Bayer Leverkusen 2 Chelsea 1:CHELSEA'S CAMPAIGN continues to close in around them. For a while last night the Londoners flirted with qualification into the group stage, a rare away victory in Europe and a clean sheet to ease their recent defensive jitters. In the end, pegged back and then beaten in added time by a Manuel Friedrich header, their progress into the knockout phase suddenly appears in jeopardy.
The Germans leapfrogged the Londoners courtesy of Manuel Friedrich’s header from Gonzalo Castro’s 91st-minute corner, leaving Andre Villas-Boas’s side requiring a clean sheet or a victory against Valencia in next month’s finale at Stamford Bridge to qualify. That feels a tall order at present given recent travails. Either way, the opportunity to claim the section may have been passed up already.
Ramires and Raul Meireles were asked to set the tempo at the base of midfield, with a trio of players dropping off Drogba in support. The frustration was that for long periods, the Londoners’ passing was so awry, undermining their attempts to impose themselves on the contest. Daniel Sturridge was bright and busy, rendering Michael Kadlec uncomfortable, but it took until the period immediately before half-time for Chelsea to induce some level of panic in the Bundesliga team. The pressure yielded a clear chance for Drogba, liberated by Sturridge’s pass, only for the Ivorian to blaze into the side-netting having rounded Bernd Leno. The visitors winced at the miss.
By then, Bayer’s early discipline was fading. Players were booked for dissent, the Germans’ own anxieties clear as they felt Valencia – rattling up goals at the Mestalla against the group’s whipping boys, Genk – breathing down their necks. They might have expected to have unsettled the visitors more. The visitors’ back-line felt somewhat makeshift with the loss of Ashley Cole to an ankle injury sustained in the previous evening’s training session at the stadium.
Ryan Bertrand’s ineligibility, Yuri Zhirkov’s summer sale and Patrick van Aanholt’s loan to Wigan Athletic had left Cole as the only natural left-back available to Villas-Boas and, with Paulo Ferreira omitted from the travelling squad altogether, it fell upon Jose Bosingwa to deputise. There is such fragility to Chelsea’s rearguard at present that any unanticipated upheaval felt unwelcome. For a while, Leverkusen had targeted the fill-in, but Castro’s slippery running only went so far.
Michael Ballack glided comfortably and threatened at times, looping a header on to the bar just after the half-hour mark, but Stefan Kiessling looked isolated with the visitors’ rearguard, protected by a two-man midfield shield, appearing more willing to sit deeper than they have of late.
The same could not be said of Drogba. The forward had been feeding largely off Sturridge’s delivery all evening, the youngster buzzing effectively from flank to centre where Juan Mata was more peripheral, and was duly found by another fine diagonal pass three minutes into the second period. Drogba had Manuel Friedrich tight at his back but held off the centre-half, spinning cleverly inside to eke out a hint of space before rasping a left-footed shot into the corner beyond Leno. That amounted to only the 33-year-old’s second goal of the season, and his first for two months, but it merely maintained the momentum that had built up before the break.
That offered a platform, and a chance to pick Bayer off on the break, though the visitors were also reliant upon some measure of defensive solidity to offer reassurance. To that end David Luiz, so gung-ho at times in his short Chelsea career, was a more conservative presence here, John Terry barking at him whenever the Brazilian threatened to tear upfield unprompted.
Yet nerves continue to jangle. Petr Cech had suggested a return to form, blocking a close-range shot from Ballack superbly, but was left exposed as the substitute Eren Derdiyok slipped Sidney Sam into the area down the left then pealed to the back post to nod in the winger’s cross. Cech, horribly out of position with the side’s defensive shape abandoned, was powerless to respond.
BAYER LEVERKUSEN: Leno, Schwaab (Schurrle 57), Friedrich, Toprak, Kadlec (Derdiyok 71), Bender, Rolfes, Castro, Ballack, Sam, Kiessling (Oczipka 82). Subs not used: Giefer, Reinartz, Ortega, Jorgensen. Booked: Kiessling, Kadlec, Ballack.
CHELSEA: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz (Alex 68), Terry, Bosingwa, Lampard, Meireles (Mikel 80), Ramires, Sturridge, Drogba, Mata (Malouda 65). Subs not used: Turnbull, Torres, McEachran, Kalou. Booked: Ivanovic, Meireles.
Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary).
