The
unpredictable Mario Balotelli had a difficult 20 minutes on the
Stamford Bridge pitch towards the end of normal time last night and
then he made little contribution to Extra Time apart from a couple of back heels, a positive passing ratio but more importantly, being
criticised for not marking goalscorer, Ivanovic, in the Liverpool defensive line once a free kick from Willian was neatly placed into the L'Pool
penalty area.
Was
Mario to Blame for the Chelsea goal last night? It appears that he
was marking Ivanovic at the start of the free kick, in effect, Jamie
Carragher says, Liverpool defend zones and Gerrard and Lucas were
defending zones too close to the ball as it was kicked, the defensive
line should have been several yards deeper and thereby not leaving
extra Chelsea players unmarked. Balotelli tried to cover Costa as
Henderson lost him. Zonal marking is difficult-what do you do if
there are more than one person in your zone? The easy answer is WIN
THE BALL but with blocking and shirt pulling anything can happen. In
the event, the Chelsea right back had a free header and this was the
decider.
It
was a fabulous game, in the "old style" with Chelsea statistically well on top in the end, as these
stats prove:
Chelsea
scores first:- Shots-19-16, On Target 5-4, Shots inside box 8-5, Accuracy
36% -27%, P0ssession 54-45%, Passes 599-508, Accuracy 78-74%, Passes in
opponents half 70-63, Duels won 54-46%, Aerial duels won 54-46%,
Clearances 24-39, Tackles 28-38, Fouls 13-20.
Remarkable
that there were no red cards and the defense of Costa's stamps and
the leniency of the ref. Good game though, best team won??
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