Champions League: Chelsea 2-0 Werder Bremen
Wednesday, 13 September 06, 12:07 PM · Comments (19)
Match reports
The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: "The result has the authentic Chelsea ring to it but there were still false notes. It took the penalty that Michael Ballack converted after 66 minutes for his first goal at the club to dim the brightness of Werder Bremen's spirit. Only the post prevented Frank Lampard from raising the margin to 3-0, but even Jose Mourinho agreed that would have been unjust."
Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: "Although the English champions were not completely convincing, they showed enough threat, particularly from midfield, to have their fans dreaming of the Parthenon in spring time. They may even renew acquaintance with Kyros Vassaras, whose daytime job involves tourism in the land of Mount Olympus."
The Times, Matt Dickinson: "Mourinho accepted that his team conceded too much territory immediately after the interval, when Miroslav Klose twice went close, but his main complaint was the bookings picked up by John Terry, Didier Drogba, Lampard and Joe Cole. Terry certainly had no defence but that did not stop Mourinho alluding, once again, to bias against his team."
The Independent, Sam Wallace: "For the away supporters in a sparse crowd of 32,135, Ballack was the target of some unprintable chants which, even in German, left little to the imagination. He played like a man with a point to prove and despite one brazen dive was the pick of Chelsea's players."
Official Chelsea FC Website, Paul Mason: "It was little wonder that the Chelsea players were so annoyed when the regulations were applied unevenly, the referee failing to book Diego when he blasted a shot over some seconds after the whistle had blown for offside."
The good
- Michael Essien. His first European goal for Chelsea capped yet another excellent game for the Ghanaian. Mourinho may beg to differ, but this season's dynamic performances make him undroppable in the eyes of most Chelsea fans.
- Michael Ballack's penalty. Simple really - when you have a German in the side, let him take the spot kicks. Even Frank Lampard agreed - despite the inevitable reports of rivalry between the two, he handed the ball to Ballack and was the first to congratulate him when the German captain made it 2-0.
- The result. A patchy performance with a system still struggling to accomodate the talents of Makelele, Essien, Lampard and Ballack in midfield, but with Barcelona off to a flying start after a 5-0 win against Levski Sofia, three points will do very nicely.
- The Bremen fans. Despite the inevitable stick they gave Ballack, their numbers and constant vocal support marked them out as the best European away fans seen at the Bridge for some time.
The bad
- Empty seats. £50-60 per ticket for a televised game against a lesser-known European team, nearly 10,000 empty seats. The club claim a fan base of millions - someone's figures don't quite add up.
- The referee. In fairness, John Terry was lucky to stay on the pitch but the inconsistency was there for all to see. Pointless bookings which may come back to haunt us later in the group stages.
- Wingers (or lack thereof). The depth of talent in the squad is vital for an assualt on Europe and the Premiership, but quite who will make way for the return of Cole and Robben (let alone Shaun Wright-Phillips) is anyone's guess. Not an easy problem to solve.
Man of the Match
Michael Essien. Again.
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Peter H spot on it's a farce and the Club refuse to address the problem, spouting nonsense about how they reduce tickets for the FA Cup and the Carling Cup - who cares? That is simply not the issue.
I can only assume that the club make more money from having 33,000 people paying more than a full house paying less. I am not entirely sure if that works. Or maybe they are just hoping to maximise income from the Barca home game.
Either way it is simply not acceptable to talk about three home games in a week etc, they should just reduce the prices so people can afford to go.
I find it totally despiriting and deflating watching our boys, supposedly the best team in the country, play in front of a less than capacity crowd.
On the football front thought it was a good game yesterday. Essien was brilliant and Ballack is slowly but surely coming into form. I remember four or five pinpoint 60 yard passes beyond the fullback which took the breath away. Once our wingers are firing we should be able to tear teams apart. Plus his penalty was brilliant. I particularly like this quotation from our spiritual leader JT:
“It was a great strike. As he was stepping up, I was thinking Werder Bremen know Michael quite well and that could work to his disadvantage but striking them like that, obviously not!â€
Lamps still looks a bit pedestrian to me.
Our formation according to The Telegraph was.-Chelsea (4-1-2-1-2):
4-1-1-1-1-1-1 is next!
Otherwise known as a diamond formation surely?
Cheers Luke - glad you enjoyed your first trip to the Bridge.
The ticket pricing is a worry - chances are the Sofia game could have something riding on it as it's the last one in the group so the crowd should be decent, but it doesn't alter the fact that the tickets are generally overpriced at this stage. The concern is that prices have reached a point where people won't consider it and just stay at home to watch on TV.
One other point on support and tickets,
Am I the only one to find the capital radio advertising campaign toe curlingly embarrrasing and reminisent of Arsenals ill fated use of old Wembley for the champions league. I know radio advertising is not that expensive but none the less the lack of attendance all comes down to the pricing policy IMHO.
We shouldn't have to advertise for fans.
Winning start. First match of the Champions league at home and 2-0 is a score you should accept against a team of Werder Bremen’s calibre. Chelsea were easily the better team but were threatened by Bremen only occasionally. Bremen had their chances as well from German world cup hero Miroslav Klose. He was more threatening in the second half. Chelsea’s defence was just outstanding with Maka and Essien commanding the defensive midfield area and supporting the defence thoroughly. Still, the incomplete passes proved that there the understanding and teamwork can improve. Though we did not attack too well, we just enough to get us the points.
Are we seeing the best of Michael Essien? He has been playing brilliantly for a month. And now, he had to score. That was the missing part all along. When Lampard was floored, his anticipation was very good and his finish just perfect. More than the goal, his overall contribution to the team was immense. He was infact over-shadowing Maka’s presence. Like always, he was the most fouled player. I’m happy that he has been able to erase his unfortunate media-driven ‘rogue’ image of the last season.
Terry was just as usual. Boulahrouz was impressive but he has to be stronger in the air. It may not be a good idea to put Boulahrouz and Carvalho as both are indecisive in the air. I preferred Wayne Bridge over Ashley Cole to play in the match today. Ashley was not at his best. Wayne’s dribbles and crosses might have given us a goal more. Wayne is very sharp and absolutely match fit. In fact, he appeared fitter than many of the players. May be because, he didn’t play in the world cup.
Good game for for the midfielders but so much for the forwards. Both Sheva and Drogba wasted some chances. Sheva should have certainly buried one when his first touch had beaten the defender and surprisingly, he allowed the defender to get the better of him and clear the ball. And Drogba, completely unmarked, put a volley off target. Sheva, especially was very off colour and we certainly expect much better stuff from him. He was certainly not bubbling with energy. His body language was not promising either. I hope he pulls up his socks for the Liverpool match. It was sad to see fans booing Kalou when he replaced Drogba. I think he has the quality but he just needs the time. I think both Kalou and Obi Mikel should start and play for 90 minutes against Levski Sofia matches.
Lampard was unlucky to have missed out earlier but anyway was finished by Essien. About 10 minutes to end, Lampard hit the woodwork with a very shot from a very sharp angle. Not so surprisingly, Ballack took the penalty today and blasted that in the top right of the net. Some freekicks were taken by Ballack and Sheva. It must have been difficult for Frank to give away his responsibilities that have always been his own for 2 years now, to his new team mates. When you have missed 3 out of your last 4 penalties, I dont think it was a bad decision to have Ballack take the kick.
The only negatives of the match were Sheva and Ashley Cole’s performances and four yellow cards. It was not a fluent or flambuoyant game from Chelsea but a very solid one. Barca tops the group by goal difference and unless Chelsea does a similar goal fest, it will be difficult to top the group by points.
Elsewhere Barca made a mincemeat of the new comers Levski and also showed that they have the team to defend their title as half of their team found their names in the scoresheet. A look at the goals would make you believe that Levski are playing with 8 men. Poor defence. Barca did just right in crushing them. Liverpool, once again didn’t allow to score and didn’t score either. Despite having about geniune 8 strikers in their team, no one could come to Inter’s rescue as they were defeated by Sporting Lisbon in the shock of the night. Morientes scored a hattrick in their 4-2 win over Olympiakos aftert the early threat. Roma stuffed all their 4 goals in the last 30 minutes to break Shakhtar hearts while FC Bayern finished off Spartak Moscow 4-0. So, the Champions League starts off with lots of goals. In fact, 4 out of the 8 matches played tonight resulted in 4 or more goals!
So, for now, we can breathe easy and stop talking about the now-so-called ‘group of death’.
19 Comments · Add yours
Well, my first Chelsea game in person - I've just recently moved to the UK from Australia, and I loved every minute of it. Seated in the MHL and the missus and I had a great time chanting and cheering, plus I thought the sight of the Bremen fans bouncing and cheering arm in arm was fantastic. Great fans.
Excellent report as usual Jonathan, I have to agree with everything you've mentioned. In my personal view, I think we need to move away from a flat back four as we are lacking a strong, pacy right full-back. I also think Bridgey should have started, not only has earnt it but Cole looked much too uncomfortable, understandably on his debut start, and his hesitations prevented from beating his man and providing any meaningful crosses. Changing to a back 3, with Bridge and Essien as wing-backs would have given us a bit more potency down the channels and prevented poor Andriy running out wide to receive the ball. Makalele is there to shield as usual and drawing Bremen out wide on the counter attack would have made more space and time in the middle.
On another note, I particularly feel for Drogba, i was suprised to see a yellow given considering he is a striker and shot instinctively as soon as he controlled the ball. Plus there was still 20 minutes left and there was chanting etc going on so the whistle would have been hard to hear.
As for the penalties, well I'm happy for Ballack to continue. Everyone goes through barren spells, Frank (like Gerrard) is just unfortunate his excellent past season's have raised what standards the fans and media are accustomed too to impossibly high levels. If giving the penalty job takes away some of the pressure and helps him rediscover his scoring touch from open play, then I'm all for it.
Now I just have to get my hands on tickets for the Barca clash!
Sitting in my £55 seat watching a game I could have been viewing from my armchair, it occured to me the atmosphere may actually have been better in my front room.
The club have patently got the Euopean pricing mechanism woefully wrong. I will be at Barca but will definately not bother with Sofia. European nights should be a celebration of the clubs success with an atmoshpere to match Liverpool at home and a stadium packed to the rafters.
I think it is totally understandable that people stayed at home and am frankly impressed that as many people forked out for the game as they did given the exhorbitant cost.
A mini season ticket for the group phase should cost no more than £35 per match. Season ticket holders should be required either to buy their mini season ticket or surrender the seat back to the club for the group phase and buy through the box office if they want to pick and choose games.
Full stadiums and a strong atmosphere a) maximise our home advantage and b) enhance the brand value of the club.
Surely this isn't rocket science and you have to as who the hell is in charge of this fiasco - did they learn nothing from last year???....