Chelsea drew 1-1 with Genk away in Belgium, in the Champions League this evening.
Chelsea started with Cech in goal, Bosingwa on the right, Ivanovic & Luiz centrally, with Cole on the left. Romeu took the defensive midfield slot flanked by both Ramires & Miereles, with Malouda, Torres, & Anelka up front.
The blues had opened the scoring through a Ramires goal in the 26th minute and it should have been doubled when Chelsea were awarded a penalty, however Luiz put the resultant kick wide.
Genk opened the second half brightly with the impressive De Bruyne delivering some dangerous balls into the box, and it was the youngster who set up the equaliser, crossing for Vossen to slot home in the 60th minute.
The goal prompted an immediate change by Villas Boas, bringing on Lampard and Sturridge for Ramires and Anelka, with many surprised that Malouda stayed on the pitch. Chelsea upped their game for a while after the substitutions but Genk were not out of the match and had some dangerous opportunities of their own.
Mata soon joined the fray in place of Romeu as Villas-Boas looked to win the match. Win it we could and maybe should have, with Sturridge, Malouda and Lampard all going close, and in the latter two’s case, being only inches away.
Villas-Boas reflected on the match, saying; “It’s not a bad result away from home but we expected to win, I wouldn’t say we lost control. We were quite organised in the first half and in the second half I think we shouldn’t confuse losing control of the game with emotions coming from the stadium.”
“We created enough opportunities again to try to win the game but it’s not happening for us in terms of efficiency. We got a penalty, hit the post and got in front of the goalkeeper a couple of times, so it’s about efficiency at the moment.”
“It’s things we need to focus on because it can put us clear in terms of the result and we can move clear for the second half with 2-0.” He added; “When you don’t the game is always open and there for you to be threatened. Genk made the most of a couple of opportunities they had, one went in and it finished 1-1.’
He reflected; “You play difficult games, and at the moment we are chasing hard this win, but we haven’t found it today. Our reflection must be on what we did in the game, was it enough to win? I think it was but we couldn’t find the back of the net and that made the difference.” Said Villas-Boas.
“It’s back to back games without a win but it is a draw away from home in the Champions League. We still lead the group, now we go to Leverkusen and expect to do something there.”
When asked about Luiz’s missed penalty, the gaffer replied; “We had David and Nicolas Anelka. We always assign two players for penalty kicks, it’s something we practice and all our penalty takers at the moment have missed one, from David to Nico to Lamps so in that sense we have to gain efficiency because all of them are extremely good penalty takers.”
“On the pitch between Nico and David had to decide, and the goalkeeper made a save.”
Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech (c); Bosingwa, Ivanovic, David Luiz, Cole; Ramires (Lampard 65), Romeu (Mata 76), Meireles; Anelka (Sturridge 65), Torres , Malouda.
Goal: Ramires 25