Chelsea became the first English side to reach the Champions League last eight after beating a limp Galatasaray. Having drawn 1-1 in the first leg, former Blues striker Didier Drogba could not inspire the Turkish team, who fell behind early on when Samuel Etoo fired past Fernando Muslera. Gary Cahill made it 3-1 on aggregate when he thumped home after John Terrys header was saved. Galatasarays night was summed up by Drogbas stoppage-time miss. After Arsenal and Manchester City were knocked out last week Chelsea won this game at a canter. And the result means that Galatasaray boss Roberto Mancini has yet to beat Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho in six European attempts. Unlike the first leg, where the visitors recovered from a poor start in Istanbul, Galatasaray did not look like troubling the Premier League leaders, who responded well to Saturdays surprise defeat by Aston Villa. Mourinho, who is aiming to win a third Champions League trophy with a different team, said in the build-up to the game that Drogba was still one of the worlds best strikers. But there was to be no fairytale return to Stamford Bridge for the Ivorian striker. Etoo, whose age was recently doubted by Mourinho, took centre stage. The Cameroon forward, three years younger than the 36-year-old Drogba, looked sharp from the start and he put Chelsea ahead after four minutes with his 30th Champions League goal when he latched on to Oscars diagonal pass to beat Uruguayan international Muslera. Chelsea, who remain on course to win their third consecutive European trophy, showed far more impetus in the first half with Frank Lampard and Willian wasting good chances after excellent build-up play from Eden Hazard and Oscar. Felipe Melos tame shot was Galatasarays only real effort towards Petr Cechs goal. Drogbas free-kick ended up in the top tier of the Chelsea stand and they did not muster a shot on target all game. Added to their lifelessness in attack the visitors showed little desire to mark Terry at set-pieces and after the Chelsea captain volleyed over from a free-kick, he was free to head goalwards from a corner, with Cahill smashing home the rebound from close range. Prior to this encounter, Galatasaray had failed to beat English opposition in eight attempts and once they had gone two goals behind they rarely looked like changing the games course. With Hazard again the creative force, Oscar, Willian and Lampard all had chances to extend the lead after the break. Hazard also drew a late save from Muslera, who is likely to face England in the group stage of the 2014 World Cup. But despite Mancinis best attempts to give his team a boost with three second-half substitutions, they could not make an impression and Chelsea set themselves up perfectly for Saturdays game against Arsenal with a comfortable victory.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 22:23:05 +0000
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