Havertz’s foil allows Chelsea to overturn a blunted Borussia Dortmund and conquer the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
– The 1-0 gained at Signal Iduna Park leaves the qualification discussion very open, even more so considering the balance of power shown in the first leg between Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund. A muscle injury immediately took Julian Brandt out of the match, perhaps the fittest of the 22 on the pitch at the time of Makkelie’s kick-off. This, combined with an excellent high pressure from the Londoners, could scare many, but not this BVB: for a good half hour, Terzic’s men manage to manipulate Potter’s pressing, constantly finding the third man in lateral combinations thanks to of Reus and the successor Reyna. Kepa’s save from the Borussia captain’s free-kick was the goalkeeper’s only intervention, but the yellow and black maneuver remained fluid. Around 30′ the pace of the match changed: only Meyer’s right-hand post prevented Chelsea and Kai Havertz from punishing a mistake made by the BVB left wing. Koulibaly clamorously butts on a flickering exit from Meyer, pardoning a BVB too soft in the positional defense in their own penalty area. Potter applauds from the technical area and, in the twilight of the first half, the goal arrives: Sterling chews his left foot, wins the rebound with Reus and thunders into the net with his right foot;
– Potential penalty check at the start of the second half: Wolf blocks Chilwell’s cross with his arm, penalty for Chelsea, Havertz confirms his affection for the right post at the Stamford Bridge goals but Özcan (not only him…) enters the area too early, everyone filming the 2-0 of the German “center forward” on their mobile phone. Bellingham devours the 2-1 a few meters from Kepa, at the conclusion of the first action maneuvered for several minutes in that part. Terzic tries to change inertia by inserting Bynoe-Gittens, but Kepa is careful on Wolf’s right foot. The second half seems to be the manifesto of why, at the moment, the Premier League is from another planet: a team that is struggling to find the right formula has the athletic and technical resources to roller, in the single challenge, the best post-Qatar team in Europe. Until the final whistle, a single goal for Borussia would be enough to reopen it: despite some horror positional defenses, Chelsea manage to undo it;
– Raheem Sterling he is the man who least deserves to unlock the game for Chelsea, but the god of football decides to reward him instead of Havertz’s elegance and Felix’s ineffability. The divinity, having gone to have a hot tea, comes to her senses and begins to distribute dividends to those who have done the most to conquer them: Kai Havertz takes two posts but, at least tonight, deserves the icing of the goal. When he rises to the chair athletically, few outfielders can be said to match the level of Reece James: those responsible to save him from injuries;
– Emre Can and Salih Ozcan: Terzic’s two Pulcinella secrets support, as always since January, the scaffolding of the dribble and re-aggression. The intelligence in the movement without the ball, the guarantee of one of the two central players in the lavolpian output with the other filling the central band, the preventive covers behind the first pressure line: movements that are difficult to measure with data and statistics, but tremendously important for the balance of a team. Do you know a physically below average Portuguese left-footed full-back who rages at any height of the pitch? No, it’s not Mario Rui: Raphael Guerreiroif possible, takes being even further to the extreme inverted. Too bad for Borussia that there is also a right wing: regardless of the penalty caused, Marius Wolf he is not a full-back from the round of 16 of CL, while Reyna it is defrosted reluctantly and points it out right away;
– Chelsea go to the quarter-finals: only Father Time will tell how good Graham Potter’s work can be. Regardless of criticism and skepticism, he has always shown that he obtains the first results only after an initial period of acclimatization and adaptation to the new context. Thiago Silva’s injury could, if desired, represent an unexpectedly positive turning point: is a more aggressive soul perhaps more innate in the strings of London blue? The absence of Brandt and Adeyemi risk weighing, in the long run, on a deep but not very deep squad like that of Borussia. Difficult to keep pace with Bayern in the Bundesliga. But if there is a team that is convinced in its own means and, despite everything, very hard to die, this is BVB.