Two for Torres as Chelsea win first leg

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Chelsea 3 Rubin Kazan 1

Fernando Torres scored twice for Chelsea, who will fancy their chances of reaching the Europa League semi-finals despite conceding an away goal.

Torres and Victor Moses netted to put them in the driving seat before Bebras Natcho’s penalty halved their lead.

But Torres struck again with 20 minutes remaining to give the Blues a two-goal cushion to take into the second leg in Russia.

Torres showed good improvisation to open the scoring, bundling past keeper Sergei Ryzhikov after racing onto David Luiz’s long ball.

John Terry of Chelsea
Terry conceded a penalty.

And Chelsea doubled their advantage on 32 minutes following some shoddy defending.

Rubin Kazan failed to clear their lines and were punished by Moses, who belted home from 15 yards.

Chelsea seemed in complete control yet, having barely been out of their own half, Rubin grabbed a potentially crucial away goal five minutes before the break.

After Cristian Ansaldi’s shot struck John Terry’s arm, Natcho converted the resulting spot-kick to give the visitors a huge boost.

Chelsea responded strongly after the restart and Ryzhikov had to produce a good save to keep out Juan Mata’s low shot before Terry headed over from Mata’s corner.

And Torres’ 19th goal of the season – a fine header from Mata’s left-wing cross – could prove to be decisive.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech, Azpilicueta, Terry, Luiz, Bertrand, Ramires, Lampard, Moses (Hazard 65), Benayoun (Marin 82), Mata (Oscar 77), Torres.
Subs not used: Turnbull, Ivanovic, Mikel, Ferreira.

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