Basel will argue that Luiz, who played in midfield, was fortunate to be on the pitch after catching Philipp Degen on the shin with a challenge that referee Pavel Kralovec deemed only worthy of a yellow card 10 minutes earlier.But given that Basel have beaten Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Zenit St Petersburg at St Jakob-Park over the past two seasons, this was an impressive evening's work for a team that had lost four of its previous five European away matches. Chelsea were being forced ever deeper but were cruelly penalised when Azpilicueta appeared to steer a cross away from Stocker, only for referee Kralovec to award a penalty.But equally the visitors would have had every right to feel hard done by if they had left Switzerland with a draw after Kralovec found fault with Azpilicueta.Basel won plenty of plaudits for their performances against Tottenham but they could never be accused of being negative and Chelsea ruthlessly exploited the home side's open defence on the way to taking the lead.Ashley Cole, who made his first start since sustaining a hamstring injury on 1 April, will miss next week's second leg at Stamford Bridge after receiving a caution for time wasting.But Chelsea had two fine opportunities to double their advantage before the interval, with Lampard finding Ramires and the Brazilian's shot being pushed away by Sommer before Hazard lifted over after a wild attempt at an overhead kick from Fernando Torres.Chelsea, who have only failed to win a trophy in three seasons since Roman Abramovich took over in 2003, are attempting to become the first team to win the Champions League and then the Europa League in successive years.
No comments:
Post a Comment