SERGE WRITES OFF CHELSEA
Livewire Gnabry’s double unplugs Chelsea
SERGE GNABRY, the ex-Arsenal youngster who destroyed Tottenham in the Champions League, wrecked Frank Lampard’s Chelsea last night. Gnabry, who scored four goals at Spurs in a 7-2 demolition in the group stages, struck twice in the second half to give Bayern control of the last 16 tie. The Bundesliga champions broke the deadlock in the 51st minute when Gnabry (left) exchanged passes with Robert Lewandowski to poke the ball beyond Willy Caballero. Three minutes later, Gnabry calmly slotted the ball into the bottom righthand corner after being slipped in by Lewandowski. The Polish striker then got in on the act himself on 76 minutes. Lampard (left) and his team have a mountain to climb in Munich on March 18 — the scene of Chelsea’s amazing triumph in the 2012 final against Bayern.
FAILING to make the grade at Arsenal must really have hurt Serge Gnabry. He’s been taking it out on the capital’s football clubs ever since.
To go with his four at Tottenham in the group stage, two here to all but end this tie.
Gnabry has scored one more Champions League goal in London this season than Harry Kane, three more than Son Heung-min, and five more than Tammy Abraham.
His Bayern Munich team were worth every inch of their victory, too. They dominated Chelsea from start to finish — literally, given their first chance came after 40 seconds — and made the second leg a formality.
Without Willy Caballero’s efforts last night, Chelsea might as well have shook hands and not bothered with the return.
Forget Liverpool and Barcelona, it will need a Tyson Fury of a performance if Chelsea are to challenge Munich’s command of the tie — and there was no sign of that happening last night.
Worse, Chelsea will be without both first-choice central midfielders, after Jorginho picked up a yellow card to keep him out of the return leg.
That it was for arguing with referee Clement Turpin makes it quite the most stupid booking, as well as a damaging one.
With N’Golo Kante already out through injury, what was he thinking?
Obviously, he wasn’t. And it is worth noting that the score when he collected his ban was 0-0. It can be argued that Munich were well on top, but the confidence seemed to leave Chelsea after this setback.
Munich scored their first moments later, their second within three minutes and ran away with it when Robert Lewandowski scored the third.
So Gnabry did it again. Hard to believe this is a player who could not make West Brom’s team when Arsenal sent him on loan.
Both goals were lovely, both followed a pattern. For the first, Gnabry fed Lewandowski who took the ball slightly wide of centre on the left, then cut it back perfectly. Gnabry was arriving late and finished low past Caballero.
Another interchange of passes with Lewandowski sparked the second, Gnabry streaking away and finishing with a magnificent shot low across Caballero, to leave Chelsea in jeopardy.
Journey’s end came in the 76th minute, after a brilliant run by young left-back Alphonso Davies which left Andreas Christensen on the turf in his wake as he tried to prevent it.
To finish, he left Lewandowski with a simple tap-in, his 39th goal in 33 matches for Bayern this season and his 11th from six in the Champions League.
Marcos Alonso appears the lone individual unimpressed with that. He was subsequently sent off for catching Lewandowski with an arm as they chased down a ball soon after.
Rather than clubbing him, he would have been better off joining the applause. Lewandowski and Munich were superb and Chelsea had no answer to them.
Looking at the way he set his team up — five at the back, another bank of four in midfield — Frank Lampard would have settled for a goalless draw at half time.
What he won’t have been so happy with is the amount of chances Bayern Munich were allowed to create.
They hit the bar and Willy Caballero made a series of outstanding saves.
He looks less like a riposte to Kepa Arrizabalaga every week.
Munich are a different team under coach Hans-Dieter Flick, more aggressive, more like their old selves, and they had no qualms taking the game to Chelsea.
There were only 40 seconds gone when Thomas Muller had a strike from the edge of the area that flew just wide of Caballero’s far post. It was a statement of intent that Munich, and Muller in particular, had no trouble backing up.
In the 11th minute, the pace of Kingsley Coman served as another warning of Munich’s potential — playing a delightful one-two with Muller that took the central rump of the Chelsea team out of the game before trying his luck at Caballero’s near post.
It took the goalkeeper by surprise and it is unlikely he would have had it fully covered had Coman found the target.
Munich are not afraid to go direct, either, particularly if they can pick out one of the greatest strikers in Europe, and it was a ball over the top to Robert Lewandowski that posed the next danger.
It released him one on one only to be thwarted by the sturdy figure of Caballero, quick off his line and turning the ball around for a corner.
It was a similar story soon after, when Muller played the pass of the match so far, real eye of the needle stuff, leaving Lewandowski with only Caballero to beat once more.
Again, the goalkeeper came out on top and Arrizabalaga’s hope of a swift first-team recall receded yet further.
Then, two chances for Muller, one self-made, the other the miss of the match.
First, he picked up the ball from a smart throw-in, turned on goal and hit a fine shot from 25 yards that flew just wide.
Yet, having made something out of nothing, Muller contrived to make nothing out of something with ten minutes of the half remaining.
Serge Gnabry hit a magnificent cross from the left and Muller got in front of Antonio Rudiger to receive it. Here was a free header and a perfect opportunity to give Bayern the vital away goal.
Muller hit the bar and his compatriot Rudiger cleared. It was a huge let off for Chelsea.
The home team’s chances were sorely limited by comparison. In the 18th minute, Giroud headed a rare corner into the Stamford Bridge turf, the ball bouncing up for easy collection by Manuel Neuer.
A well worked move after 34 minutes ended with Mateo Kovacic finding Mason Mount, whose shot across the face of goal eluded Giroud by inches.
Chelsea’s best chances came either side of half time. Kovacic was again the architect of the first, slipping Cesar Azpilicueta through on the run — a helpful sliver of light opening up in Bayern’s massed ranks, enough to get a shot off.
Neuer would have seen it late but lived up to his reputation as one of the world’s best, making a save with strong hands to ensure no errors.
From the restart, Mount was on the charge, repelled by Alphonso Davies, before Ross Barkley’s shot was saved by Neuer.
And then Munich did what they had been promising to do all evening. Twice in quick succession. It’s a long, long way back from here.