TORRES RIPS CITY HART OUT
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Chelsea Schurrle 33 Aguero 49 Torres 90 Premier League, Stamford Bridge, October 27, 2013 Att: 41,495 BY THE match had everything – apart from a handshake.
Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini simply could not bring himself to shake Jose Mourinho’s hand after seeing his champions gift Chelsea victory in the dying seconds.
Mourinho reacted to Fernando Torres’ winner by racing past the City bench and diving into the crowd to celebrate with his son Jose Jr.
Elsewhere at Stamford Bridge, Rui Faria, Mourinho’s assistant, was on his knees looking to the heavens and City keeper Joe Hart was turning the air blue.
It was a mix-up between Hart (below) and defender Matija Nastasic that had given Torres the simplest of finishes to snatch victory. Torres had had a mixed afternoon. He missed an easy chance before setting up their opening goal and hit the woodwork before grabbing the winner.
He carved out Chelsea’s opener by wriggling away from Gael Clichy’s challenge near the touchline and made a burst for the byline.
Torres looked up and slid the ball between Hart’s fingertips, a defender’s boot and into the path of Andre Schurrle, who converted the chance for his first Chelsea goal since an £18million summer move from Bayer Leverkusen.
But City levelled four minutes after the interval in sensational style.
Sergio Aguero latched onto Samir Nasri’s pass, a shot looked unlikely and keeper Petr Cech appeared to have his near post covered, but Aguero launched a left-foot rocket into the top corner.
City had never lost a match when Aguero had scored.
There seemed to be little danger to City’s goal in the dying seconds when Willian’s clearance fell to Nastasic.
Hart panicked and raced from his line to the edge of his penalty area, unseen by the Serbian defender.
Nastasic thought his header would bounce into Hart’s arms, but it went over his head and Torres scooped it in for the winner.