Wednesday 5 December 2012

Chelsea Out!

People with football-watching experience surely had the foresight to see that Chelsea's chances of progressing were almost zero, even though Juventus had to go to Donetsk, where Shakhtar hadn't yet lost points this season.

Many optimistic fans might have also thought that Shakhtar won both their previous CL matches at home, that they beat Chelsea at home, too, and that they even succeeded in getting a point at the Juventus stadium, so they would have a reasonable chance of beating Juve.

But Juventus is not one of those teams that screws up big at the last moment. At least, not against teams like Shakhtar.

And, let's face it, Shakhtar had very, very little to play for. (Well, they had the top spot in the group to play for, but considering the possibilities of facing teams like Real Madrid, Valencia, Arsenal or Porto, anyway, even when finishing top, that didn't matter much, I'm sure.)
Still, Shakhtar did not play to lose. But they did not play to win, either. They, except maybe for Kucher (- I'm joking, of course -), would have settled for the draw, just as well. A draw that would have still eliminated Chelsea. No sympathy for the West Londoners there.

It's, therefore, no surprise that Juventus dominated the match, and that Shakhtar didn't have a lot of chances, even after going down 0-1.

And Chelsea has been eliminated, despite crushing Nordsjaelland, 6-1, in the other match, and having an overall better record than Shakhtar, except for a silly away-goals side note. (In other words, UEFA is more to blame for Chelsea's strange elimination than the Chelsea team itself, I would say.)

Highlights from Shakhtar - Juventus:

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