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MOTD- Chelsea 2-0 Galatasaray

By on March 18, 2014

It may have been Didier Drogba’s first return to Stamford Bridge since leaving Chelsea at the end of the 2011/2012 season, but Jose Mourinho neglected to pull something special out of his hat to welcome home his former favorite at Chelsea.  Instead, Mourinho decided to go with his classical approach of slowly smothering Chelsea’s opponent to pull off a tight win.  But the Portugese manager did prove that, while his tactics might not have, Chelsea’s team has moved on from Drogba in the win over Galatasaray, which takes them on into the Champions League Quarterfinals.

Only four minutes into the match, Chelsea made evident the fact that Samuel Eto’o, along with Fernando Torres, can fill the gaping whole in the shoes that Drogba left at the Bridge by setting him up with an opportunity to outscore Drogba in the tie.  On the counter-Hazard spread the play out to the right to Oscar, who slipped an inch-perfect pass back into the middle towards the run of Eto’o.  In Drogba-esque fashion Eto’o gobbled up the chance, taking the ball slightly to the right before banging a low effort underneath Fernando Muslera into the bottom left corner of the net.

However, Drogba seemed intent on making something spectacular out of his return to his old home, bombing an attempt at an incredible bicycle-kick from the edge of the box way over in the fourteenth minute.  But Chelsea would take no goals, even those from their “king”, that could possibly keep Galatasaray in the tie, at least before they put the tie to bed.  The home side nearly did so in the twenty-first minute when Frank Lampard finished off a wonderful move with a poked effort that flew just inches wide of goal, and came even closer to a second as John Terry volleyed Lampard’s free-kick inches over the crossbar thirty-two minutes in.  Finally, Mourinho’s side got their goal, with Muslera expertly palming Terry’s bullet header away off a Chelsea conrer, only for Gary Cahill to slam the rebound into the back of the net at the near post.

Chelsea began to sit on their lead, and only really threatened once again when Torres came on with five minutes to go in the second half.  Even then they failed to get a third, largely because Torres failed to convert a near sitter as he curled Hazard’s wonderful flick wide off the legs of Muslera from hardly six yards out.  But then again, even the best can miss, as Drogba proved soon after when he headed a Galatasaray free-kick wide from close range.  In the end, that would be the closest the Ivorian got to making something of his return to Chelsea.
Man of the Match: Frank Lampard

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.