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Klaas-Jan Huntelaar earns Schalke a Champions League draw at Chelsea Klaas-Jan Huntelaar earns Schalke a Champions League draw at Chelsea
(about 1 hour later)
José Mourinho had offered up a reminder on the eve of this contest that he is very much “part of this tournament’s history”, though it is the Champions League which has actually checked Chelsea’s early season momentum. An opportunity to ease themselves into their European campaign was passed up here, a lead surrendered against depleted and patched up opponents. Theirs was a strangely fitful performance. The Champions League has checked Chelsea’s early season momentum. An opportunity to ease themselves into their European campaign was passed up here, a lead surrendered against patched-up opponents who had apparently been there for the taking. The sight of Schalke players celebrating wildly on the turf at the final whistle, all hugs and punches of the air, while the hosts skulked off down the tunnel told its own story.
A point at home to Schalke represented an improvement on last year’s opening fixture in the group stage, an unexpected home defeat to Basel, but Mourinho will have departed this game with much to ponder for the weekend trip to Manchester City. Too often his team had been overpowered in central midfield, and the defence remains far from watertight. The German club benefited here. The champions may hope to on Sunday. This had been a strangely fitful performance from the Premier League leaders. They had summoned up brilliance at times, usually through Eden Hazard’s twisting dribbles which drove them up-field, and threatened to batter in a winner in their frantic swathe of late attacks when Ralf Fährman’s excellence retained the visitors their point. Yet Chelsea had also been overpowered in midfield too often, with their defence unable to stamp out the threat posed by the slippery Julian Draxler once the youngster, bed-ridden with flu last week, found his rhythm. The German club benefited from their hosts’ vulnerability. Manchester City will hope to do likewise at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
The decision to hand Didier Drogba a first start in his second spell the club had added a dose of romanticism to the occasion. He graced this arena with Galatasaray in last season’s competition but mustered little impact that night as the Turkish team were dismissed. His last touch for Chelsea in the Champions League had been the decisive penalty in the shootout back at the Allianz Arena on 19 May, 2012. He had stroked the ball into the bottom left-hand corner, as Manuel Neuer slumped despairingly the other way, to claim the European Cup at Bayern Munich’s expense. The frustration for José Mourinho was that this all felt so wasteful. Chelsea should have run riot against a team stripped of nine injured senior players and forced to field a makeshift defence with three others, Draxler included, having been under the weather over the past fortnight. His team had secured an early lead, albeit controversially, as Cesc Fàbregas’s clear foul on Max Meyer was waved away by Ivan Bebek. The Croatian referee, called up late when the original squad of Serbian officials had been denied entry after a visa oversight, offered what was, at best, an unpredictable display throughout. Hazard had slipped a pass inside Kaan Ayhan for Fàbregas to convert his first goal for the club, with Schalke players already peeling away to make their livid protests.
Prior to this, there had only been 17 minutes in three cameos as a substitute from his second coming. His was a return to have the locals’ juices flowing, even if Chelsea hardly needed him to be the rampaging brutish forward of old. Drogba occupied Kaan Ayhan and Roman Neustädter well enough thumping a header from Filipe Luís’s cross straight at Ralf Fährmann, but the real incision was conjured by those at the veteran’s back. Though Willian, Cesc Fàbregas and Ramires interchanged effectively, Eden Hazard was irrepressible. That advantage should have been the prelude to a thrashing, yet initial dominance steadily eroded. The visitors closed down feverishly in central midfield, as Swansea had initially done so successfully last Saturday. Their mere refusal to wilt prompted anxiety among the locals with this team denied the bite and presence of Diego Costa in its forward line. Didier Drogba was making the first start of his second coming in these parts, but was understandably rusty and, long before the end, rather wheezing. Some of the old runs and instincts remain, his presence unnerving Roman Neustädter and Ayhan at times, though the telepathic supply line from Frank Lampard is no more.
The Belgian had been given the build-up ahead of this fixture – “He can be one of the greats of his generation,” Mourinho had said – and duly tore into Marco Höger to justify all the hype. The full-back, who had featured in central midfield as Schalke were dismantled by Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday, cut a miserable figure, utterly unable to suppress his marker’s intent, with Hazard integral to so much Chelsea generated. By the interval the hosts’ authority was established, even if their lead remained slender. His best chances came after the interval, with an air-kick from Willian’s fizzed centre, and then a one-on-one from Hazard’s fine pass. Yet the veteran’s touch betrayed weary limbs, forcing him wide, with his shot dribbling beyond the far post and behind. “I’m happy with what he did,” Mourinho said. “If that had gone in we’d be talking about him scoring a goal with fantastic movement and a great shot. I’m not disappointed with a striker because, by one inch, he doesn’t score or not.” Costa and Loïc Rémy were flung on for late cameos, the latter almost scoring with his first touch, only for Neustädter to head from the line. Indeed, Schalke strained to retain parity through those desperate late exchanges, with Hazard twice close to restoring the home side’s lead and Fährmann forced to perform heroics.
Schalke disputed the goal which had earned the home team their advantage. Fàbregas’s foul on Max Meyer was clear – the youngster having been sold short by a pass from Neustädter – with the loose ball collected by Hazard to run at Ayhan and slip Fàbregas free with a clever reverse pass. The Spaniard’s first goal for Chelsea was converted with ease, and incensed opponents crowded around the Croatian official Ivan Bebek, a late appointment after the original Serbian officials suffered visa problems. Fàbregas should have added a less controversial goal just after the half-hour, only to sky an attempt over the bar from Branislav Ivanovic’s pull-back. Regardless, the German side’s makeshift rearguard retained an air of panic throughout. It should not really have come to that. Mourinho will wonder how his midfield, with Ramires relatively becalmed, could be overrun from the moment Draxler charged forward on the stroke of half-time, eking space from Gary Cahill before dragging a shot marginally wide of the far post. This was a display to justify all the hype about the young forward, with Meyer bright at his side and Sidney Sam all eager running on the opposite flank. Chelsea have not been defensively tight this term, their frailties masked by attacking prowess at the other end, but the sight of Draxler gliding through them at will was disturbing.
Their attacks were more coherent. Kevin-Prince Boateng forced Thibaut Courtois into a fine save with a shot from distance and, just before the interval, Julian Draxler charged from inside his own half at back-tracking opponents, eking space from Gary Cahill before dragging a shot marginally wide of the far post. The young forward had departed at the break still grimacing in disbelief that his composure had deserted him at the last, but such had been his team’s wretched luck to date this term. This had already constituted their worst start to a season in 46 years. Bebek might have choked the visitors’ reward had he deemed Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s challenge on Fàbregas to be a foul – there was a whiff of retribution about that oversight – with Draxler sweeping down-field and away from Ramires. Branislav Ivanovic’s tackle actually speared the ball back to the Dutch international, who had ghosted unnoticed down the left. Huntelaar duly cut inside and finished crisply and precisely beyond Thibaut Courtois to the delight of a raucous visiting support. “We made one mistake not to make a foul immediately when they recovered the ball,” Mourinho said, “and another given I’d told my players 20 times that Draxler wants to come inside off his right foot and Sam inside on his left, so we have to close and press his right foot. So there was also a mistake in the box.
Yet, while Chelsea’s approach was undermined by profligacy, the visitors retained hope of recovery. Drogba should have converted Willian’s fizzed centre after another flowing attack, stemming from Nemanja Matic regaining possession in the centre, only to air-kick in front of Fährmann. The 36-year-old was understandably rusty, heavy limbs prompting a poor touch as he strode on to Hazard’s looped through-ball to force him too wide with his shot dribbling just wide of the far post. That miss was soon made to feel significant. “But, after that situation, only one team tried to win and had so many chances to win the game in a short period of time. In the last 15 minutes, Rémy, Terry, Hazard could all score, but that’s football. Defending like they did is also football. A good point for them. Not a fantastic point for us, but still a point.” Chelsea had started last season’s campaign with a home defeat by Basel, so this represented improvement of sorts. Even so, theirs was a lingering sense of frustration.
There was a whiff of retribution when Bebek waved away Chelsea’s protests as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar fouled Fàbregas inside the visitors’ half, with Draxler, such a classy performer in this form, sweeping down-field and away from Ramires in possession. Ivanovic’s tackle actually speared the ball back to the Dutch international, who had charged unnoticed down the left. Huntelaar duly cut inside and finished crisply and precisely beyond Courtois to the delight of a raucous visiting support.
That had prompted Mourinho to call for the cavalry, Diego Costa and Loïc Rémy flung on in desperation, with the Frenchman forcing Neustädter into a fine goal-line clearance from his first involvement. But the half-chances continued to be spurned, the best a thrashed volley from close-range by Hazard that flew into the stand, and a toe-poke from a Fàbregas’ pass which Fährmann did well to turn aside. This all felt wasteful.