The Soccer Blog: CL Recap: Chelsea 0-0 Copenhagen

Thursday, 17 March 2011

CL Recap: Chelsea 0-0 Copenhagen

By: Jack | March 16th, 2011
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Yeah, it was that kind of night. No worries, though, we’ll see you in the last eight.

A classic European night at the Bridge this was not.

Those expecting a leaping Terry header 15 minutes from time to secure our advancement to the next round were let down not on this night but three weeks ago, after 54 minutes in Denmark. Nicolas Anelka’s second goal that evening erased any tension previously allotted for this tie. In fact, Aneka’s away double settled the tie altogether.

So we were not witnesses to an eight-goal thriller. Be glad. We secured our spot in Friday’s draw without even exiting second gear. That’s known as efficiency around these parts. And, you know, we held the cutting edge in reserve for a far more pivotal day. Sunday perhaps?

The Rundown
• We didn’t win. You ain’t heard?
• A year ago to the day we were eliminated at this stage of the competition by Jose Mourinho’s Internazionale. Now we’re into the quarterfinals. Progress.
• Yuri Zhirkov is some kind of player, eh?
• Fernando Torres has lost a yard of pace, they say. Tell that to the bloke he skinned just a few minutes into his substitute appearance.
• The Copenhagen support was in excellent voice, yes, but continuing their spiel during the minute’s silence for the disaster in Japan? Inexcusable.

What else is there to discuss?

This was about as comfortable a game as we could have hoped. No real threat – aside from the annoying N’Doye rattling the crossbar with a wonderful free kick during the opening half – and no real exertion on our part. You got the feeling that, if needed, we could have moved into a third or fourth gear fairly easily.

The scary aspect is that, even with us coasting in second gear, we created chance after chance after chance. There were 28 shots according to the BBC, 12 on target. This compared to Copenhagen’s two. If not for the goalkeeper Johan Wiland, who was, not surprisingly, the standout for FCK, we likely would have netted twice, at least. Alas, it wasn’t to be – and thankfully wasn’t needed.

Drogba continued his Jekyll & Hyde act, choosing this moment to unleash the beast. He really was unplayable for large portions of Wednesday’s match. Apart from the final 10 or so minutes when he somewhat went off the rails, The Mighty One played within himself and opted rather for providing than finishing. There were several wonderful passes, all displaying his range, but his threaded ball for Anelka inside the second half’s opening 10 minutes was stunning.

The Ivorian gathered possession at midfield, managed to drift past three separate challenges from Copenhagen defenders before spotting the run of Anelka. The pass came seemingly out of nowhere, whipped behind the defense with real pace. Unfortunately, as was the case the entire evening, Anelka couldn’t find the touch necessary to cap the move.

And that was even my personal favorite highlight on the night. That came after 18 minutes. Yuri, a lead figure for most of the match, freed Drogba down the left side of the box with a wonderful slide-rule ball. Drogba then cut past a defender before back-heeling the ball into the path of Ashley. The fullback squared for Yuri, who had continued his run to the edge of the box, only for his left-footed strike from all of 12 yards skew wide of the far post. A massive let-down after that kind of interchange, but what a move nonetheless.

So, you see, there may have been no goals but there was indeed promise.

That’s all I got at this hour. On to Sunday.

Undervalued

Player Ratings

Petr Cech
Saves? I don’t remember any. Left for dead on N’Doye’s brilliant free kick. 6.5Jose Bosingwa
A proper tackle. And a proper cross. That in itself is a fine day for the Portugese. For him to actually put in a decent shift for the entire 90, that’s kind of insane. 7Branislav Ivanovic
Ruthless in his efficiency. A human wall on this night. 7.5John Terry
England’s captain with his usual excellence. 7.5Ashley Cole
Resembled Arjen Robben for much of the opening half. Quieted after the break, but it was still a fine evening for the world’s finest left fullback. 8John Obi Mikel
Rodney said it. Obi lives it. He still gets no respect. A quick browse of the major media outlets (Guardian, Sky) reveals that Mikel was considered our poorest performer. Funny, I reckon he was perhaps our best. Did his usually cleaning up well and rarely gave away the ball. He even managed to get himself involved in attack a fair few times. Unlucky not to score his first for the club in some four years. 8Frank Lampard
Almost there. He’s still lacking that touch in front of goal but managed to get himself into plenty of threatening positions. Also provided a great link between the midfield and forward lines. 7.5Ramires
Thought the Brazilian was passed by in the first half, only to muscle his way back into proceedings by the first few minutes of the second. It’s been mentioned time and again, but the kid just runs and runs. 7 (Readers’ MotM)Yuri Zhirkov
His finishing was poor – but whose wasn’t? The rest of the Russian’s evening out, meanwhile, was pretty exceptional. Was there an incisive move during the first half in which he wasn’t a prominent figure? Superb movement and positioning, this to go with the willingness to track back in defense. That in itself was more than we can expect from Malouda, while also freeing up Ashley to go on his winging expedition. A great display. 8 (CO MotM)Didier Drogba
Our most volatile performer over the past two months. Here Drogs was his vintage self, yet instead of pillaging with a view to scoring he was pillaging with a view to providing. Drogba set up many on the night, the highlight the aforementioned ball for Anelka early in the second half. 8Nicolas Anelka
Lively throughout and a constant threat. Found himself in all sorts of excellent positions – thanks to his usual great movement – but a goal just wasn’t in the cards. Any other day he would have collected a hat trick. 8Fernando Torres
Impressed during his 20 minutes. There was the burst of pace past a Copenhagen defender, a move which finished with a smart save from Wiland. Add to that the lovely threaded ball that carried just out of Frank’s reach. 7Florent Malouda
Short cameo. N/AMichael Essien
Short cameo. N/A
Some Related Chelsea Posts:Rant Box: Chelsea v. CopenhagenMotM Poll: Chelsea 0-0 CopenhagenCL Recap: FC Copehagen 0-2 ChelseaPL Recap: Chelsea 2-0 BlackburnCL Recap: Chelsea 2-0 Marseille

Category: Champions League, Chelsea Team News, Fixtures, Match Reports, Player News, Player Ratings

Tags: Ashley Cole, Branislav Ivanovic, Carlo Ancelotti, Champions League, Chelsea Team News, Copenhagen, Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres, Fixtures, Frank Lampard, Jesper Gronjkaer, John Obi-Mikel, John Terry, Match Reports, Nicolas Anelka, Player News, Player Ratings, Stamford Bridge
Tweet « MotM Poll: Chelsea 0-0 Copenhagen | Home | Poll: Who do you fancy in the CL quarterfinals? »RayRamires: NOt only does he run , but at the moment his ball distribution is the best in the team.Thinking whether playing him a little deep in the midfield would help Chelsea get on with attacking play instead of side pass and back passes.arn00bI definitely see your point. Use his distribution to start things from deep, like counter attacks, and use his speed to go quickly forward rather than track back. It would work fo the CL, but not sure for the Premier League.

You need a big, tough guy in the back because forwards and midfielders in the PL are strong and powerful. You also need someone tall since there's more long balls coming, especially in that area (between the midfield and the defense.)

Imagine playing Spurs for example. Modric sends a long ball to Crouch, who stands in an area between Terry/Luiz and Ramires. Crouch heads it to Defoe and suddenly they have the ball in the attack, on the ground, with a fast striker ready to go.

That's an extreme example used to illustrate my point. Now imagine the same situation with Mikel instead of Ramires. Mikel would compete to head for the ball, either getting it or decreasing Crouch's precision through tussling.

So the effectiveness of Ramires is muted in such games. I still agree with you - we should play him in a deep position, but it depends on the opposition and their style.
TimlosThere was something I observed which I hope was only as a result of yesterday's general lethargy. A couple of times when the ball was passed for Anelka to chase down, he gets to the ball and there's no one to cross to or at times when the ball is cut back into a position you expect either Lampard or Essien to come rushing in to take a shot, they are no where to be found. Please this should be addressed. One will expect that when the ball is played out to the front man, the others are running in at full speed to catch-up and provide support.
Unto Torres, I do not know why he was not played at least to further help him in getting this proverbial duck broken. The team/club should be aware that if Torres does not deliver they are to blame. I see it this way, how would you rate Torres if he was a car, a Corvette, Porsche, Rolls Royce? Bottomline is no one goes out to pay top cash for a Toyota or Volks-Wagon, and when you pay good money for a good car, the onus is on you to get the optimum performane from the car otherwise you can't claim manufacturer's default when you fail to study the manual and put the "machine" to good quality use.arn00bAren't the ratings kinda high considering the result and circumstances? (Home game, already won, weak Scandinavian team, etc.)JackNo.arn00bYou gave them higher scores for this drab draw than on the United game, which was a bigger game, better performance, more important for morale, etc:

Petr Cech – 7 –
Bane – 6.5 –
EBJT – 7 –
Ash – 7 –.
Essien – 6.5 –
Lampard – 7.5
Ramires – 7.5 –
Flo – 6 –
Anelka – 5.5
Nando – 6.5
Didier – 7 –
Yuri-dinho – 6.5

I just hope they keep up their sixes and sevens, and less of these drab eights.

JackAnother thing: Had we finished a third of our chances today, which we usually do give or take, and won 3-0, would you have complained about the ratings?JackFirst, look at who did the recap before you throw out comparisons. Second, I love how people base how we play on whether or not we won. Genius. We got by on energy and resilience rather than overall play against United. We were fucking woeful in that first half. Today, we were good for large portions of the match, and didn't even have to be.

I don't even know why you venture around these parts. You rarely agree with anything I have to say.arn00bI didn't meant to say that you gave them higher scores on both games, (you usually use the fist system) - I meant to say that you, today, gave them higher scores than what they got on the Manc game.

I didn't base the game on the result, but on the style, some stats and Ancelotti's own assessment. We had more shots on target and less fouls in the Manchester game, (basing on the stats from the Chelsea site.) We destroyed the Mancs and got Vidic to screw up the defense for the next game. Ancelotti said ""We didn't really have the quality to hurt them tonight, the few times we were through our finishing was poor so we've probably reached the extent of our level. " "Obviously we have to improve. "

I come here because it's a good blog with a good community (few spammers and trolls) and a variety of opinions, both from the bloggers and the visitors. A blog with everyone agreeing is not a blog, but a newsletter.JackI refer to my question above.

As for me usually using the fist system, I've used it once. Once. And the point I am making about you pulling out the United ratings is that it's ridiculous to compare the rating systems of two different people. That's a baseless argument. I'm not Devin and he's not me. We don't see games, and players' performances, the same way, so I have no clue what Devin's United ratings have to do with my Copenhagen ratings.

Moving on. So you base games on style and stats. I guess the fact that we were overrun in the first half against United didn't come into the equation. I must also assume that 28 shots and a flurry of great sweeping moves that were simply lacking a goal mean we were shit today. If so, we didn't see the same game.

Wasteful, yes. Shit, far from it.

So, to turn the focus back on the match at hand and people's opinions of it, let's just say that you don't agree with my ratings and I'm not going to change my opinion. Let's leave it at that shall we?arn00bOh man, we weren't shit, far from it. I just wanna see us go for the neck like we did with the Mancs.

I just don't like when we play at this pace and intensity, feels like "fluid yet careful football", and this game reminded me of the Inter game at home last year. I prefer the high-octane, fullbacks overlapping, centrebacks in the opposition box, all-out devouring-jobs like the Sunderland game. I want the opposition to be making a T-sign and calling for time-out only to realize that they're in the wrong sport.Akerma3-BLUE"I don't even know why you venture around these parts. You rarely agree with anything I have to say."

You're free to post whatever you want, but does the comments space have to reflect your own opinion and analysis? This is a blog after all, least you of all people forget, haha.JackOf course it doesn't. But if I don't enjoy reading the content of a certain blog, I usually don't visit it.

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