Chelsea Plays Out Scoreless Draw, Advances 2-0 Over Copenhagen

The Blues started slow thanks to a opening burst of energy from their opponents, but after 15 minutes the match settled to something like the context we saw on Copenhagen. Only tonight, with the Blues lacking the impetus of the first leg, there was a lack of cunning in those moments after the FCK defense was beaten, leaving Carlo Ancelotti’s team without a goal at home against the smallest of the Round of 16’s speed bumps.

Chelsea, however, are likely to look at this as a pedestrian day at the office. While this was nothing close to their best performance, the Blues never had the intention of giving their best. Nor did they have that intention in the first leg. The Blues approached this round as a warm-up - a tune-up - for the remainder to the tournament.

For Copenhagen, it is a stark improvement on a first leg that saw them outplayed in their first knockout round appearance. Today, FCK started energetically, keeping Chelsea from settling into the match until the quarter hour mark. From there, however, Chelsea was able to roll passes beyond a high Copenhagen line, something that will need to be corrected by FCK is the Danish champions are going to have a chance at pulling the upset.

There was a lot of speculation regarding Carlo Ancelotti’s selection, with the Chelsea manager carrying a safe 2-0 lead into Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League match against FC Copenhagen. Arguably the weakest of the 16 sides to make the second phase, Copenhagen would be generously described as long shots to turn around that deficit at Stamford Bridge. As such, many thought Ancelotti was rest some veterans.

And he has, though not to the extent he could. Fernando Torres and Michael Essien will be rested, but other veterans that could have been sparred - Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole - are starting, but Ancelotti apparently set to stay with his 4-4-2.

Copenhagen are also unlikely to make significant changes, though one difference between Wednesday’s match and the February 22 meeting will be preparedness. The first leg had the Danish champions playing their first meaningful match since December 7, a facet of the meeting that’s since been overblown. Some hypothesized their poor showing against the Blues was a symptom of rust or lack of fitness, but Copenhagen had played six friendlies between the new year and the late February meeting. A better theory for the first leg’s result: Chelsea is a better team.

Stale Solbakken, Copenhagen’s manager, confesses his team needs something miraculous to happen. While the 43-year-old Norwegian is saying all the right things, cliches like (paraphrasing) the first goal will be crucial, there is a resignation to his tone - an implicit acknowledgment his team will need an element of luck.