The millionaire Chelsea project is still alive in Europe. The day that needed it the most was finally a team with a soul, imbued with the additives required by the great European nights. He scored the two goals he needed to get through with a football that was volcanic at times.
Overpressed by the sporting non-return of their millionaire investment, Chelsea deployed with the agonizing point of their situation and the one that comebacks require. Faith, intensity and the essential individual quality to culminate that spasmodic football. With hardly any paperwork, just remove and invent. A simple game, with the children’s beta to play a scolded goal in the opposite field and surrender to finesse in the final meters of their different footballers. And Chelsea have them by the work and grace of their infinite checkbook.
In less than three minutes, Dortmund found itself in the middle of a wasp’s nest of environmental noise, the early injury of its best footballer, Julian Brandt, and hectic actions. Sterling on the run to awkwardly measure himself against Meyer. João Félix to the bankruptcy in the area to avoid finding an opening or an extra span so that his minced ball saved the German goalkeeper. And Havertz, at a gallop too, subtly unbalanced by Emre Can so that he could not adjust his right hand.
The same ten minutes it took the Dortmund bus to reach Stamford Bridge due to the traffic jam in the adjacent streets, it took to appear for the game. He shook off that first Chelsea charge and seemed to tame the match at the feet of Bellingham and Reus. He demanded a flight from Kepa and a saving hand in a direct free kick. His government did not last long for Dortmund. Without Brandt, the footballer who marks the times, he once again succumbed to the high revolutions of Chelsea and that football of marking the line and going out with a shotgun in search of the speed of Sterling and the class and fine foot of João Félix and Havertz . It was Cucurella, central last night, the Chelsea player who best understood that first need to steal in advance and then link up at full speed with those above. If Chelsea had a problem, it was that none of their three attackers is a pure scorer. It took him over half an hour to put a hole in Meyer. Havertz smashed a ball off the post shortly before Sterling finally managed to pop a rebound into the net.
There was no breath for Dortmund after the break. He found himself swallowed up again by that visceral and frenetic Chelsea. A handball from Wolf in a Chilwell cross was detected by VAR. At launch it was Havertz. Impeccable in the race and the brake to beat and deceive Meyer, he, however, went too far to adjust in the launch. The ball bounced off the base of the post. The VAR determined that players from both teams entered the area prematurely. Havertz repeated his risky execution, but this time he did not rush the direction of the hit as much.
Only with the tie lost did a more voracious and determined Dortmund emerge. Bellingham, who disappointed in an appointment that measured him, had the goal in a rebound that he did not give the necessary precision. Wolf forced Kepa into another good intervention with a cross shot to which the Basque goalkeeper reacted with reflexes and a tense forearm. The vertigo and the need caused Potter to start lining his team with defensive players. Dortmund wanted to die in the Chelsea area, with their goalkeeper going up to finish off with more than a minute to play. Too late.
You can follow EL PAÍS Sports on Facebook y Twitterpoint here to receive our weekly newsletter.
