Chelsea 3-1 Steaua: Rubin Kazan in the Quarter-Finals
COME ON CHELSEA
By Since66
March 15 2013
This morning Chelsea were paired with Rubin Kazan of Russia in the Quarter-Finals of the Europa League with the first leg at Stamford Bridge on Thursday 4th April 2013. That confirms the run of games that Chelsea have in a short space of time starting at St Mary’s Saturday 30th March against Southampton, Monday April Fool’s Day against Utd in the in the FA Cup, followed by Rubin on Thursday and then…. (takes deep breath) on Sunday 7th April, home to Sunderland.
Regular readers will know I have always been a Torres backer and for as long as the bloke continues to wear the No.9 shirt for Chelsea I will remain so.
How was his luck last night?
Torres grabs his 16th goal of the season, misses a penalty (which proved to everybody he had found confidence from somewhere to take it in the first place… amazing what a goal can do), I sincerely hope that starts him off again, but we have said that before.
Torres then gets an accidental kick leaving him with a bloody nose and while off the pitch, Oscar sent in a peach of a cross, that I know Torres would have been on the end of to smash the ball in the net!
On a night where Torres had started on 15 goals and had lady luck been correctly aligned, Torres could have easily ended up with a hat-trick.
As predicted the Steaua support was loud, the home support was simply missing.
I have never seen the Matthew Harding Lower as empty as it was and there was a complete empty block of visible Blue plastic seats in the East Stand Lower.
Even the Matthew Harding Upper suffered with patches of Blue plastic dotted around.
Is it the Rafa effect?
Is it that no-one cares about the Europa League?
Or
Is it because there are too many games being played over a short period of time, despite the looming break for International qualifying matches.
The official attendance was 28,817, 13,000 down on this season’s average AND Steaua sold out their 3,000 allocation with the majority take-up probably coming from the UK.
On Sunday, March 17th The U19s are in action against Juventus in the Quarter-Finals of the NextGen Series, k.o. 12.30pm.
The game is being played at Brentford’s Griffin Park and there will be LIVE updates on the message board, tagged in with the West Ham preview, from 12.30 and team news will be published as and when available.
Chelsea: Cech, Azpilicueta, Terry (c), Luiz, Cole, Ramires, Mikel, Oscar, Mata (Moses 90), Hazard (Benayoun 90), Torres
Goals: Mata 33, Terry 58, Torres 71
Booked: Mikel 69, Cole 80
Steaua: Tatarusanu, Rapa (Adi Sobrinho 83), Szukala, Chiriches, Latovlevici, Pintilii, Bourceanu (c), Popa, Chipciu, Tanase (Tatu 78), Rusescu
Goal: Chiriches 45
Booked: Bourceanu 49, Rapa 57
NEXT UP: West Ham Utd (H), Sunday 17th March 2013, k.o. 4pm
COME ON CHELSEA
TWITTER: @WVOMChelsea