Chelsea hold initiative over Olympiakos
By John Ley
Sport.Telegraph, 20th February 2008
Avram Grant, the Chelsea manager, will have to wait to discover whether
his gamble to rest key players in Athens last night was a prudent one.
But, having kept their fifth successive clean sheet in Europe and with
an unbeaten home record in the Champions League going back two years,
they will face Olympiakos in London in confident mood, particularly as
the Greeks have never won in seven visits to England.
Overall, Grant was satisfied with the result rather than the performance,
admitting it was one of the worst under him in Europe since taking over
as manager. Grant also promised that he would not shy away from making
big decisions about his team, even unpopular ones.
Chelsea are not only favourites to succeed in the second leg, but they
now have a clean bill of health going into the Carling Cup final on
Sunday after resting John Terry, Frank Lampard and Nicolas Anelka,
meaning that Grant changed the whole team from the one that beat
Huddersfield 3-2 in the FA Cup last Saturday.
"The result is OK," Grant said. "We always want to win but a draw away
is not a bad result. We didn't create a lot of chances, maybe just a
couple, so it's a little bit disappointing. But it's not easy to play
here; they are strong and they have good support."
Asked if it was his team's worst display in Europe, Grant answered
diplomatically: "This is a game we play less well than in previous
games.
"We are a team who like to win so if we are not winning we are not 100
per cent happy. The result was good but the performance could have been
better.
"In football I never gamble. We put a strong team out. In the next two
months you will always ask me about the players who are not playing.
"Anything I do is questioned. I'm OK with this. We played with a strong
team and also a strong bench and we will do it again and again in the
future."
The 11 changes allowed the likes of Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, Joe Cole and
Michael Ballack to return, along with Didier Drogba, who was making his
first start for the club since undergoing knee surgery in early December.
The snow that had delayed Chelsea's arrival here had all but melted,
leaving the pitch clear, and the atmosphere that greeted the teams in the
Georgios Karaiskakis stadium was electric - the arena an array of red and
white, with flares lighting up the wintery evening.
As smoke drifted across the pitch, making visibility difficult, Chelsea,
in their highly visible luminous yellow shirts, attacked and within 29
seconds Michael Essien had the first attempt at goal, his shot drifting
wide of the right post.
Olympiakos responded when Predrag Djordjevic fed Ieroklis Stoltidis, but
he treated the ball with caution and Ricardo Carvalho, a Champions League
winner with Porto, cleared the threat.
Soon afterwards the Greeks broke forward and Anastasios Pantos saw a shot
deflected wide off a team-mate. But it was mostly one way, with Florent
Malouda testing Antonios Nikopolidis, the Olympiakos goalkeeper, with a
searching 16th-minute shot, the highlight of the half.
Chelsea boasted the best disciplinary record in the competition before
the game, with only three previous cautions, but saw four more yellow
cards, most of which were harsh. Juliano Belletti was the second yellow
shirt to see a yellow card, and from the free-kick, Djordjevic claimed
Olympiakos's first shot on target, in the 57th minute, with Cech
gathering comfortably in front of his right post.
In the 65th minute, Stoltidis' high cross set up Luciano Galletti and
his volley flew only narrowly over Cech's goal.
The introduction of Anelka saw the Frenchman partner Drogba for the
first time, and the substitute, who prompted a strong finish by the
visitors, squandered a chance for a goal with 10 minutes remaining,
his weak shot rolling wide of the left post.
His introduction offered a possible foresight into the team who could face
Spurs, with Chelsea finishing with a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Anelka on the
left of three men behind Drogba.
Salomon Kalou and Essien both went close before the end, but Chelsea left
having extended their run without conceding in Europe to nine minutes
short of nine hours.
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