Defeat in Turin leaves Blues on the brink

Juventus 3 Chelsea 0

Chelsea’s Champions League fate is no longer in their own hands.

Without a recognised striker for most of the game, they were soundly beaten in Turin, where Fabio Quagliarella’s first-half opener and Arturo Vidal’s strike put Juventus in control.

Both goals came after deflections – Andrea Pirlo’s long-range effort went in off Quagliarella and Vidal’s 61st-minute shot clipped the unfortunate Ramires.

Sebastian Giovinco raced through in injury time to net the Italian side’s third.

It means that in order to avoid becoming the first defending champions to fail to reach the knockout stage, Chelsea must beat Nordsjaelland in their final Group E game and hope Juve lose to group leaders Shakhtar Donetsk.

The Blues withstood early pressure but fell behind seven minutes before the break.

Pirlo tried his luck from 30 yards and, although a deflection off Quagliarella took the sting out of the shot, an off-balance Petr Cech was unable to keep it out despite getting a hand to the ball.

Cech had earlier produced two excellent saves, first turning Stephan Lichsteiner’s close-range effort onto the post and then clawing away Claudio Marchisio’s shot.

At the other end, Oscar ran at the Juve defence and picked out Eden Hazard, whose shot was tipped into the side-netting by keeper Gianluigi Buffon

With Daniel Sturridge injured and Fernando Torres having been dropped, Oscar, Hazard and Juan Mata formed Chelsea’s attack and looked dangerous on the break.

But their opponents had the upper hand and after opening the scoring, they almost doubled their lead.

Kwadwo Asamoah’s cross struck David Luiz and was heading into the corner of the net before Ashley Cole cleared off the line.

Boss Roberto Di Matteo introduced Victor Moses on the hour mark in a attempt to add to his side’s attacking threat, but a minute later they fell further behind.

Asamoah burst into the box and pulled the ball back for Vidal, with the ricochet off Ramires leaving Cech with no chance.

Chelsea looked well beaten by the time Torres came off the bench with 20 minutes remaining and Juve’s superiority was underlined by their late third.

Cech made a poor decision in opting to race from his line towards Giovinco, who fired through his legs.

Chelsea: Cech, Azpilicueta (Moses 60), Luiz, Cahill, Ivanovic, Cole, Ramires, Mikel (Torres 70), Hazard, Mata, Oscar.
Subs not used: Turnbull, Romeu, Marin, Bertrand, Piazon.

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