Di Matteo demands Chelsea beat Shakhtar at home after defeat
SHAKHTAR DONETSK 2 vs CHELSEA 1
CHELSEA manager Roberto Di Matteo believes his side have to win the return fixture at home to Shakhtar Donetsk as a consequence of last night’s convincing defeat in Ukraine.
The return of captain John Terry to a side that had on Saturday impressively won 4-2 at Tottenham failed to inspire on an evening when the European champions’ solitary goal came two minutes from time from Oscar and essentially served only to flatter. It would be uncharacteristic among the Chelsea hierarchy for such a performance not to cause concern but Di Matteo was otherwise typically calm and dismissed the disappointing display as a one off.
“I think we have to just look at this performance as a single one,” said the Italian, whose side have four points from three matches after goals from the Brazilians Alex Teixeira and Fernandinho inflicted their first European defeat of the season.
“They [Shakhtar] are a very strong team and they showed that again. It’s a difficult group we are in and the Champions League is always very competitive. You look at the other result in our group and it shows just how competitive it is.
“I think we still have a good chance [of reaching the knockout stages]. We need to win our next home game now.
“The consolation is that Juventus drew in Denmark. But certainly, we need to win our home game against Shakhtar.”
It took only three minutes for Teixeira to intelligently put his side in front with a placed finish through the legs of Ashley Cole and beyond goalkeeper Petr Cech after Terry had blocked Luiz Adriano’s initial goalbound effort.
With Shakhar unbeaten in 11 months, the loss of Frank Lampard to injury after 18 minutes did not help, and worse was to follow with the home side’s second goal.
Fernandinho accurately finished the swift counter attack he had started in the 52nd minute, before Branislav Ivanovic assisted for Oscar’s tap in with two minutes to go.