Steaua Bucharest 1-0

Independent:

Chelsea 1 Steaua Bucharest 0
Demba Ba helps Chelsea cling on to top group but they again operate without a safety net
 
Demba Ba scores via a scuff off his shin, but it was not the victory that manager Jose Mourinho wanted
Robin Scott-Elliot  

A straightforward if scrappy victory over Steaua Bucharest meant it was job done: Group E won and a place among the top seeds for Monday’s draw for next year’s knockout stages secured. But this was not the victory – against one of the worst sides that will be seen at Stamford Bridge this season – Mourinho wanted.
The manager has bemoaned his side’s inability to kill off matches – it cost them dearly at Stoke in the Premier League on Saturday – and there were moments when he must have feared it could do so again.
Not that their progress to the last 16 was ever seriously threatened, but Mourinho would have wanted more. The same issues that have shrouded recent performances clouded Mourinho’s side again: moments of sloppiness at the back, imprecision in midfield and up front a desperate lack of clinical finishing. It was a match that would have happily got lost in the fog that clustered over the capital for much of the day.
Demba Ba, the night’s chosen striker, did score, via a scuff off his shin, but then scooped over a glorious second-half chance. Minutes later, when he conceded possession cheaply, Mourinho stood on the touchline and gently shook his head. Don’t expect to see Ba against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
With a run of eight games in the next three weeks – taking in four competitions – Mourinho made the promised changes. He prefers not to use the word rotation, saying it brings the air of a weakened team and Jose doesn’t do weakness. But he spun the wheel seven times from the side beaten at Stoke on Saturday. Ashley Cole started for the first time in five weeks, since being dropped after the defeat at Newcastle, and behind him the 41-year-old Mark Schwarzer made his Champions League debut
He would have hoped, and like most here probably expected, that Chelsea would punish a Steaua side who arrived in London without a Champions League group stage win in 22 games.
A series of early corners, none comfortably dealt with by the Steaua defence, provided a good idea of what was coming. Sure enough, Willian whipped in another corner, Oscar, horribly unattended, flicked the ball on, Steaua’s Daniel Georgievski and Ba contested it at the far post and it ended up in the visitors’ net. TV replays eventually showed Ba’s shin had made the final contact.
It was a messy goal to suit a messy opening half, one dominated by Chelsea, who retained around 70 per cent of possession as the visitors sat back in numbers. But though Chelsea had the ball and the control, as at Stoke and Everton, two of their three Premier League defeats, they were not clinical enough.
In the Premier League they were made to pay and here they could have been again denied an interval lead. John Obi Mikel, who had a careless match, was caught in possession after Steaua cleared yet another corner and, with the defence out of position, Gabriel Iancu was given a clear run on Schwarzer’s goal only to slide a left-foot shot wide.
It was a let-off and it brought Mourinho off his seat to scold his players. They reasserted themselves, with Branislav Ivanovic and Frank Lampard going close.
Ba should have converted Ivanovic’s cross early in the second half but shot over from close range. André Schürrle replaced Oscar and produced most of the few bright moments in the second half, with Eden Hazard heading over after the ball broke to him following a run by the German. The Belgian and Oscar, as well as Mourinho, were targeted by a green laser from the crowd. It was a rare example of anything finding its target, and when Ba did find the net again in the closing moments, he was offside.
Man of the match Schürrle.
Match rating 4/10.
Referee G Rocchi (It).
Attendance 40,000.

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Guardian:

Chelsea perform in fits and starts but still manage to beat Steaua Bucharest
Dominic Fifield at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea have claimed this section and will return to domestic distractions with a victory to pep bruised confidence, even if edging out Steaua Bucharest did little to undermine José Mourinho's pre-match assessment that his team should not be considered contenders. This was a humdrum occasion to conclude a plod of a group. Drastic improvement will be needed in the knockout phase when teams of proper pedigree await.
There was little to illuminate the contest, despite one Steaua fan's best efforts with a laser pen from high up in the east stand. Stewards were dispersed to identify the culprit late on, the green dot having been fixed on figures from Mourinho to Oscar, and then Eden Hazard to Willian, and he was arrested post match. "I was aware of it, but I cannot worry about things like that during the game," said Mourinho. "I don't know if it creates any kind of problem. I felt it a couple of times, but I felt no pain. So I kept going."
The home supporters might have preferred him to point the way to goal given the chances passed up by their side. The hosts were hampered here by familiar frailties. They remain a team who struggle to kill off opponents effectively, forever hinting at an avalanche of goals but delivering only a dusting. Four chances had been passed up in the opening 10 minutes before the game's solitary goal was bundled in, apparently by Demba Ba, though the visitors' Daniel Georgievski appeared to have had the clearest touch. Certainly he skulked away with guilt etched across his face.
Uefa dithered over the scorer's identity throughout the remainder of the first half, studying who had had the final touch once Oscar had flicked on Willian's corner. They eventually opted for the Senegalese, perhaps out of sympathy for the toils endured by Chelsea forwards this term. Had they stuck with their original assessment, Georgievski would have ended the evening as Chelsea's joint top scorer in the competition this term, having also netted an own goal in the first match between the sides in Bucharest. The Australian-born Macedonia international will be mightily relieved these sides' paths will not cross again this season.
Ba will be thankful for Uefa's generosity, as he had a goal rightly ruled out for offside, and somehow contrived to spoon over Willian's excellent low cross from just inside the six-yard box as a second, more clear-cut reward beckoned. The sight of Hazard nodding over an open goal rather summed it up, the home side's slick approach play forever running aground in the finish.
Crystal Palace are due here on Saturday, a fixture that would normally have the host forwards salivating. Yet Tony Pulis's side have conceded only once in five games and, bolstered by that stingy record, will surely come intent to frustrate. They may find the locals exasperate easily if an early advantage is not forthcoming.
This was all too low-key, a reflection perhaps of the scenario in the group but also due to news that Schalke had taken the lead against 10-man Basel in Germany, which meant a draw was enough for the home side to win the group. "At half-time we were at the limit and I'd told the players that, if we conceded and Basel scored, we'd be second," said Mourinho. "But after what happened in Germany, a point was enough so we didn't have to risk or do silly things, just control the game. This is a competition too important in terms of prestige – and the financial situation – for you to do silly things. You have to play safe. So it was not a fantastic performance, but it was also comfortable."
Chelsea will cling to a clean sheet after last week's traumas, when six goals were shipped to Sunderland and Stoke in the Premier League, even if a revamped back-line endured some uncomfortable moments en route.
Ashley Cole and David Luiz were featuring for their club for the first time since 2 November, with Mark Schwarzer the oldest ever Champions League debutant at 41, but the rejigged and rusty rearguard strained to stay secure at times. They should have been pierced just before the quarter-hour mark, Gabriel Iancu scuttling beyond John Terry and on to Georgievski's slipped pass to gain a clear sight of goal. But he dragged his shot wide of the far post, and that was as close as the visitors came.
Chelsea might have eased further ahead towards the close, but there was no end product to complement Willian's rapid approach play or the late gliding menace supplied by André Schurrle. Mourinho will take some encouragement from the impression being made by that combination of creators behind his front man, but there is plenty to be done before the Champions League resumes in the new year. Chelsea have topped an uninspiring group. The hard work is still to come.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/gallery/2013/dec/11/champions-league-chelsea-steaua-gallery

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Telegraph:

Chelsea 1 Steaua Bucharest 0:
By Matt Law, Stamford Bridge

Chelsea secured their progression into the knockout stages as Group E winners with an uninspiring victory against Steaua Bucharest, courtesy of a Demba Ba goal.
The nature of the win summed up Chelsea’s Champions League campaign so far. Having lost home and away against Basle, Mourinho’s men produced the bare minimum to top a group that should really have been far more comfortable.
Their position at the top of the group means they can now be drawn against Didier Drogba’s Galatasaray, AC Milan, Olympiakos, Zenit St Petersburg or Bayer Leverkusen in the last-16 draw on Monday.
Mourinho would be forgiven for simply wanting the most comfortable draw, but instead he wants Drogba to be given a Chelsea return. Drogba’s last act for Chelsea was converting the penalty in the shoot-out which won the Champions League in May last year, before bringing his eight years with the club to an end.
“We have difficult teams,” Mourinho said. “You have the Russian champions, the Greek champions. A German team, Leverkusen, is always very difficult. The Turkish champions with ‘King Didier’ and Milan.
“I think Didier deserves to come here. I think he deserves a reception here even better than mine, when I returned as manager, because he deserves much more than me. He deserves to come here and get the reception I got against Hull City, but for Didier it should be double or three times better and bigger than I had. I know what I felt. I think he deserves that. So, yes, Galatasaray is difficult. Very difficult. But I’d like Didier to be back here and feel what I felt.”
Mourinho does not rate Chelsea among the favourites to win the Champions League and admits that his team must grow up between now and the knockout stage. “We have to grow up, step by step,” Mourinho said. “We go into new matches now for some of my players. Some of my players didn’t play any games in the knockout stage of the Champions League, they played in the group and the Europa League, so it will be a different scenario for some of them.
“Let’s go for the last 16. If we win, we go into the quarter-final and, with only eight teams, we can think a different way. We had one target, which was not to win the Europa League again, and that target is done. Now we have to do the best we can in the Champions League. But now we must forget the Champions League until February, March 2014, and let’s work to improve the team and get results in the English competitions. When we get those results, we’ll be preparing ourselves for the next stage of the Champions League.”
At least a striker was on the scoresheet for Mourinho last night, as Ba scored Chelsea’s winning goal.
Ba also amused Mourinho and most of the Stamford Bridge crowd by missing the easiest of chances. But the Portuguese was not so amused at having a laser aimed at him and his players.
There was even confusion over whether or not Ba had scored. First Ba, then Daniel Georgievski and finally Ba again were credited with the 10th-minute goal.
A Willian corner was headed on by Oscar and the ball looked to have been bundled into the net by Ba, who was named as the goalscorer by the Stamford Bridge stadium announcer.
But the scoreboard showed Georgievski as netting an own goal, with Ba celebrating nonetheless – perhaps hoping Mourinho would be convinced that one of his forwards had actually scored.
Uefa was convinced, as the name of the opening goalscorer changed to Ba shortly before half-time.
Ba must have thought he would double his and Chelsea’s tally after the break, but blazed over from six yards. Mourinho smiled at that squandered chance, but looked on stony-faced when the Senegal international side-footed wide late on.
“It wasn’t a fantastic performance, it was a comfortable performance,” Mourinho said. “It’s enough. We did enough to win, enough to win without a kind of difficult moment. I think if we’d scored the second goal we’d jump to another performance.
“We didn’t have to risk or do silly things, just control the game. This is a competition too important in terms of prestige and financial situation that you cannot do silly things. You have to play safe. So it was not a fantastic performance, but it was also comfortable.
“I was aware of the laser. I don’t know if it creates any kind of problem. I don’t know. During the game I felt it a couple of times, but not big. In the game I cannot be worried with that. I felt the green. I felt no pain. So I kept going.”