Schalke 0-3 Chelsea: Five things we learned
The on-going Champions League campaign started with a disaster for Chelsea. However, with successive away wins after that initial loss to Basel at home has put them right back on track for qualification from the group.
Their latest triumph came in the form of a 3-0 win in Germany against Schalke 04, who are, arguably, their strongest rivals in Group E of the Champions League.
Fernando Torres opened the scoring just within five minutes of the start with a close range header from a corner and doubled his tally with a goal on the break in the 69th minute. To round things off, Eden Hazard made it 3-0 three minutes before the end of the match.
Here are the five things we learned from Chelsea’s crucial win over Schalke 04 on Tuesday night.
Torres takes the cake
Fernando Torres – The jury is still out?
Fernando Torres was the man on form when Chelsea took on Schalke 04 on Tuesday. He scored an incisive header early on in the match to give the Blues a 1-0 lead, which was followed by a breakaway goal about an hour later.
For all the criticism Torres has faced since his move from Liverpool, he finally seems to be answering it. Torres was full of vision and possessed that extra couple of yards of speed that he has been lacking for a long time.
Maybe, it is the pace of the Champions League football that works in his favour, which is not as fast as the pace of a Premier League match and therefore, allows Torres that extra couple of seconds on the ball to create something of it.
His first touch on the ball right before the second goal of the match was extraordinary. It not only helped him control the ball, but also sent keeper the wrong way and left the defender pondering over his tackle.
Torres’s desire to win the ball back as soon as he lost it and to create something with every touch made this performance all the more memorable. And to add to it all, he tracked back enough for Mourinho’s liking.
However, whether this Torres will stand up for Chelsea in the Premier League remains to be seen.