Chelsea coach Potter breathes a sigh of relief… Dortmund players are angry at the referees
The English team flicked the dust of retreat locally to reserve the Champions League quarter-final ticket, accompanied by the brilliant Benfica
Thursday – 16 Shaaban 1444 AH – 09 March 2023 AD Issue number [
16172]
Chelsea striker Havertz (right) takes the penalty kick for the second time to settle his team’s qualification at Dortmund’s expense (Archyde.com)
London: «Asharq Al-Awsat»
Chelsea coach Graham Potter breathed a sigh of relief following his team succeeded in overturning the first-leg loss once morest Dortmund with a first-leg victory with two away goals, blocking the qualifying ticket to the Champions League quarter-finals, in a meeting in which the German team launched a strong criticism of the match referee following a controversial penalty kick for the English team.
Potter entered the meeting under the threat of losing his position, especially since Chelsea, who spent $ 600 million in the transfer market to strengthen its ranks, achieved only 4 victories in the last 17 games in all competitions, and the team exited the two local cup competitions and retreated to the tenth place in the Premier League standings.
After the final whistle Potter looked like the most relaxed man in London, raising his fist in the air and sending kisses to the fans who had booed him so many times in recent weeks.
Thanks to the goals of Raheem Sterling and German Kai Havertz (from a penalty kick returned), Chelsea compensated for its 1-0 loss in the first leg with a 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge, as the club regained some of the atmosphere of Chelsea’s wonderful nights in the most prominent European club tournaments over the past twenty years.
For Potter, the victory was also personal, following bearing a lot of blame for Chelsea’s poor performance since last October. About that, he commented: “Inevitably, in life, we go through difficult and good times. Things aren’t bad forever fortunately. But you feel that when circumstances stack once morest you.
Potter confirmed that he held a quick meeting following the match with American Todd Bohle, owner of the club, who was smiling in the stands and wrapping his body in a blue and white scarf, the colors of the team’s shirt, that everything was fine, and he said, laughing: “I’m still here.”
It was the biggest win yet for Chelsea’s new owners, who paid 4.25 billion pounds ($5.03 billion) last year for the 2021 European champions.
Since then, the consortium has invested more than £500m in signing new players, continuing the kind of extravagant spending followed by former Stamford Bridge owner Roman Abramovich, who was forced to part with the club following Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
Until yesterday’s victory, Bohli and the rest of the consortium had seen little return on their investments in light of the team’s declining results domestically and its chances of reaching the Champions League next season through one of the Premier League’s golden square spots.
Chelsea also struggled to score goals during a series that saw only two victories in 15 matches, which ended last Saturday with a difficult 1-0 victory over struggling Leeds.
“We were suffering from a long list of injured people in late 2022,” said Potter, who took charge last September, succeeding German Thomas Tuchel, who won the European Champions League. “I think the fans were very fair to us. The fans care, so when the results aren’t what they want, they feel the pain. They need to express it in some way (booing), but when we won everyone stood with us enthusiastically.”
The former Brighton & Hove Albion coach expressed his gratitude to the Chelsea fans, adding: “Thank you very much to the fans. They were great, I am very happy with this exceptional atmosphere, thanks to them we succeeded in overcoming a team that won 10 consecutive matches.
Havertz, who scored the second goal from the controversial penalty kick, said: “The past two weeks have been difficult for us because we lost many matches. We had to show a lot of personality once morest Dortmund. The Champions League is the last competition we can win, and we have shown that we can progress once more.
After he advanced with a goal at the end of the first half from a direct shot by Sterling, Chelsea got a penalty kick at the beginning of the second half following a handball by Marius Wolff. Havertz stepped on it with his left foot and hit the post, then the defense dispersed it, but the video assistant referee “VAR” asked It was returned because players from both teams entered the penalty area during its execution, so the German returned and fired in the same way, but successfully this time.
The referee’s decision to return it sparked angry reactions from the Dortmund team, and English midfielder Jude Bellingham described the decision as a “farce”, as this goal gave Chelsea the advantage to book the quarter-final ticket. “I think it was disappointing and the referee’s decision to try once more is a farce,” Bellingham said following the match. And he continued, “I think that when the player runs so slowly during the execution (and stops before the shot), this will lead to the players rushing into the area.”
In turn, his colleague Emery Chan criticized this decision, and said following the loss: “The referee was very bad. He awarded a second penalty to Chelsea in this way, how does that happen? I don’t understand”.
He continued, “The referee was arrogant in the way he spoke to us. We play here at Stamford Bridge, maybe he’s afraid of the fans, I don’t know. UEFA (UEFA) needs to send strong referees for such matches, it is very bad.
The loss is the first for Dortmund this year, following it achieved 10 victories in all competitions and became equal with Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga, so their coach Edin Terzic called on his players to quickly get up and focus on facing Schalke at the summit of the Ruhr Valley in the German League on Saturday.
“We don’t have time to indulge in sadness,” Terzic said. We know we were at our best (before the Chelsea game), but confidence and a good performance wasn’t enough. Our season started in July and we talked regarding our desire to compete for all three competitions. We are out of the Champions League and that is nothing to be ashamed of.”
In addition to the competition for the league title, which has been absent for 11 years, Dortmund has reached the quarter-finals of the German Cup, where it will face Leipzig next month. Terzic added, “I hope my words are not misunderstood. We feel sad, but we have to gather our composure and play the next match.”
It’s a big league match. Perhaps Dortmund fans will not remember going out to Chelsea if the team finished the season with a title and beat Schalke 04, who are back in the top flight this season, who have been performing admirably in recent weeks.
Schalke did not lose in the last six league matches, and conceded once during that period, to advance from last place to 17th with 19 points, equal to Hoffenheim and Stuttgart, who ranked 16th and 15th, respectively.
Terzic explained, “We will see at the end of May what we deserve. This is what we want to do, we don’t want to take anything for granted, we are waiting for the end of the season.
In another match, Benfica of Portugal continued its soar this season, sweeping away Belgian Club Brugge 5-1, following also winning the first leg 2-0, to reach the quarter-finals for the second season in a row.
Benfica is presenting a distinguished season, led by German coach Roger Schmidt, as it leads the domestic league with one loss in 23 games and appears on the right track to be crowned champion of Portugal for the first time since 2019.
Benfica surprisingly topped its group once morest Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus following imposing two draws on the French champions and achieving two victories over the Italian team.
The Lisbon team reached the quarter-finals last season at the expense of Dutch Ajax, before being knocked out by Liverpool following losing the first leg 1-3 in Lisbon before imposing an exciting 3-3 draw, insufficient, in the second leg at Anfield.
Benfica, led by the indefatigable Joao Mario, who scored from the penalty spot before the end, and the in-form Gonzalo Ramos, who scored a brace, proved why they are seen as the best team in Portugal since Jose Mourinho’s Porto were crowned European champions 19 years ago.
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