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AVB: Chelsea win a ‘slap’ in critics’ faces

Comment: 0 December 7th, 2011 by: admin

WEEKS of doubts and frustration have eased on Andres Villas-Boas, thanks to a Chelsea win on Tuesday in the Champions League.

And after gaining fresh confidence, the Portuguese manager turned his guns on his critics, calling their latest victory a ‘slap in their faces.’

Villas-Boas trumpeted his players delivered this message to those who criticised them after the Blues rediscovered their scoring flair and posted a masterful 3-0 thrashing of Valencia that moved them through to the knockout round as Group E winners.

Didier Drogba played the hero’s role by ramming in two goals and setting up another in the win that toppled Bayer Leverkusen off the lead after the German side could only draw 1-1 at Racing Genk. Nevertheless Leverkusen still advanced as second placers.

The Blues were off to the lead after just three minutes when Drogba took a Juan Mata pass, danced around Antonio Barragan and then fired past goalkeeper Diego Alves.

In the 22^nd minute, Drogba fed Ramires with a through ball and the latter shook off Victor Ruiz before slotting home to make it 2-0.

Drogba put the icing on their victory cake in the 76^th. For his 36^th Champions League goal, he ran onto a Mata through ball and completed it with a low finish into the corner.

‘[There] is a continuous persecution of Chelsea, an aggressiveness towards one club,’ said Villas-Boas.  ‘But today you have to accept it was a brilliant win.’

The Portuguese boss said they finished on top of their group against all odds. ‘There has been a lot of criticism of our players and they gave everyone a slap in the face.’

It will be the ninth successive season that the Blues will be in the knockout phase of the tournament which Russian owner Roman Abramovich badly wants his team to win.

Meanwhile, Marseille provided the night’s drama by scoring twice in the closing minutes at Borussia Dortmund to eke out a 3-2 win and progress as runners-up in Group F.

In another thrilling Group F fixture, Olympiakos downed Arsenal 3-1 but still failed to advance to the next round because of Marseille’s triumph over Dortmund.

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