Home   >   MOTDs   >   MOTD- Stoke City 3-2 Chelsea

MOTD- Stoke City 3-2 Chelsea

By on December 7, 2013

Andre Schurrle bagged his first brace in Chelsea colors yet failed to inspire Chelsea to a win in Jose Mourinho’s first ever visit to the Britannia Stadium. The Blues’ put in a fine first half performance, but as Mourinho put it, failed to “kill the game”, leading to Tony Pulis’ second win in two home matches in charge of Stoke after Oussama Assaidi’s late winner.

However it was anything from a horrible performance from Mourinho’s men, and the gaffer even admitted “After half an hour we should have been winning three or four,” after the loss. It seemed like Chelsea would have four in the opening half hour when Schurrle bagged the opener just eight minutes in following Chelsea’s dominant showing in the first moments of the encounter. The attacking-midfielder jinked in and out of two Stoke defenders before cutting inside and curling a beautiful shot into the bottom corner to make it 1-0.

As Mourinho said, Chelsea dominated the flow of the match for the next twenty minutes, but somehow Stoke made it level when ping-pong in the Chelsea box ended with Peter Crouch blasting a low shot into the back of the net through the legs of both Ramires and Petr Cech. The Potters’ even completed the turn around five minutes into the second half when Walters’ played it inside from the right to Stephan Ireland, who set up the shot and curled a superb effort in off the post from the edge of the box.

Yet Chelsea were only down for three minutes as Schurrle equalized with another brilliant strike. Juan Mata’s free-kick bounced out to Schurrle off the wall, and the German international sliced a stunning low volley into the bottom corner to once again make the score level. Having scored his second Schurrle was determined to put Chelsea in front again and complete his hat-trick, and the former Bayer Leverkusen player came ever so close in the fifty-fifth minute when his screaming effort bounced back out off the crossbar.

Somehow, the thrilling match looked to be heading for a draw as the 2-2 scoreline held up into the final minutes of the match, yet Stoke found a brilliant winner just four minutes before time when Assaidi was played in down the left by Ireland. The substitute cut inside and unleashed a spectacular swerving shot into the top corner from twenty yards that was a goal worthy of the winner. It was to be the winner too, with the full time whistle blowing after four minutes of stoppage time to seal the huge three points for Stoke.
Man of the Match: Andre Schurrle

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.