Down to the wire
Liverpool and Chelsea face final-day showdowns after Champions League draws
Chelsea’s Champions League fate remains in their own hands, even if nobody really knows how. Valencia may have profited from good fortune to find a late equaliser, but, make no mistake, Frank Lampard’s team got away with one at the Mestalla Stadium.
Lampard may have been frustrated to see an 82nd-minute Daniel Wass cross sail over the head of Kepa Arrizabalaga and rebound into the net off the inside of the post. But Valencia squandered five remarkable opportunities that would have left Chelsea with a mountain to climb in Group H.
As it is, a first Mateo Kovacic goal in almost three years and a Christian Pulisic strike have left Chelsea just needing to beat Lille in their final group game to be sure of progressing to the knockout stages.
But if Chelsea defend this badly again, then their participation in the Champions League will not last much longer. Lampard said: “I’m happy to a degree. The draw keeps it in our hands. Now it is on us in the last game at home to Lille. That is a positive. There were positives and negatives out of the game, but that is a positive.
“Did I love the match? No I didn’t love it. Because it hasn’t been many times this season where I have had to say, ‘We kind of got away with that’. Today was one of those because they missed big opportunities.”
Lampard chose to make a change in the centre of his defence by replacing Fikayo
Tomori with Andreas Christensen. In the four previous games, the Dane had partnered Kurt Zouma, Chelsea had conceded nine goals and that total is now up to 11 in five as the pair again looked uncomfortable in each other’s company.
Chelsea’s defence was opened up with ease on far too many occasions and they should have already been behind, when Carlos Soler gave the hosts the lead. Rodrigo was allowed too much space on the right and he delivered a perfect cross for Soler to succeed where Maxi Gomez had so badly failed earlier in the game.
Gomez, a summer target of West Ham United, produced what must be the miss of the season so far in the 19th minute. Daniel Parejo, Valencia’s playmaker, pushed the ball through Chelsea’s defence for Rodrigo, who picked out Gomez at the back post. All he had to do was tap the ball in from six yards, but he somehow missed it completely.
Gomez kicked the advertising boards in frustration 11 minutes later, when Kepa saved his effort from a similar position from a Parejo pass.
But Chelsea found an instant response to Soler’s 41st-minute opener from the unlikely source of Kovacic, who had not scored for 121 appearances, 70 of which had come for Chelsea.
Just over 60 seconds after his team had gone behind, the midfielder tried his luck from 20 yards. Given his record in front of goal, Valencia’s defenders could have been forgiven for letting Kovacic have a go. But this time he found the bottom corner of the net and he celebrated his latest strike like he might not score again for another 100 games. “We’ve had a lot of jokes because he’s a player of such quality who should score more goals,” said Lampard. “It’s a project for me, for him and the whole staff to get him more goals. I hope that’s the start of something new.”
Other than making a change in the middle, Lampard also brought in right-back Reece James, moving Cesar Azpilicueta to the left, in what proved to be an attacking change. It was from a James cross that Willian headed over in just the
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Club matches Mateo Kovacic had gone without scoring. His first goal for Chelsea on his 71st appearance was with his 45th shot
second minute and N’golo Kante failed to hit the target from another of the youngster’s centres.
Tammy Abraham had also put the ball wide from a James delivery and it was from a Willian cross that the striker suffered an injury. Abraham could not find the target with his attempted header and hurt his hip as he landed on Valencia defender Ezequiel Garay.
As the players left the pitch for half-time, Abraham clutched his left side and was in tears before eventually being carried down the tunnel on a stretcher.
Contrary to rumours inside the stadium, however, Abraham did not go to hospital and Lampard said: “He’s in the dressing room now. The word at half-time was it looked quite severe, a bang on the hip. Then the word after the game was it might not be as severe as we first thought.”
Michy Batshuayi was sent on for the second half, but Chelsea did not allow Abraham’s injury to stop their momentum as they took the lead just eight minutes after the break.
Pulisic converted Zouma’s knock down from close range, only for the assistant referee to raise his flag to indicate offside. But, following a check that lasted three minutes, VAR allowed the goal to stand.
Chelsea did their best to let Valencia back in on two occasions, but the hosts somehow failed to take advantage.
It was a comedy of errors from the visitors in the 57th minute, as Christensen’s mistake put Kepa in a panic. The goalkeeper needlessly raced from his line, but Rodrigo dwelled on the ball and eventually lobbed it over the empty goal.
Kepa made amends for that error eight minutes later, as he brilliantly saved a penalty from Parejo after Jorginho, who had already been booked, had fouled Jaume Costa.
Lampard took no risks of a second yellow for Jorginho and responded by sending on Emerson to replace him, and switching to a three-man central defence. But fortune turned against him as Wass made sure that any qualification celebrations had to be put on ice.
Lampard absolved Kepa of any blame for the equalising goal and will have been mightily relieved to see Rodrigo miss Valencia’s final sitter in stoppage time.