Chelsea FC left Anfield with a satisfactory draw after facing a ferocious Liverpool side in the semifinal of the Capital One Cup.
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The Blues drew first blood through an Eden Hazard spot kick in the first half, but Brendan Rodgers’ Reds roared back and evened things up with a moment of individual brilliance from Raheem Sterling.
With John Obi Mikel in the starting lineup, it was apparent that Jose Mourinho would be content to have his team soak up Liverpool pressure and hit back on the counter. The tactic worked quite well until breached by Sterling’s quick feet and wonderful strike.
It was a proper game of football, with the home side having the lion’s share of chances and Chelsea having to rely on Thibaut Courtois, but you do feel that Mourinho will be the happier of the two managers after having secured a somewhat valuable away goal.
Away goals do not serve as tie breakers in this competition over 90 minutes, so a goalless draw would not see the Blues advance unless the score were to remain the same after 120 minutes.
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The second leg will be played out at Stamford Bridge where the Blues have only lost once (last season) since Mourinho returned. The Portuguese tactician says that his team aren’t the favorites to go through, but the pressure will certainly be on Liverpool.
"“I am not saying we are favorites, but Liverpool have to come and win at Stamford Bridge now.”– Jose MourinhoSource: Sky Sports"
The Blues boss also acknowledges that the result was a fair one, and thinks that his team could have scored more goals had they taken advantage of the space that Liverpool let them enjoy at the back.
"“We played to the top of our potential and so did Liverpool, it was a proper semi-final.”“I think it was a fair result. Liverpool did not deserve to win this game, but we were in control.”“The way they played with three defenders we had a lot of space to counter-attack, but we were not very efficient in our passing.”“We had plenty of half-chances with the space we had, but with more quality we would have scored more goals.”– Jose MourinhoSource: Sky Sports"
Next week’s second leg promises to be another exiting match. We shouldn’t expect Chelsea to sit back this time though, they will throw everything at Rodgers’ men. The Reds in turn, will probably try to play with the very same attacking mentality that they showed today.
Mourinho will now turn his attention to the FA Cup match vs Bradford on Saturday. He will probably rest his starters in an effort to keep them fresh for the Liverpool clash.