Chelsea lose grip as Deivid floors Goliath
By John Ley
Sport.Telegraph, 3rd April 2008
Chelsea's Champions League dream was punctured on a dramatic night in the
cauldron that is the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium. Leading by an early own goal
from Fenerbahce's Deivid, Chelsea conceded their first in 11 hours and 26
minutes of European football to a player born in Leytonstone, schooled in
Walthamstow and given his early chance at Bury's Gigg Lane, and then lost
the lead to a villain turned hero.
Colin Kazim-Richards, known in Turkey as Kazim Kazim, came on in the 54th
minute and, within 11 minutes, had given Fenerbahce hope of remaining in
the competition. The story is an improbable one: he was signed by Brighton
after a fan won a competition to give a club £250,000 to buy a player.
He is thus known as the Coca-Cola Kid.
And when, in the 81st minute, Deivid unleashed a 30-yard drive into
the top left-hand corner, Fenerbahce could rightly feel confident of
progressing to the semi-finals and further weakening the position of
Avram Grant.
Grant could not be faulted, though. He picked a sensible side for the job
but his players, and in particular Didier Drogba, squandered too many
chances. They are capable of turning it around, but if they fail to score,
they will be out and Kazim's hero status here will increase ten-fold.
After suffering his first defeat in Europe, Grant will need to be at his
best to carry his players into an all-English semi-final. Here, though,
his team folded. After dominating for an hour, they succumbed to Kazim's
pace and a quite remarkable drive from Deivid. In truth, by the time the
Brazilian's rocket pierced Carlo Cudicini's goal, they should have been
walking towards the last four.
When, late on Monday night, Grant and his squad arrived in Istanbul they
were greeted not by 'Welcome to Hell' banners, but a bunch of flowers and
polite applause. The atmosphere last night was less gracious: the shrill
whistles and all-around sound in this wonderful stadium was designed to
test the strongest eardrums, with the ground a sea of black and yellow.
Such an intimidating atmosphere was in stark contrast to the muted
ambience for Sunday's laboured 1-0 win over Middlesbrough and Stamford
Bridge will have to raise the tempo to spur their players on.
There was no doubting the atmosphere was an advantage to the Turks, who
threatened for the first time in the sixth minute when Mateja Kezman and
Alex combined for Gokcek Vederson, but Cudicini reacted the quicker and
saved the moment.
Chelsea, though, were not unduly intimidated by the opposition, with Claude
Makelele outstanding in an anchor role, and when Michael Ballack fed the
freshly shaven-headed Joe Cole soon afterwards the England forward's cross
was cleared. Seconds later Cole, seeing goalkeeper Volkan Demirel off his
line, attempted a chip that lacked sufficient force.
But they maintained the pressure and, in the 13th minute, claimed a
valuable early advantage when Deivid, wearing the No 99 shirt, turned
the ball into his own goal. Standing off Chelsea, Fenerbahce allowed
the visitors to press and when Ashley Cole sent the ball forward, Ballack
dummied, Frank Lampard pushed it forward and Florent Malouda's delivery
was intercepted by Deivid, the Brazilian unwittingly directing into his
own net. The wall of silence that greeted the goal was equally stunning.
Five minutes later Michael Essien ventured forward to direct a shot just
over before Fenerbahce responded with a timid effort from Mehmet Aurelio.
But when Essien sent a high cross to Drogba, he had time to claim a
second goal instead of heading wide. Lampard, too, had a good chance
against a side struggling to maintain possession.
Volkan, a giant of a man, saved well to deny Drogba in the 30th minute and
then he shot wide when he should have taken advantage of four team-mates
rushing alongside. Another chance before half-time fell to Drogba, via
Lampard and Ballack, but Volkan responded quickly to clear at the striker's
feet.
Fenerbahce threatened soon after the restart when Onder Turaci's cross was
glanced wide by Alex. But Chelsea continued to govern, with Drogba's
profligacy costing them when the striker shot straight at Volkan. In the
54th minute, Fenerbahce introduced Kazim and soon afterwards former
Chelsea striker Kezman tested Cudicini with the Turks' first shot on
target. The goalkeeper, though, pushed the near-post effort to safety.
Fenerbahce's penalty area was becoming as busy as Istanbul's traffic system,
with Chelsea pressing with wave after wave of attacks. Ballack was the next
to try, his 58th-minute drive parried by Volkan.
But the game was turned on its head when Kazim latched on to Mehmet
Aurelio's long pass, leaving Ricardo Carvalho in his wake with one
touch to control and another to finish. If that rattled Chelsea, they
were torn apart by a quite stunning second goal.
Having handed Chelsea the advantage, Deivid redeemed himself when he
struck a wonderful right-footed drive beyond Cudicini to turn this part
of Istanbul to a veritable cacophony of noise and celebration. Next
Tuesday's return will be fascinating.
|
|
© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 2008.
Telegraph Group Limited endeavours to ensure that the
information is correct but does not accept any liability
for error or omission.
Users are permitted to copy some material for their
personal use as private individuals only. Users must not
republish any part of the data either on another website,
or in any other medium, print, electronic or otherwise,
or as part of any commercial service without the prior
written permission of Telegraph Group Limited.
|
|
