Steaua Bucharest 0 Chelsea 4: Ramires at the double but Torres limps off as Blues ease past Romanian test Relief was short-lived for Fernando Torres. No sooner had he escaped an FA charge for violent conduct than he limped off with an injured knee, the only blemish on an excellent night for Chelsea in Europe. Ramires scored twice, either side of an own goal, and Frank Lampard added a fourth in stoppage time as Jose Mourinho’s side cleansed the Basle defeat from their system. For Mourinho, it was the calm after the strop. He was grumpy ahead of the game but all smiles as his team were applauded from the pitch by Steaua Bucharest supporters. Steaua were poor and may turn Group E into a three-team race. Last year, Nordsjaelland claimed only one point and Chelsea finished third with 10, plunging them into the Europa League. ‘Everything depends on the next two matches,’ said Mourinho, still wary. But last night, for the first time since he returned, his team had balance: strong, quick and decisive going forward. ‘Normally my feelings never betray me and from the first minute my feelings were positive,’ he said. ‘We defended very well and the team was solid. We kept control. We didn’t give the initiative away. We played a complete game.’ Ramires was clinical, Andre Schurrle excelled on the left and Juan Mata continued to reverse his manager’s opinion. ‘He played very well with the ball as he always does and very well without the ball as he never did,’ said Mourinho. The only setback was for Torres, whose injury struck about four hours after news from Wembley that he would face no further action for scratching Jan Vertonghen. Poetic justice, some might say. The cat got the cream and then got crocked and it had that innocuous feel serious ligament injuries sometimes have. Torres seemed to suffer the injury as he made a tackle after only 37 seconds. Ten minutes later, he dropped to his haunches by the touchline. The medical team examined his left knee and the dejected striker mimed a twisting motion with his good leg to suggest a medial ligament problem. Torres tried to continue but was unable to fully flex his left leg. Off he trudged again, head bowed this time and straight down the tunnel. A second successive game ended prematurely and in disappointment. Samuel Eto’o came on and was involved in the opener, a move started and finished by Ramires, and featuring Schurrle, who gave Steaua right-back Daniel Georgievski a torrid night. It was the first time Chelsea fans saw why the German winger had commanded an £18million fee in the summer. His delivery was sometimes a little awry but on this occasion his low cross found Eto’o, who miscued so completely that his volley at goal turned into the perfect pass to Ramires. The Brazil midfielder charged through the centre of the penalty area to prod the ball past goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu from close range. Chelsea’s second was another sweeping move. Ashley Cole sprang out of defence with the ball after clearing a Steaua corner and tucked a pass infield to Mata, who eased it effortlessly into the feet of Eto’o. The striker took it past one defender and fired low. Tatarusanu saved but pushed it towards defender Georgievski, who booted it straight into his own net. Two half-time changes by Steaua manager Laurentiu Reghecampf lifted the home team a little but did not alter the pattern of the game. Lampard missed a decent chance but Ramires lashed in his second after a neat pass from Oscar and more great work by Schurrle. Mata hit a post before Lampard swept in the fourth from the edge of the box. Mourinho is still waiting for one of his strikers to score but the European campaign is rolling. He said: ‘I put that pressure on them because we have to do everything we can to keep Chelsea playing in the Champions League because it is our competition. It’s the way they can grow up faster, to be faced with that pressure. ‘If I tell them that because it’s a new team, I’m a new manager, a new style of football, then it’s no problem if we finish 20 points behind in the Premier League and no one will care. Or we go into the Europa League because that’s fine for us, they won’t grow up. ‘Sometimes you need bigger challenges. They coped very well, so I’m happy, and we played very good football and were beautiful in attacking areas at times.’
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 03:09:50 +0000
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