Times November 5, 2008
Luiz Felipe Scolari joke returns to haunt himRoma 3 Chelsea 1
Matt Hughes in Rome
Given their rush to cut costs, it is as well that Chelsea have not paid a deposit on rooms at the Cavalieri Hilton. Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side should still qualify from group A and could return to Rome for a second successive Champions League final in May, but it will take a dramatic improvement after this shocking setback, their heaviest defeat for 3½ years.
Scolari’s boasts about advanced bookings, which he insists were intended as a joke, came back to haunt him. In his defence, the Chelsea manager had also stated that returning to the Eternal City would entail negotiating a long and difficult road, but against opponents fourth from bottom of Serie A, this pothole was an unforeseen danger.
Scolari’s frustration will have been compounded by Chelsea storming out of the blocks before stalling after half an hour, but he can also reflect on some important lessons. To judge from their second-half performance, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka’s future as a partnership is even less promising than that of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, while the Frenchman’s very survival at the club could be in doubt after his lacklustre attempt at leading the line on his own in the first half.
This was a reminder of his ineffectiveness at the highest level after scoring possibly the softest hat-trick in Premier League history against Sunderland on Saturday.
Anelka was not the only one to emerge from a miserable evening with a question mark next to his name — plenty of his team-mates failed to perform. Florent Malouda also seems to lack the appetite for the biggest occasions, his profligacy in front of goal an increasing problem, and John Obi Mikel’s inexperience was exposed.
For the first time this season, Chelsea looked like they are missing the guiding hand of Claude Makelele, Mikel’s predecessor in the holding role, a player so distinguished that he had a position named after him.
Scolari attributed the defeat to uncharacteristic defensive mistakes, which were plentiful. Petr Cech was beaten three times in the space of 24 minutes either side of half-time after conceding just four goals in 15 matches this season.
Roma’s first was the result of that rarest of occurrences, an error from John Terry. A quickly taken free kick after a clumsy challenge from Deco in the 34th minute found its way to Cicinho on the right byline and his cross eluded Terry and Frank Lampard for Christian Panucci to tap in unmarked against his former club.
If Chelsea’s players looked shell-shocked after dominating the opening half-hour, it was nothing compared with their emotions at the start of the second period, when Roma scored twice in ten minutes to end the match as a contest. Mikel was partially responsible for both goals. He gave Matteo Brighi the space on the edge of the penalty area to find Mirko Vucinic, whose first-time shot beat Cech from 20 yards, the first second-half goal he has conceded this season.
After going 678 minutes without being breached after an interval, Chelsea had to wait only a further ten before Vucinic scored again. The Montenegro striker dispossessed Mikel just short of the halfway line and raced upfield, being caught by the Nigeria midfield player before beating him again and shooting calmly past Cech at the near post.
While Scolari deserves sympathy for being forced to look on horrified as his players made such elementary errors, the manager was also at fault. His decision to bring on Drogba and Juliano Belletti and move to a 4-4-2 formation after a first half in which Chelsea had enjoyed 58 per cent of the possession appeared impulsive and just three minutes later it was made to look dangerously rash, as the visiting team’s attacking instincts left holes at the back. It is not the first time this season that Scolari’s desire to entertain has left his players exposed, and for all the goodwill his free-flowing side have created, the thrashings of Sunderland and Hull City will soon be forgotten if Chelsea are beaten on the biggest European nights.
The even more desperate introduction of Salomon Kalou as Chelsea chased the game was partially vindicated by Terry’s late goal, but their misery was compounded by Deco’s dismissal for two yellow cards, his second sin the trivial one of attempting to take a free kick too early. Chelsea, though, would not have been in such trouble if some of his team-mates had been sharper from the outset.
Scolari would prefer to dwell on the start of the match, in which only a series of outstanding saves from Doni, the Brazil goalkeeper, kept Roma on level terms. Lampard and Deco were outstanding in the opening exchanges, but even their excellence could not be truly celebrated as they failed to take advantage.
Doni’s acrobatic saves after long-range shots from both of them meant that they could not be held personally accountable, but the same cannot be said for Malouda, who was played repeatedly into good positions down the left, only to blast woefully wide.
Chelsea must learn to convert such chances if they are to challenge for the top prizes this season, as this reconnaissance exercise fell desperately flat. Scolari’s preparations began by taking his players to St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, but they would have been better advised to take in the stunning spectacle that is the Trevi Fountain.
According to local legend, visitors who throw a coin into the fountain are guaranteed to return to Rome, which on this evidence may be Chelsea’s best bet of coming back next year.
Roma (4-1-3-2): Doni — Cicinho, Juan, P Mexès, C Panucci — D De Rossi — S Perrotta (sub: R Taddei, 72min), M D Pizarro, M Brighi — F Totti (sub: J Baptista, 61), M Vucinic (sub: J A Riise, 88). Substitutes not used: Artur, S Loria, M Tonetto, J Menez. Booked: De Rossi, Perrotta.
Chelsea (4-1-4-1): P Cech — J Bosingwa (sub: S Kalou, 62), Alex, J Terry, W Bridge — J O Mikel — J Cole (sub: J Belletti, 46), Deco, F Lampard, F Malouda (sub: D Drogba, 46) — N Anelka. Substitutes not used: C Cudicini, B Ivanovic, F Di Santo, P Ferreira. Booked: Deco. Sent off: Deco.
Referee: L Medina Cantalejo (Spain).
* * * * *
Outnumbered
3: Seasons since Chelsea last trailed by three goals in a game
23: Before last night, 23 of the previous 24 goals in Chelsea games had been scored by Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side
6: Deco yellow cards (including last night’s two) in his past nine Chelsea games
8: Liverpool equalising or winning goals from 80th minute onwards this season
22: Liverpool attempts at goal, to Atlético Madrid’s six. Chelsea had 21 to Roma’s 14
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Telegraph:
Roma make Chelsea pay for carelessnessAS Roma (1) 3 Chelsea (0) 1 By Oliver Brown at the Olympic Stadium The latest legend of Rome’s magnificent Trevi Fountain is that you need to throw three coins into the water, with your left hand and over your right shoulder, to be sure of your return to the Eternal City. Chelsea would have been well advised to try this before catching their back from Fiumicino airport on Tuesday night, using one coin for each of the three goals that they so carelessly shipped against Roma, and that cast grave doubt over their chances of coming back to the Olympic Stadium for the Champions League final next May.
Roma have built much of their own reputation around Francesco Totti, their totemic forward, but it was his strike partner, a marauding Montenegrin in the shape of Mirko Vucinic, who proved Chelsea’s nemesis here. Vucinic, emboldened by Christian Panucci’s first-half goal, announced his presence with one superb, swerving drive, then outpaced John Obi Mikel with a mazy 50-yard run for an even more impressive solo effort.
His contribution shot to pieces the notion that Roma were a spent force, despite their position of fourth from bottom in their own league. It also dismantled the logic that Luiz Felipe Scolari can guide Chelsea to the Champions League title on the strength of their defensive record. Where Scolari could have dismissed the recent home league defeat to Liverpool, the evidence here was stark: the firm foundations on which this team are built have started to creak.Chelsea had prepared with this match with a little cultural immersion, spending Tuesday morning at St Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican. The occasion was of signal importance to manager Luis Felipe Scolari, a devout Catholic born of Italian parents, and someone who harbours a passion for religious imagery.
Their encounter with Roma, however, threatened to be overshadowed by storms of a Biblical magnitude that left a 13-year-old boy dead. So sustained were the downpours that the game was in danger of being called off before a pitch inspection by referee Luis Medina Cantalejo allowed play to go ahead.
Even before a ball had been kicked in anger Luciano Spalletti, the Roma manager besieged after his team’s dismal run in Serie A, stressed his resolve by ordering iconic striker Francesco Totti to play through the pain of an inflamed knee, while abandoning his tactic of fielding only man up front for the first time in two years.
When pitted against Chelsea’s three-man attack, with Nicolas Anelka at its centre, the two systems threatened to neutralise each other until Deco unleashed a fine drive from 25 yards, which Doni was forced to tip wide. The Portuguese playmaker was, in tandem with Frank Lampard, controlling the midfield battle but such superiority was undermined by a toothlessness in front of goal.
Chelsea allowed this creeping frustration to consume them, as their players scythed into Roma with the type of tackles normally reserved for gladiatorial combat. John Terry was guilty of a clear shove, Joe Cole a ‘two-handed’ challenge, before Deco was finally booked for his cynical trip on Totti.
This error proved the most costly, gifting Roma a free-kick from which Cicinho delivered a telling cross from the right and straight into the path of Christian Panucci. Although Panucci did well to angle his shot beyond Petr Cech, who had recorded his 100th clean sheet for Chelsea in last Saturday’s Premier League win over Sunderland, he was profited from the indecision of Terry and stand-in centre-half Alex, both of whom stood motionless.
The entry of Drogba at half-time did little to arrest Chelsea’s slide as Vucinic wrought merry mayhem. First the 25-year-old took a short pass from Matteo Brighi, dispatching a rising shot beyond Cech. Next he capitalised on the doziness of Mikel, stealing the ball and running the length of the Chelsea half, beating the retreating Nigerian once more, and finally stroking the ball calmly into the net to seal a three-goal lead.
Terry atoned for his earlier mistake when he latched on to Deco’s cross, watching the ball cannon off Doni’s chest and finishing at the second attempt. It represented one step forward for Chelsea, but the good work was almost instantly undone when Deco was sent off, needlessly collecting another booking for a quick free-kick. There was to be no way back.
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Independent:
Deco walks as Chelsea retreat in face of Roman onslaught
AS Roma 3 Chelsea 1
By Jason Burt at Stadio Olimpico
Two defeats in four games? It is not a crisis at Chelsea but it is suddenly a lot less comfortable. A late afternoon deluge had put this game in serious doubt and then Chelsea's Champions League hopes also took a severe dousing as they succumbed – capitulated more like – to a resurgent Roma to leave qualification in the balance. To add insult they also had Deco sent off – his second caution coming, somewhat ridiculously, for taking a free-kick too quickly.
Their manager Luiz Felipe Scolari said the decision would never have been made against a Roma player but it wasn't the only act of madness. "Crazy," Scolari said of his team's display and their defending. "We didn't play very well. We made mistakes in critical times and they [Roma] killed us. Today we lost the ball and gave them chances to score. In other games we haven't made those mistakes. I'm not going to change everything about what I think after one game." As for qualification, Scolari added: "For the group, it's open. For all. We have seven points, but if you're thinking about the points, if we win one game, we are there. We need three points."
Chelsea still top Group A and still head the Premier League but it was the manner of the defeat, their heaviest in almost three years, which shocked so many, including, clearly, Scolari. Once behind, Chelsea folded in an alarming way that has not been witnessed before. They were pale, anonymous, naive at times. Beating Sunderland out of sight, and Hull City, is one thing, losing to Liverpool and, more so, Roma quite another.
The final is here, in this city, next May. It felt a distant prospect on last night's performance and for all the aesthetic pleasure and fun that Scolari has brought, for all the joyful football , he needs to also rediscover that mechanical edge.
He cut a frustrated figure. In the first half he urged more from his team – it all appeared a breeze against a Roma side shell-shocked by five consecutive defeats and their worst start to a season for 45 years – while in the second he stood motionless.
His substitutions did not work while the paucity of Nicolas Anelka's performance, and the lack of impact made by Didier Drogba, only highlighted further Chelsea's need for a new striker. A day after lauding the solidity of his defence, Scolari watched in horror as they gifted goals and John Obi Mikel had the kind of horrific evening that scars. At the end the Chelsea players trooped off quickly – apart from John Terry, who stood staring at the turf on the final whistle, his face frozen in frustration.
But how did it come to this? For half an hour it had been so, so easy. The only bang from Roma came from the cannon-like crackers that were tossed from the Curva Sud, the one bank of this cavernous arena that was just about full. A couple of long-range efforts whistled wide from Deco and Frank Lampard – forcing saves from Doni – and a goal seemed an inevitability if Chelsea simply raised the tempo a notch more.
They did not. Scolari detected the danger signs and suddenly appeared a more agitated presence. His body language spoke of exasperation and that exploded when Mikel miscontrolled, and allowed the ball to run to Francesco Totti who was then up-ended by Deco who earned his first yellow card. From the free-kick, Wayne Bridge neglected to cover Cicinho and he crossed low. The errors mounted as Alex and Terry stood rooted, allowing Christian Panucci, a former Chelsea player, to slip through and side-foot home.
It was a poor goal to concede and even poorer given how tamely Roma had performed up until then. It was also the first goal surrendered by Chelsea in this competition this season. Scolari had hailed his defence. Now it had let him down. The goal meant one more thing. Roma's confidence returned.
Scolari had seen enough. Off came both wide players – on came Drogba, as one of the replacements. However, just three minutes after the re-start, Roma struck again. And this time Cech appeared to be at fault as Matteo Brighi teed up Mirko Vucinic whose shot was fierce but perhaps should have been covered by the goalkeeper. Instead it rippled the net from 25 yards. Once more Mikel dangerously surrendered possession – this time to Vucinic who ran on the midfielder's despairing lunge and then prodded a shot past Cech to cause mayhem, with Luciano Spalletti, the Roma coach who has been under so much pressure, throwing himself on top of a huddle of players piled on the turf.
Everyone was stunned. And then there was a lifeline as Terry deflected Deco's shot, Doni parried but, with Roma appealing for offside, the rebound fell to the Chelsea captain who bundled it in. Chelsea pushed on but there was no real hope while Cech had to throw himself to deny Vucinic a hat-trick. Was Terry injured at the end, Scolari was asked? "He's angry, nothing more," came the reply. He wasn't the only one.
AS Roma (4-4-2): Doni; Cicinho, Mexes, Juan, Panucci; Perrotta (Taddei, 72), De Rossi, Pizarro, Brighi; Vucinic (Riise, 88), Totti (Baptista, 61). Substitutes not used: Artur (gk), Loria, Tonetto, Menez.
Chelsea (4-1-4-1): Cech; Bosingwa (Kalou, 63), Alex, Terry, Bridge; Mikel; J Cole (Belletti, 46), Deco, Lampard, Malouda (Drogba, 46); Anelka. Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Ivanovic, Di Santo, Ferreira.
Referee: L Medina Cantalejo (Spain).
Group A
Results: Chelsea 4 Bordeaux 0; Roma 1 CFR Cluj 2; CFR Cluj 0 Chelsea 0; Bordeaux 1 Roma 3; Bordeaux 1 CFR Cluj 0; Chelsea 1 Roma 0; Roma 3 Chelsea 1; CFR Cluj 1 Bordeaux 2
Chelsea's remaining group stage fixtures: 26 Nov: Bordeaux (a); 9 Dec: CFR Cluj-Napoca (h).
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Guardian:
Blues on red alert as messy Mikel sums up limp shows
Roma 3 Panucci 34, Vucinic 48, Vucinic 58 Chelsea 1 Terry 75
Dominic Fifield at the Stadio Olimpico
Luiz Felipe Scolari's reign at Chelsea has suffered its most resounding setback to date. If this squad had travelled to Italy sensing progress to the knockout phase was within their grasp, then they returned home in the small hours of this morning beaten, bewildered and with Group A breathing disconcertingly down their necks. This was a painful reality check.
Not since Middlesbrough rampaged to a 3-0 success at the Riverside back in February 2006 have they endured a loss this convincing but, while it was baffling to witness the visitors so overrun by a side that had apparently been broken by a dreadful run of recent defeats, there were too many familiar failings here to enrage Scolari. Just as against Liverpool in the Premier League last month, when the Brazilian tasted defeat for the first time, his team failed mystifyingly to ally possession with penetration. They will travel to Bordeaux in three weeks' time in what now appears a critical tie without their suspended playmaker, Deco, and aware that they cannot afford to be this wasteful again.
Scolari might have sensed debacle in the air. For 33 minutes last night, his team out-passed their hosts on a turf rendered sodden by a four-hour deluge which had briefly threatened the fixture itself. Florent Malouda tormented Cicinho, while Deco and Frank Lampard were untouchable in central midfield. Roma gasped as they chased the ball hopelessly. Yet the visitors boasted no bite in the six-yard box, no physical presence in the air to unsettle nervous defenders, and their monopoly of possession yielded nothing. Doni turned away long-range attempts from midfield but Nicolas Anelka was anonymous and, after the break, Didier Drogba demonstrated just how shorn he remains of match fitness.
Yet it was still hard to accept the farcical nature of Chelsea's defending. For a team had not previously conceded in this competition this season - they had not conceded in the second half of any game - they imploded remarkably as soon as they had been bypassed just once last night. Uncharacteristic vulnerability flared, John Mikel Obi's composure draining as his sloppy pass surrendered the ball and induced Deco to foul Francesco Totti. With the visitors distracted at the free-kick, Cicinho wriggled free down the right and crossed into a cluttered six-yard box. Even so, the Premier League team should have cleared only for one of their former players, Christian Panucci, to glide in between John Terry and Alex to touch in from close range.
That was Roma's first real opportunity and it served to pep the hosts after five successive defeats in all competitions, their mood further buoyed when Mirko Vucinic, fed by Matteo Brighi's lay-off, rasped in a glorious second from just outside the area three minutes into the second period. Chelsea, yet again, had been slow to react to suffocate the threat. Petr Cech was not close to reaching the shot, the ball veering into the corner, though his reactions, too, seemed dulled. It was as if this entire team had been lulled into a false sense of security as they had toyed with fragile opponents in the first period, with an utter inability to rouse themselves when urgency was most required.
The errors were maintained as a sense of desperation welled. Mikel, slack where he has been so impressive, lost the ball to Vucinic again some 10 minutes later and, having tracked the striker as he tore goalwards, failed to stifle his progress. He was sprawled on the turf by the time the Montenegrin finished low beyond an exposed Cech, the Roma manager, Luciano Spalletti, leaping head-first on to the delirious huddle of celebrating players on the touchline as this arena rejoiced. The coach had been on the verge of dismissal. He wheezed his way through the post-match press conference, his throat swollen by his screams of joy on the touchline.
Terry's consolation, tapped in after Doni had blocked the centre-half's chest down, came too late to fray the home side's nerves, with Deco's dismissal for taking a free-kick before the Spanish official had blown his whistle merely rubbing salt into gaping wounds. The Portuguese, already booked for the first-half foul on Totti, will be absent in Bordeaux with Scolari hoping for the return of Michael Ballack as a replacement. He will wonder how it came to this. Chelsea remain top of this group, and a win in France would secure passage into the knockout phase, but this was an unwelcome shock to their system.
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Mail:
Roma 3 Chelsea 1: Rome trip turns into nightmare for ScolariBy Matt Barlow
They came, they saw, they crumbled against a very ordinary Roma team and this may prove the beginning of the end for Luiz Felipe Scolari's love affair with the Italian capital.After sampling the charms of Rome during the day with a visit to the Vatican and a quick look at the Coliseum, the Brazilian was forced to endure his second defeat as Chelsea manager and an error-strewn performance.His aim is to return for the Final next year, but this result and Bordeaux's win in Romania against Cluj has blown Group A wide open.
Their former defender Christian Panucci started the damage when he tapped the Serie A strugglers into the lead before the break as Scolari's entire defence froze. It was the first goal conceded by Chelsea in this season's Champions League but Serbia striker Mirko Vucinic soon added two more, early in the second half.John Terry pulled one back to restore some pride but Chelsea finished the game with 10 men after Deco was dismissed for a second booking, when he took a free-kick before referee Luis Medina Cantalejo had blown his whistle.Deco claimed afterwards he had already started to swing his leg before Cantalejo told him to wait. 'There was nothing I could do,' he said. 'It was crazy.'Scolari agreed, claiming the referee would never have produced the red card if a Roma player had committed the same offence. Deco's first booking of the night came ahead of the opening goal.
John Mikel Obi, who marked the offer of a new five-year contract with a nightmare performance, left a pass short in midfield and Deco tripped Francesco Totti.Simone Perrotta rolled the freekick wide to Cicinho on the right and his low cross was tucked away by Panucci, the only man who moved in front of goal as he nipped between the frozen figures of Terry and Alex, giving Petr Cech no chance. Roma's beleaguered fans roared. They have suffered this season, losing six of their first nine in Serie A, but they had promised not to turn on their team during the game.
Patience was being tested, however, before Panucci struck. Some Roma supporters trace their rot back to the day when Spalletti met Chelsea's chief executive Peter Kenyon in Paris to discuss the manager's job at Stamford Bridge.That went to Scolari, of course, but there are those in Rome who fear Spalletti lost the special relationship he enjoyed with the players and fans by showing an interest in moving on.Last night he made up for it, and Roma's players and supporters celebrated a terrific win as though they had won the trophy. It might still have been different had Florent Malouda not wasted a wonderful chance to equalise before half-time. He broke clear down the left but shot wildly off target.Chelsea had dominated possession in the opening quarter and Doni made early saves to deny Deco and Frank Lampard twice.Scolari's team were so in command that they appeared to pass themselves into a lethargy and eventually nodded off in the buildup to the ultra-soft first goal.The manager tried to regain the initiative at half-time, sending on subs Didier Drogba and Juliano Belletti to match Roma's four in midfield. Drogba and Anelka were pushed up front together, but before Chelsea had settled into their new system they fell further behind.This time it was Vucinic who did the damage, collecting a pass from Matteo Brighi and firing a 25-yarder past Cech just inside the post. Vucinic then made it three in the 58th minute, stealing the ball from Mikel just 10 yards from his own penalty area and sprinting half the length of the field with the ball.
Obi chased the Serb back and tried to made amends, but his sliding tackle was feeble and easily avoided. Vucinic steadied himself and clipped a shot over Cech as he dived. The Chelsea goalkeeper later denied Vucinic a hat-trick with a brave save at his feet.With the game in the bag, Spalletti withdrew Totti, who had been doubtful ahead of the game with a knee injury. On went former Arsenal midfielder Julio Baptista.Terry snatched one back 15 minutes from time, forcing home a rebound from close range after Doni had saved a deflected shot from Deco, but the game ended miserably for Chelsea. Deco's comical red card summed it all up.
ROMA (4-1-3-2): Doni 7; Cicinho 5, Mexes 5, Juan 6, Panucci 7; De Rossi 7; Perrotta 6 (Taddei 72min, 5), Pizarro 5, Brighi 5; Vucinic 7 (Riise 88), Totti 6 (Baptista 61, 5). Booked: Perrotta.CHELSEA (4-3-3): Cech 6; Bosingwa 7 (Kalou 63, 5), Alex 6, Terry 6, Bridge 6; Lampard 7, Mikel 6, Deco 6; J Cole 6 (Belletti 46, 5), Anelka 6, Malouda 6 (Drogba 46, 5). Sent off: Deco.Man of the match: Mirko Vucinic. Referee: Luis Medina Cantelejo (Sp).
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