Chelsea earned a valuable draw away to Galatasaray and will also take an away goal back to Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea losing a lead despite first-half dominance dampened the mood among Chelsea fans, despite a draw being a very respectable result away to Turkish champions Galatasaray.
Didier Drogba welcomed his former teammates to his new home with friendly hugs during the pre-match handshakes, but throughout the game, despite having little effect, looked very determined to sink the Blues.
Chelsea lined up with what seemed to be a two-striker formation, with Andre Schurrle and Fernando Torres seemingly playing in front of Willian and Eden Hazard.
Chelsea took an early lead to add to their dominance as Fernando Torres tapped in Cesar Azpilicueta’s cutback to make it 1-0 to Chelsea.
The Premier League’s top side looked to add more as they pushed forward, looking to loop passes behind Galatasaray’s extremely high defense.
Buruk Yilmaz seemed to have equalised for the home side, but a clever trick (or piece of cheating) by Blues captain John Terry meant there were two balls on the pitch at the time, stopping the game.
Despite there being no other clear-cut chances to extend their lead, Mourinho was disappointed to only be going into half-time 0-1 up:
“In the first half we had three or four chances where we should have been more effective, in the second it was a fair result.”
Roberto Mancini made an early second half change to try and stop to Chelsea threat at source as they constantly looked to attack down the left-side, and it came into effect with positive results in the second half.
Galatasaray 1-1 Chelsea
Chelsea struggled to keep possession in the game, with the home fans growing in volume whenever their side did not have the ball.
Galatasaray took the game to Chelsea, and ended up having more shots than Chelsea during the game, the majority being in the second period.
Galatasaray captain Inan had a golden opportunity to level the game up following Didier Drogba’s knock-down from a corner, but the Turk could only stud the ball onto the post from point-blank range.
Chelsea’s valiant defending all went to waste as Galatasaray centre-half Aurelien Chedjou found himself unmarked from a corner to easily tap in a cross that Petr Cech looked to be in control of in the 64th minute.
Chelsea replaced Andre Schurrle with John Obi Mikel, which eventually brought more control and calmness into Chelsea’s passing play. Samuel Eto’o could have little effect after replacing Fernando Torres.
As the final whistle went, the overall reflection of the game seemed to be that the result was a fair one.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho looked to reflect on the positives and, like most blues fans, thought highly of tonight’s draw:
“We got an acceptable result in a stadium where it’s not easy to play, it’s not easy to win, so we did well”
Chelsea welcome Dider Drogba and Galatasaray back to the Bridge on March 18th, where the Blues will hold the advantage.
However, 1 goal could see the Turkish side through. A goal or two for Chelsea would surely kill the tie.
