Chelsea managed to take all three points away to Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday, though they should have done it much more comfortably than they did. Despite their dominance in creating chances, they only converted once, so their 1-0 victory was in doubt throughout the match.
3 things we learned from Chelsea’s 1-0 victory over Sporting Lisbon
The Blues are back on track to win Group G after an away win.
It only took two minutes for Chelsea to destroy the Sporting defense for the first time. Everyone was caught out on a through ball from Oscar to Diego Costa, but Rui Patricio came up with an impressive one-on-one save.
Andre Schürrle was probably Chelsea's most dangerous player in the first half, but he was terrible in front of goal. Patricio recovered to make a save on Schürrle after he rounded the Sporting keeper in the 15th minute, then the German international missed an open net from 12 yards seven minutes later.
The Blues’ breakthrough came on a set piece, and a poorly defended one at that. Nemanja Matic wasn’t picked up on a 34th minute free kick to the back post, and Matic did well to rise up and direct a header back across goal and into the back of the net.
Sporting’s defense continued to get torched regularly early in the second half. Oscar was denied by Patricio in the 54th minute after being played into a one-on-one with the keeper, and Mauricio had to clean out Costa to prevent the same six minutes later. Mauricio managed to seriously injure himself during that challenge, and was hauled off a bloody mess.
While Sporting didn't really threaten Chelsea much, they had enough of the ball and enough sequences resembling competent attacks that Jose Mourinho opted to bring John Obi Mikel into the game in the 70th minute. Ultimately, that move served him pretty well, and the Blues were the better side until the end. Patricio continued to win one-on-ones with Chelsea players, who will probably walk away from this game dumbfounded that they only scored once.
Sporting: Patricio, Soares, Sarr, Mauricio (Oliveira 62’), J. Silva, Carvalho, A. Silva (Montero 81’), Mario, Nani, Slimani, Carillo (Capel 81’)
Goals: None.
Chelsea: Courtois, Felipe, Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic, Matic, Fabregas, Hazard (Salah 85’), Oscar (Mikel 70’), Schürrle (Willian 58’), Costa
Goals: Matic (34’)
3 things
1. Andre Schürrle’s finishing is still annoying - The German should have scored three times before halftime. Somehow, he badly missed every single one of his shots. A week ago, in a cup game, Schürrle failed to score from nearly double-digit shots. He’ll start scoring hat tricks at some point, but his streaky finishing has to be frustrating to Jose Mourinho.
2. William Carvalho didn’t nail his job interview - Sporting got absolutely blasted apart on the counter over and over again, while Carvalho committed some bad turnovers. He’s been linked to Premier League sides for upwards of £30m and didn’t look anything like a £30m player on Tuesday.
3. Chelsea are really good - Even though they had to struggle for a bit, Chelsea should have scored six goals. The same can be said about the Schalke match. They’ve been dominant, and a bit unlucky, and they’re clearly the best team both in this group and in England.
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