiago Silva to equalize off a corner kick by heading the ball out of the reach of spectacular Thibaut Courtois, in Goal for Chelsea.
Ibrahimovic had been sent off for Paris St Germain at the half hour mark and instead of diminishing Paris, in fact they got better. Why?
Is This Why Chelsea Lost?
Ibrahimovic:
Those who follow the French league will know that Ibrahimovic has not been having a marvelous season so far and is contested by the local press, hence in most games Paris have been used to playing at almost one man less.
His sending off therefore had a relatively less important effect on Paris as if Eden hazard had been sent off for Chelsea for example.
Disappointing Chelsea:
I am forced to agree with Mourinho that his team looked pressurized and played looking up at the stop watch.
Fair enough it is a difficult situation to have in soccer as you know behind your mind that all you need is a goalless draw to go through and the opponent needs a draw of more than 1 goal score line.
This defeat and the inability of Chelsea to dominate, control and win could be based on the fact that they were not willing to risk it enough by playing wide and long when in possession to benefit from the numerical advantage especially when they led by 2-1 if not at 1-0!
This helped Paris St. Germain stay compact with and without the ball to negate Chelsea.In fact they seemed to control the game at all times.
Mourinho’s teams in the past are experts at defending a result and at 2-1, we thought it was routine all the way now, but we were proved wrong!
Refereeing doubts?
The sending off of Ibrahimovic was harsh and I feel at most the referee should have given him a yellow card.One could see that as he went into the tackle his foot was not stretched out and his hands were held back showing not total commitment in the tackle.
The penalty was doubtful to say the least as the trajectory of the ball was not altered to signal contact and if there was contact it must have been very slight. It is fair to say however that the body language and look on the face of Thiago Silva might make one feel he was guilty.
What will Chelsea owner ,Abrahamovic do now?
True to TV the defeat triggered a full screen image of an unhappy looking Abrahamovic in the stands with his wife .Tongues are rolling on what his next move will be, knowing that in the past he has sacked managers who had won league and cup titles, lost in the champions league finals but failed to win the prestigious champions league.
I will be surprised though if he parts way with ‘the special one’ Mourinho but this just added some added extra pressure on Mourinho’s shoulders.
We wish Chelsea fans better fortunes in the near future as they seek to confirm their premier league lead, otherwise there might be changes at the Stanford Bridge after all.
We can think all we want,but the truth rests that, it was a more than deserved victory by Paris Saint Germain who were better on the night.
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Sunday Ogorchukwu Oliseh is a former Nigerian footballer and coach, who in his active player career played as a midfielder. Feel free to follow him on Twitter : @sundayooliseh.. Article originally published on Sunday Oliseh’s Blog
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