Wednesday 28 January 2015

MARIO, WHEREFORE ART THOU?

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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