Chelsea vs. Galatasaray, 2014 UEFA Champions League: Easy win for the Blues

Chelsea are through to the quarterfinals of the Champions League after they coasted past a rather poor Galatasaray at Stamford Bridge.

Galatasaray still only needed one goal, but they could not cause much danger with their forays into the Chelsea half and were frequently undone on the counter-attack. Eto’o was sent clear again before falling foul to a lack of support, while Hazard forced Muslera into a fine save before the offside flag came to the visitors’ rescue.

While some of the round’s biggest or closest-feeling ties have turned into blowouts, Chelsea is strangely uncomfortable heading into the second leg of its Champions League tie with Galatasaray. The Blues have the advantage for Tuesday’s game at Stamford Bridge -- a scoring draw is always a decent road result -- but they’re only in this situation because of a poor second-half performance. They’ve left the door open for the Turkish giants to pull off a big upset.

But the upset is also possible because of the weapons that Galatasaray has. Wesley Sneijder and former Chelsea legend Didier Drogba were let go by the big European powers they used to play for because they made wages that reflected times when they were among the two or three best in the world at their respective positions. They are no longer dominant forces, but they’re still capable of creating magic, even if they don’t have nearly the pace that they used to. A bad attacking performance can be erased by one Drogba header or one Sneijder free kick.