In the last weeks, the Champions League Final of 2012 against Bayern Munich seemed ages ago for Chelsea. The recent performance has been poor and Chelsea hasn’t won a game in week. Benitez was under pressure and had to secure his first win. In the Champions League, Chelsea had to win in order to even have a chance to advance in Group E and to reach the next Champions League stage. However, they also had to hope that Juventus would lose to Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukraine.
40,000 Chelsea fans came to support Chelsea and saw a great start in the game. Nevertheless, Nordsjaelland had the first notable chance in the game when Dutch referee, Bas Nijhuis pointed at the spot after Cahill handed the ball. Nicolai Stokholm’s penalty was saved by Petr Cech. Chelsea received a penalty just seconds later when Beckmann handed the ball on the other side. Hazard stepped up and suffered a similar fate as Stokholm, his penalty was saved by Hansen. The third handball was given just minutes later and this time it was David Luiz who took responsibility and scored – 1:0 Chelsea. Chelsea clearly better now and Fernando Torres added the 2:0 before half-time. Torres was desperate to score his first goal under Benitez. Chelsea was surprised at the beginning of the second half when Joshua John pulled one back just 30 seconds into the game – 2:1 Chelsea. A Cahill header in the 51st minute restored the 2 goal lead for Chelsea before Torres, Juan Mata and Oscar scored the final goals at the Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea’s fate was decided seconds after the final whistle when it was confirmed the Juventus beat Donetsk with 1:0. This meant that Juventus and Donetsk qualified for the next stage because of a better goal difference and Chelsea qualified for the Europa League. Benitez, however, can look confident ahead to the next weeks. He said: “It is always important to win but the way you win is also important and we won with attitude, character, commitment, intensity and good play. It was everything you are looking for and I was pleased for the club, the fans, everyone.” Regarding the Europa League, Benitez said: “We think it is an important competition. We want to go as far as we can.” In the next 3 weeks, Chelsea will play AFC Sunderland, FC Southampton and Aston Villa.
