Chelsea Tie Atletico In UCL Semi-Final

 0-0 

Chelsea travelled to Spain today for an important Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid.  Today was the first-leg of the semi-final and Chelsea manager José Mourinho gave Torres the start up front for the Blues against his former club.  Torres had another tiresome day as Atletico were able to control the majority of possession forcing the Chelsea striker to remain isolated for most of the match.

Atletico were the team more likely to score in this first meeting between the clubs, but had trouble breaking down the stout Chelsea defense.  The Terry-Cahill tandem in the center of the defense won nearly every ball played into their box to deny a number of Atletico attacks and the supporting midfielders Mikel and David Luiz stopped anything coming through the middle.

Chelsea will have some concerns going forward though, as a pair of injuries could leave them short-handed.  Keeper Pert Cech came down hard while defending a corner and had to be replace by Mark Schwarzer less than twenty minutes into the match.  Also John Terry sustained an ankle injury late in the match forcing David Luiz to drop back into the Chelsea defense to cover his absence.

Today was not a particularly good showing for Chelsea who had little offensive presence, especially lacking in fullback support.  Ashley Cole and Azpilicueta did not get forward at all making it nearly impossible for Torres, or anyone else, to threaten the Atletico defense.

Chelsea have a huge match over the weekend against Liverpool before the second-leg replay with Atletico.  Both matches will truly test the mettle of José Mourinho's team as Premier League and Champions League titles are on the line.

Galatasaray Fall to Chelsea in Champions League

 3-1agg. 

Turkish club Galatasaray travelled to London for the second leg of their Champions League fixture with Chelsea.  The first meeting ended in a 1-1 draw with Chelsea having an away goal advantage.  Former Chelsea striker Drogba was again in the line-up for Galatasaray and again the Ivorian failed to score against his old club.

Samuel Eto'o started as striker for Chelsea with Hazard, Oscar, and Willian in support.  Together the Chelsea offense was far more effective than Galatasaray's and had their defense struggling to keep up.

Chelsea scored twice in the first-half, one coming at the start and one at the end.  First Eto'o was played in-on-goal with a through ball from Oscar to open up a shooting lane.  The shot took a deflection off defender Chedjou on it's way towards goal and keeper Muslera got a hand to it.  However he could not turn the shot away from goal and Chelsea took the lead(4').

Then in closing moments of the first-half Gary Cahill scored on a set-piece.  Frank Lampard delivered a corner-kick into the box and Terry won the header in the air.  His header was on target and Muslera blocked the initial shot, but the rebound was left in front of goal and Cahill easily turned the loose ball into the net (42').

The second-half did not improve for the visitors despite the substitutions made by manager Roberto Mancini.  In fact, Galatasaray did not manage to get a single shot on target over the course of the match making it rather impossible to get back into contention.

Chelsea is now the only English club to advance into the quarter-finals with Manchester City and Arsenal already falling out of the tournament.  Manchester United also has a chance to stay alive with their second-leg match with Olympiakos coming tomorrow at Old Trafford.

F.C. Basel Beat Chelsea Again in Champions League

 1-0 

Earlier in September the Swiss club F.C. Basel beat Chelsea 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.  In that match Oscar gave Chelsea the lead in the first-half, but conceded goals to Mohamed Salah and Marco Streller in the second-half.  Today in Switzerland, Oscar was a ghost for Chelsea and Samuel Eto'o was not playing well before coming out with an apparent groin injury.

Salah was the best player in the first-half for F.C. Basel and had two close chances saved by Petr Cech in goal.  Chelsea did not get much better in the second-half with Torres stepping in for Eto'o.  Torres was more involved in the attack, but could not find the space to test the keeper.

Late in the game F.C. Basel caught Chelsea napping following a substitution by the visitors.  Chelsea manager José Mourinho used his final substitution to bring on Kevin De Bruyne for Willian in a last-ditch effort to score the winner.  Instead the ensuing free-kick from F.C. Basel was played right behind the Chelsea defense.  Fabian Schär delivered the free-kick from behind midfield to put Mohamed Salah in-on-goal.  Chelsea defender Ivanović did not see Salah coming behind him and the Egyptian international had a free run at goal before scoring the game-winner (87').

Chelsea remain at the top of the Champions League group, while F.C. Basel now move ahead of German club Schalke 04.  After tomorrow's matches there will only be one more round of group play to sort out who advances to the knock-out round.  Chelsea are still in a good position to win the group, but that second spot will come down to the match between Basel and Schalke next month.