Chelsea's progress
Teams from London and Dortmund approached the second leg of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League with colossal personnel losses.
Guests could not count on five clip players, and the hosts - on six.
But if all this did not prevent Borussia from performing superbly at the home arena and taking the upper hand in nine meetings in a row in the championship and the German Cup, then Chelsea continued to slip.
Only the other day, Graham Potter's wards managed to break the resistance of Leeds and finally win their first victory since January 15 in all tournaments.
Against this backdrop, the answer with Borussia could have been of the utmost importance both for Chelsea in general and for Potter in particular.
The fiasco in the national championship, coupled with the failure in the main European Cup, could well have provoked not only a purge of the squad, as already reported in The Telegraph, but also a change in the helmsman.
As the well-known insider Fabrizio Romano noted, the club has not yet started looking for a new coach, but they may well start this process in the near future if the team does not make significant progress.
Following the match with Borussia, it would seem that the Potter team managed to demonstrate certain improvements.
Firstly, Chelsea achieved the desired result - they scored twice and qualified for the quarter-finals of the tournament.
Secondly, he surpassed the opponent both in terms of expected goals xG (2.00 - 0.87) and clear chances (4 - 1).
The reason largely lies in the well-coordinated game of the Londoners in defense and in the bet on sharp counterattacks.
In fact, Dortmund had only one chance to score, but first Sebastien Aller's shot was blocked by the defender, and then Jude Bellingham could not hit the target from five meters.
Perhaps the guests were affected by problems on the road, due to which the start of the meeting was postponed by ten minutes, or the forced replacement of Julian Brandt already in the fifth minute.
Yes, Chelsea had a great first half and could have scored several times, but Joao Felix and Raheem Sterling did not take advantage of their chances, and Kai Havertz hit the post, as did his compatriot Marco Reus, who struck a great free kick.
Subsequently, Sterling and Havertz still scored, but the second was rather lucky.
After all, if the Borussia football player had not bought into the opponent’s provocation and had not ended up in the penalty area ahead of time, the German would not have been allowed to shoot the 11-meter kick twice.
And on the first try, he again hit the frame.
However, the second half was not so impressive.
The hosts sat too deep in defense and allowed even the bloodless Borussia to create a lot of problems for themselves, while they themselves limited themselves to only a couple of dangerous raids.
One of them could well have been transformed into the goal of Conor Gallagher, who came off the bench, but Sterling got offside.
It is noteworthy that in the first 45 minutes he also failed to avoid getting into an offside position and thus prevented Havertz from distinguishing himself with a luxurious long-range shot.
One way or another, Chelsea still kept the winning score and avenged the defeat in Dortmund.
Chelsea players Raheem Sterling and Kai Havertz
Gettyimages.ru
© Darren Walsh / Contributor
Dominance of Benfica
Club Brugge became one of the main heroes of the group stage of the Champions League.
In the first three rounds, he beat Bayer, Porto and Atlético in turn and actually guaranteed himself a ticket to the playoffs, which he had never been able to do before.
And although the team subsequently slowed down noticeably and scored only two points in the remaining rounds, the goal was achieved.
Fans of the black-and-blues were waiting for the continuation of the story and getting into the top eight of the strongest teams in Europe, to which the lot was quite disposed.
Benfica could hardly be called an impenetrable opponent, and the loss of Enzo Fernandez could not pass without a trace.
But hope practically died after the first 90 minutes of confrontation.
The Portuguese shipped two unanswered goals to the gates of Simon Mignolet and created a good reserve before the game in Lisbon.
At their native "Da Lush", Roger Schmidt's wards inflicted a uniform beating on the guests.
It could have started already in the third minute, but João Mario's chic goal with his heel was canceled due to the notorious offside after watching a video replay.
Therefore, local fans had to wait for the end of the half, when Goncalo Ramos came to the fore.
First, he assisted Rafael Silva, then demonstrated individual skill and removed all questions about the owner of a ticket to the next stage, and after the break he scored a double, responding to a cross from Alejandro Grimaldo.
But the "eagles" did not stop there and continued to break the defense of the guests.
The same Ramos could score third, and Grimaldo - for the first time to differ in the playoffs of the Champions League, but Joao Mario and David Neres brought to an indecent score.
The first converted a penalty for a foul on Gilberto Moraes, and the second irresistibly shot into the far corner from outside the penalty area.
And only after that, Benfica slowed down a bit and allowed Brugge to sweeten their pills.
Bjorn Meyer's ball turned out to be great: the 19-year-old defender was left without guardianship in the penalty area and “shot” exactly into the far corner in touch.
But it is unlikely that this lifted the Belgians' spirits.
On the sum of two matches, they were defeated - 1: 7 and completed their performance in the European Cup.
Benfica players Joao Mario and Goncalo Ramos
Gettyimages.ru
© Gualter Fatia / Stringer