The European Champions gave away a convincing 2-0 lead at Stamford Bridge into the hands of a resilient Juventus side that took advantage of the mistakes created by the Chelsea defense. Roberto Di Matteo, on the other hand, firmly believed that Chelsea were the better team and that his side will give a better performance in Turin.
What can Chelsea take away from this draw?
1. Chelsea’s future is as bright as the sun.
Oscar showed brilliance in his first start for Chelsea. It was clear that Roberto Di Matteo gave him the terrifying job of marking the Italian architect, Andrea Pirlo.
Imagine this situation. What if a manager comes up to you and casually tells you that you’re marking one of the best players in the game today?
Oscar made it look like a piece of cake. His second goal says it all, a delightful turn which left Pirlo flabbergasted and as I had pointed out in my tactical analysis, Pirlo’s main weakness is his defense.
2. Chelsea no longer have their bus
Terry messed up big time and the Chelsea defense was not at its best which could easily been seen in both the goals. Evidently, there was a huge mistake on the part of Mikel but he played well throughout the game despite that incident.
Conquering Barcelona was due to the amount of time they spent perfecting their defense. Roberto Di Matteo obviously wants to move away from it and Chelsea without a doubt tried to play beautiful football but Chelsea will have to tighten their defense, if they are to survive against tougher oppositions and have an oppurtunity to defend their European crown.
3. Juventus are not unbeatable
Chelsea had 3 points in the bag after Oscar curled the ball past Buffon but it was not Chelsea’s day at the back. In Turin, Massimo Carrera will be hoping that his boys can tighten things up. RDM will be fuming that the players could not come out with a win and will be going the extra mile to make sure that things are right during the return game.
Their 43 unbeaten streak is rather translucent, it seems. They have not faced strong European teams and in my eyes they are going to lose it very soon, and hopefully it’s against Chelsea.
4. The fans can carry the team all the way
Chelsea fans are one of the best in Europe and England; home and away. Juventus were in high spirits but were subdued after Oscar shocked them with two quickfire goals. Last year’s lessons had taught the Chelsea faithfull well as they sticked with their team for the entire 90 minutes. Constant chanting of “carefree”, “we know what we are, European Champions”, “John Terry‘s won the double” is enough to lift up any team.
They made Barcelona look like they had no fans at Camp Nou and the fans will carry the team on their backs this season.