Galatasaray 1-1

Independent:

Galatasaray 1 Chelsea 1  Fernando Torres goal halts collapse of the English
 
Striker gave the Blues an early lead but John Chedjou ensured the Turkish side will head to Stamford Bridge level on the scoresheet

Sam Wallace

The great English collapse in the Champions League has finally been halted, although even Jose Mourinho's team will have some work to do to go through when Galatasaray return to Stamford Bridge.
 
There is every chance that come the quarter-final draw next month, Mourinho's Chelsea will be the last men standing from the richest league in world football. They escaped Istanbul with a draw and that precious away goal from Fernando Torres and in three weeks' time they will be favourites to finish the job against Roberto Mancini's team in London.
Even so, as Real Madrid demolished Schalke in their first leg tie in Germany, there was a reminder that some of the other powerhouses in this competition are finding life much easier. Mourinho's former club were 6-1 winners at the Turk Telecom Arena when they played here in the group stages in September, although that was the only time that Galatasaray have lost at home in any competition so far this season.
Chelsea had the chances to put this tie beyond the reach of Galatasaray, whose defensive weaknesses were exposed in the first half. At times even the tumultuous noise created by the home fans was quelled if not silenced. With the tie Chelsea's to win, they allowed Mancini's team back into the game and tie.
Galatasaray's Italian coach rectified an imbalance in midfield and the Cameroon international John Chedjou came up with the equaliser. In that moment, Chelsea could be accused of letting their concentration slip. Otherwise this was a creditable performance. Much more astute than their opponents in the first half, Chelsea were then forced to rely on all their defensive doggedness after the break.
Mourinho admitted as much when he said that his team remain unable “to kill opponents”. They had their chance, especially with Torres eight minutes after the break, but Mourinho lamented that “the last decision, the correct pass, the right movement is something that is not right at the moment.” For Torres there was only faint praise for the “very acceptable season” Mourinho says he is having.
There was to be no goal for Galatasaray from Didier Drogba to spark the conflicting emotions in the former Chelsea man. But then, he always was a lot more lethal at Stamford Bridge. The striker was substituted by Mancini before the end, and if Galatasaray are to do anything in London, then he will be crucial. Mancini said that his players now believe they can do it, doubling his side's chances of progressing from his pre-match prediction to “40%”
It was a first half masterclass from Chelsea complete with the early goal to unsettle their opponents and then a high-tempo hustle in midfield that closed down the options for Galatasaray at every turn.
Mourinho picked a team with a few surprises in it. Torres was starting his first game since 11 January and his first since his return from the knee ligament injury picked up in the home win over Manchester United. He has not been trusted in a game of this magnitude for a while.
There was no risk taken with David Luiz who was not on the bench. Andre Schurrle started in the three behind Torres. The German has started just two games in the FA Cup since before Christmas. In midfield, Frank Lampard was given the place alongside Ramires with Nemanja Matic cup-tied and John Obi Mikel on the bench.
 
The first thing to say about Chelsea was that they looked hungry. They were ready to chase down every Galatasaray break-out from midfield and close down relentlessly. No-one more so than Willian who is becoming Mourinho's favourite soldier and the Brazilian helped to shut down the threat that Wesley Sneijder posed on Chelsea's right side.
The creation of the goal came chiefly from the impressive Cesar Azpilicueta who won the ball in his own half and fed it inside where it went from Eden Hazard to Schurrle and back to the overlapping Azpilicueta who had made up some distance down the left. He picked out the run of Torres who had far too much space in the area and rolled the ball into the goal nicely.
Mancini's team had been leaving gaps through their defence for the whole half and Chelsea ran through them at will. They counter-attacked with pace and, despite having just 43 per cent of the possession in the first half, managed easily more attempts on goal than their opponents. They almost scored in the fourth minute when Fernando Muslera, the Galatasaray goalkeeper cleared the ball straight to Willian and only just managed to head the resulting attempted lob clear.
For much of the first half, Mancini's team just defended too high. As for Drogba, he was forced to survive on very little with John Terry paying him close attention. That was an intriguing battle between the two old team-mates and Terry certainly won the first half. He did get lucky just before the interval when the Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo disallowed a Galatasaray equaliser.

It is possible that Petr Cech had already stopped before Burak Yilmaz blasted the ball past him from the right channel. Either way, Carballo stopped the match and Terry was booked for delaying play by holding onto the ball when another had been thrown onto the pitch to restart the game.
Mancini had switched to 4-5-1 after half an hour of the game. Yilmaz was brought back into midfield and Yekta Kurtulus on for Izet Hajrovic which had a more stabilising effect in his side. They came back into the game after the break although there was one scare when Torres burst through the middle on 52 minutes.
He did not score his second of the game but it was not one of those moments of Torres despair. Rather it showcased almost everything that was good about him, once at least. Taking Hazard's pass he burst between two defenders, stayed on his feet as one tried to bounce him off the ball and got his shot on target. It would have been a brilliant goal were it not for Muslera's excellent save.
At the other end, Galatasaray were asking more pertinent questions of their opponents. Drogba urged his side on, and at times he seemed to have little patience for his former Chelsea team-mates, telling Petr Cech not to delay a free-kick at one point.
Drogba's header on 63 minutes should have been nudged in by the Galatasaray captain Selcuk Inan but somehow he managed to strike the post. Within a minute, they had their equaliser. A corner from the left from Sneijder eluded both Azpilicueta and Terry and the centre-back Aurélien Chedjou met the ball from a few yards out.
It had the effect of getting the home crowd back on side. Cech had to throw himself at a strike from the Brazilian Alex Telles. In the end, Galatasaray ran into that old Chelsea determination not to give in that has served them so well in Europe. It certainly has been missing of late in their three fellow English competitors in the Champions League.

Galatasaray (4-4-2): Muslera; Eboue, Chedjou, Balta (Kaya, 45), Telles; Hajrovic (Kurtulus, 30), Melo, Inan, Sneijder; Yilmaz, Drogba (Bulut, 80).
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Ramires, Lampard; Hazard (Oscar, 90), Willian Schurrle (Mikel, 66), Torres (Eto'O, 68).

Referee: C Verlasco Carballo (Spain)
Booked: Galatasaray Inan Chelsea Terry, Schurrle, Ramires, Cech

Man of the match: Azpilicueta

Petr Cech - 6/10
Branislav Ivanovic - 7
Gary Cahill - 6
John Terry - 7
Cesar Azpilicueta - 7
Ramires - 6
Frank Lampard - 6
Willian - 6
Andre Schurrle - 6
Eden Hazard - 6
Fernando Torres - 7
Samuel Eto'o - 5


=======================

Guardian:

Chelsea's draw at Galatasaray shows their Champions League limitations

Dominic Fifield at the Ali Sami Yen Spor Kompleksi

This tie lacks the dread that will accompany the other three English clubs going into their respective return legs and Chelsea have retained a sense of authority with Stamford Bridge to come. But events in Istanbul probably exposed their challenge for what it is. José Mourinho publicly considers his team outsiders to win this competition and, in failing to kill off Galatasaray at the first attempt, his players probably proved him right.
Profligacy, not for the first time this season, cost them on the banks of the Bosphorus and a tie that should have been settled early remains on edge. Aurelien Chedjou's equaliser just after the hour, bundled in at a corner as Chelsea's defence momentarily froze in the face of the first real hint of concerted home pressure, has offered the Turks unlikely hope.

Chelsea may have departed with a draw, the like of which Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United could only dream of, but this still seemed like a missed opportunity.
The worry is that it also had a familiar ring. The wastefulness conjured up memories of The Hawthorns earlier this month or the Britannia stadium in December. West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City had rallied to recover points from those games and Chelsea have had near-misses in other games where dominance did not yield a healthy advantage. Gala should have been buried in the opening exchanges, so open and vulnerable were they as the visitors poured through their ranks on the break, but they were able to revive themselves once the Chelsea boot had been removed from their throat. John Obi Mikel and Samuel Eto'o even had to be summoned from the bench in the latter stages to help Chelsea cling on to what they had.

Chedjou's volley from close-range had whipped the locals into a frenzy, the centre-half untracked at a corner with Gary Cahill distracted by Didier Drogba and indecision gripping John Terry and, for once, Petr Cech. Seconds earlier Chelsea had creaked just as alarmingly when Drogba was allowed to nod down and across goal, where Selciuk Inan darted in at the far post and prodded on to the woodwork from a yard out.
In that respect Chelsea could be grateful for a draw, with Cech denying Emmanuel Eboué and Alex Telles before the end, and the rather frenzied finale suggested that the momentum was all Turkish. "After our second half, the players probably understand we can go through," said Roberto Mancini. "It will be difficult but that second half was really important for us."
Galatasaray's late injection of hope was deceptive, however. Chelsea need only remind themselves of how comfortable they had been for the first hour to give themselves heart. A certain trepidation had prompted Hakan Balta and Chedjou to push far too high up the pitch early on, leaving tantalisingly wide open spaces at their back. With Eboué and Telles also too eager to gallop upfield, almost blindly at times, Chelsea could nick possession deep and spring at will. Headed clearances by their centre-halves suddenly became penetrative through-balls, and the visiting trio of creative midfielders relished the regular opportunities to burst into space on the counter.

Mourinho's selection had made that possible, the decision to pick Fernando Torres for a first start since 11 January justified by his slippery running where Eto'o might not have prospered so readily. André Schürrle, too, appeared fresh and eager on only his second start since New Year's Day. Eboué had been hopelessly out of position when the German collected from César Azpilicueta nine minutes in and, having glided into the Turkish half, liberated the marauding full-back inside his marker. The Spaniard charged towards the byline and drew out Fernando Muslera before pulling back for Torres to convert first-time into a gaping net. It was his sixth goal in his last five Champions League starts and a reminder that this team do have striking options.
It still felt like a novelty given the scoreless performances endured by the other English clubs in their respective first leg defeats. Indeed, it was the first goal scored by a Premier League club in any European competition since 12 December, when Roberto Soldado scored against Anzhi Makhachkala. But Chelsea should have had others. Willian might have capitalised on Muslera's scuffed clearance but saw his lob deflected over the bar by the goalkeeper's leap and header. Ramires, too, should have scored but lifted a shot from Schürrle's pull-back high and wide. Then an Eden Hazard pass sent Torres beyond Chedjou and the substitute Semih Kaya but his low shot was turned aside by Muslera.
That save seemed to increase in significance, given that it would have been hard to envisage Galatasaray coming back from two goals down. A draw, therefore, was frustrating and Mourinho wore that seen-it-all-before expression through his post-match duties. He warned that an awkward second leg awaits next month, yet Chelsea remain the most likely of the English contingent still in this competition to progress into the last eight. Whether they can progress much further while still letting opponents off the hook remains to be seen.

================

Telegraph:

Galatasaray 1 Chelsea 1

By  Henry Winter, Football Correspondent, Istanbul

Chelsea recorded a first for a Premier League team in 2014, a goal in Europe, but they left the deafening Turk Telecom Arena with a sense of frustration as well as reverberating eardrums.
Chelsea should really have built on Fernando Torres’s early goal but they suffered a lapse in concentration, a rare mistake by John Terry, and yielded to pressure from a Galatasaray side who responded well to Roberto Mancini’s tactical tweaks.
Jose Mourinho admitted afterwards that he was vexed that his team had failed to kill Galatasaray off. Torres had an excellent chance to make it 2-0 but the well-established fact remains that Mourinho’s team lack a prolific striker, leaving them vulnerable to any defensive errors.
These are infrequent, such has been the excellence of Terry and Gary Cahill, but Terry failed to react to Aurélien Chedjou’s run to meet Wesley Sneijder’s inswinging corner and Galatasaray had their deserved equaliser.
For all Chelsea’s annoyance, they still look well placed to progress to the quarter-finals, certainly far better placed than the Premier League’s other representatives, none of whom managed to score in their first legs.
Chelsea secured an away goal, take Galatasaray to their Bridge fortress, although Mourinho called on Chelsea fans to try to make it as noisy as Galatasaray’s gleaming new home. There was one point during the second half, during an extended spell of Chelsea possession, that the whistling of the Galatasaray fans was so piercing that one observer resorted to earplugs.
Mancini again played down Galatasaray’s chances but this was a success for him. His team were initially playing with fear, far too open defensively, and clearly the former Manchester City manager should take responsibility for that but he reacted astutely, changing personnel and the balance of the team.
He had hoped for a heavyweight performance from Didier Drogba against his old team-mates but the striker was largely subdued, perhaps overwhelmed by emotion but also well-marshalled by Terry and Cahill.
Branislav Ivanovic seemed to have responsibility for Drogba at corners and executed the role with occasional wrestling tricks.
Chelsea fans present spread out a huge banner of Drogba on adjacent seats and joined in the applause when the player who won them the 2012 Champions League was taken off by Mancini. The fear, of course, is that Drogba is saving up all his emotion and energy for an outpouring on his homecoming to the Bridge on March 18 but Terry and Cahill will be ready.
They knew their roles, their parts in Mourinho’s tactical design. In many ways this was a classic Chelsea away performance; they had 44 per cent possession, committed 18 fouls, and managed only 360 passes (to Galatasaray’s 490). They managed only one attempt on target in the second half.
Their occasional gamesmanship tested the patience of referee Carlos Velasco Carballo. Terry’s ball-throwing stunt to stymie a quick Galatasaray attack was particularly cynical and worthy of the ensuing yellow card. But Chelsea still came away with a good result which could have been even better.
For an hour it had all been reasonably comfortable for Chelsea.
After all the love-in for Drogba, and all the inquest into Mourinho’s comments about his present strikers, Torres seemed in the mood to seize the headlines. He was in quick on Galatasaray’s centre-halves, Chedjou and Hakan Balta, often tracking back, even dropping into midfield at one point to cover after Chelsea’s medical staff conducted some running repairs on Ramires’s nose.
Torres has endured much criticism since his £50?million move to the Bridge but he has contributed some important goals and this was his sixth in his last five starts in the Champions League.
The goal after eight minutes came via a classic Chelsea counter, pressing hard, winning the ball, and then striking quickly into raggedly-defended territory. André Schürrle was starting because of his pace and hunger for closing down opponents, fouling occasionally, earning a booking eventually, but his physicality and energy clearly unsettling the Turks.
Schürrle collected the ball on the left and released César Azpilicueta behind Emmanuel Eboué. Azpilicueta, again keeping Ashley Cole on the bench, ran into the box and cut the ball back for Torres, opening up his body, to side-foot home. They must have been tempted to unleash some fireworks over 30 Gloucester Place. The last Premier League player to score in Europe had been Roberto Soldado for Tottenham Hotspur on Dec 12.
It was a fine Chelsea attack, and nerveless finish from Torres, but it was naive defending from Galatasaray, who gave the visitors so much inviting space to run into behind their brittle back four.
Eboué’s positional nous has not improved since moving to Turkey. Galatasaray’s high line was dangerous enough; what made such tactics almost suicidal was Mancini’s decision to play almost four up at times, leaving Felipe Melo and Selcuk Inan overrun in midfield.
This was vintage Mourinho Chelsea; stifle and counter, absorb the punches and hit back hard and fast. Schürrle was everywhere, driving down the left and then the right, putting in a cross that the battered Ramires swept over.
So open at the back, Galatasaray looked better going forward. At times.
Sneijder, shimmying in from the left, combined with Burak Yilmaz but the inexperienced Izet Hajrovic shot over. Mancini had seen enough, withdrawing the largely anonymous Hajrovic for Yekta Kurtulus, a central midfielder replacing a winger, so stiffening midfield. Galatasaray now had better shape and more belief.
Terry cut out an Eboué cross. Petr Cech pushed away an Alex Telles shot. Terry then tried to stop that quick Galatasaray throw-in by lobbing a ball which he had caught rebounding back off the “Respect” hoarding after making a clearance. Galatasaray had been getting on with the game, even putting the ball in the net through Burak Yilmaz. Cech had raised his hands, noting that the referee was stopping the game.
Chelsea could easily have added to their lead. Willian and Schürrle set up Torres, who was thwarted at the last moment by Balta.
Shortly after the restart, Torres ran through, bringing a good save from Fernando Muslera.
Chelsea were running up a series of bookings for Ramires, Schürrle and Cech for time-wasting. They almost conceded a goal when Drogba headed back across from Sneijder’s delivery, and Selcuk Inan somehow hit the post rather than the back of the net.
Galatasaray’s increasing enterprise was rewarded when Chedjou made the most of Terry’s diffidence. It could have been worse for Chelsea but Cech saved from Telles. Chelsea, though, rightly remain favourites to reach the last eight.

==================

Mail:
Galatasaray 1-1 Chelsea: Slack defending costs Mourinho's men victory as Chedjou cancels out Torres' first-half opener

By Martin Samuel

It is five goals in five Champions League matches for Fernando Torres. It should have been six, though. That’s the problem.
Never satisfied, some people. Give the guy a break. Isn’t his record in Europe alone evidence of his quality? Scored against Bayern Munich earlier in the season, scored in the Europa League final against Benfica last year.
Put Torres on a plane and he comes alive. The player who has often appeared so ineffectual in the Premier League since arriving at Stamford Bridge finds his confidence again at the sniff of a passport.
And, yes, some of that is true. Inescapably, though, Chelsea paid £50million for Torres’s services. And what they had hoped to get for that outlay was a striker who made nights like this a formality, who turned one into two and uncertainty into inevitability. Torres failed to do that in Galatasaray’s Turk Telekom Arena. Given the perfect opportunity to take the match, and the tie, beyond Galatasaray’s reach, he blew it.
Chelsea will now return to Stamford Bridge, if not on a knife-edge, then certainly vulnerable. An away goal could turn the occasion on its head, just as this evening would have shifted calamitously had Petr Cech not made an outstanding late save from a shot by Alex Telles with 15 minutes remaining. That would have given Galatasaray the win, but would they have recovered to even score had Torres put them two behind? We will never know.
What we can say, however, is that after Torres missed in the 52nd minute, the home side threw themselves at the challenge with renewed vigour and the final 35 minutes belonged to them. By the end, Chelsea were the likelier losers. They will be wary next match, even if they might have taken 1-1 before kick-off.
The modern Galatasaray is certainly not hell. More like heck. No trials by fire, more skirmishes and inconveniences. The crowd still make a big noise, and Chelsea had more players booked than is helpful — including John Terry — but heck hath no fury like the old ground, where visitors were as likely to get a beating from the local constabulary as the starting XI, as Manchester United discovered.
Chelsea are the only English team to win a Champions League tie here, so they would have known the value of clinging to the early lead, or adding to it. They had enough chances, at least, particularly in the first half when several strong counter-attacks should have amounted to more. Needing a 1-0 home win to progress, they should still do it, of course. There is expected to be English representation in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, but this match now has tension that few expected after Chelsea took the lead on nine minutes.

This team may be built from the back in the tradition of Jose Mourinho’s best, but they are perhaps the most European of the Premier League clubs in the way they break. Not even Liverpool counter as fast as Chelsea.
Galatasaray’s new home is vast and a seat near its top affords the perfect view of Chelsea’s strength on the rebound. Back to front, box to box, they are startlingly fast, in the manner of the best continentals. The absence of Oscar, whose form has dipped of late, made no difference. Eden Hazard and Willian — in particular — are the key to this, with an able supporting cast of Ramires, Andre Schurrle and Cesar Azpilicueta.
Considering he is playing out of position, the importance of Azpilicueta’s excellence to Chelsea’s season cannot be overlooked. Without him, Mourinho would have Ashley Cole on the left and while that is no great hardship, the manager must have seen something in him this season that represents a slight dip in standards.
Azpilicueta, a right back, provided the solution and has arguably been the player of the season in that position. He was crucial to Chelsea’s early goal here — the one that momentarily sucked the noise from the throats of the voluble locals.
Emmanuel Eboue, late of Arsenal, made the mistake that set up the counter-attack, but after that it was down to Azpilicueta’s sheer pace and presence of thought having won the ball, going straight at Galatasaray and continuing his run almost to the byline.
Mystifyingly, this act of invasion drew Galatasaray goalkeeper Fernando Muslera — Roy Hodgson can only hope he is as flaky against England for Uruguay at the World Cup — meaning that Azpilicueta had simply to square the ball for Torres, who slotted it expertly past two defenders.
As if sensing the worth of this reprieve, Galatasaray regrouped and hit Chelsea with a sustained assault, which grew in intensity, forcing a goal.
In the 54th minute, in winning a challenge with Burak Yilmaz, Gary Cahill almost struck the ball into his own goal, but it was from set-pieces that Galatasaray most threatened — unsurprisingly with Didier Drogba in the attack.

It was Drogba’s presence that forced their second best chance of the game, his header from a short corner finding Selcuk Inan at the far post, yet somehow he contrived to hit woodwork when so much net beckoned.
But a goal was coming and from the next corner, taken by Wesley Sneijder, central defender Aurelien Chedjou found Terry and Cech in strangely docile mood, and headed the ball home. It was just the sort of goal Chelsea so rarely concede.
The first goal scored by an English club in European competition in 2014 — at the sixth attempt, incredibly — could have been accompanied by two more before half-time. Muslera was again the culprit, with a mistimed clearance that flew straight to Willian and left him stranded on the edge of the penalty area. Willian chipped but the Uruguayan improvised, a header deflecting the ball just wide of the far post. An impressively unconventional resolution, even if the chaos was of his making.
Then, in the 27th minute, another break — Schurrle on the right this time, beating his man and finding Ramires, who should have done better with a shot that flew over the bar. In his defence, Ramires had just returned to the field having sustained a blow to the face in an aerial challenge. A large white plaster was stuck horizontally across his nose. Maybe his eyes were still watering.
It was between then, and Galatasaray’s 64th-minute equaliser, that Chelsea let the advantage slip. There were a few culprits but Torres was the main one. In the 52nd minute, he was put through by Eden  Hazard, chasing clear with two Galatasaray men in pursuit. They applied pressure, but, even so, his finish was ordinary and tipped round by Muslera.
Football — bloody heck, as Sir Alex Ferguson did not say.

Galatasaray (4-3-1-2): Muslera 6; Eboue 6.5, Chedjou 7, Balta 7 (Kaya 46min, 6), Telles 7;
Selcuk Inan 6, Melo 6.5, Hajrovic 5 (Kurtulus 31, 6.5); Sneijder 7; Drogba 7 (Bulut 80), Yilmaz 6.
Subs not used: Ceylan, Gulselam, Colak, Sarioglu.
Goal: Chedjou 64

Booked: Inan

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech 6, Azpilicueta 7.5, Cahill 6, Terry 6, Ivanovic 6.5, Hazard (Oscar 90), Lampard 5.5, Ramires 6, Willian 7, Schurrle 7 (Mikel 67, 6), Torres 7 (Eto'o 68, 6).

Subs not used: Schwarzer, Cole, Ba, Kalas.
Goal: Torres 9
Booked: Terry, Schurrle, Ramires, Cech

Man of the Match: Azpilicueta

Referee: Carlos Velasco Carballo (Spain) 7
Attendance: 51,000
Ratings by SAM CUNNINGHAM

====================

Times:

Galatasaray 1 Chelsea 1
Chelsea in driving seat despite missed chances to finish tie against Galatasaray

Matt Hughes Deputy Football Correspondent, Istanbul

José Mourinho has been promoting himself — shock, horror — as a defender of English values all season, so it would be fitting if he were left as the Barclays Premier League’s sole flag-waver in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The Chelsea manager was left frustrated last night as his side squandered a hard-fought lead after spurning several chances, but will still expect to overcome Galatasaray .
Mourinho would have been happy with this outcome beforehand, as he demonstrated by going on the defensive after Aurélien Chedjou’s 67th-minute equaliser, but should have returned to London with one foot in the last eight. The Portuguese has also been telling anyone willing to listen that his developing side should be regarded as outsiders for the biggest prizes, and on a night when his former club, Real Madrid, scored six away from home against Schalke, his new charges demonstrated precisely why.
This game was Chelsea’s for the taking after Fernando Torres had given them the lead in the ninth minute, but they paid the price for their profligacy and some poor defending that John Terry, in particular, will want to forget. There is a slightly soft underbelly about this Chelsea side that they may get away with domestically, because of the transitional state of the Premier League, but which will be punished in the Champions League with a ruthlessness that they seem incapable of mustering at present.
Mourinho’s first Chelsea team a decade ago would have finished off the job, particularly with Didier Drogba in prime form, although that comment should not be seen as a slight on Torres, who looked surprisingly sharp on his first start since January 11.
The Spain forward seemed determined to prove a point after Mourinho’s complaints about his strikers and shaded his personal duel with the former team-mate who so overshadowed him at Chelsea, although the turning point of the game came with the chance he missed at the start of the second half that would have put the visiting side two goals ahead, when he shot tamely at Fernando Muslera, the goalkeeper.
In the first half, Chelsea looked capable of scoring every time they attacked as Willian, Andrea Schürrle and Eden Hazard stretched the Galatasaray defence. Roberto Mancini admitted that his players were overwhelmed by fear in the opening period, but the Italian was also culpable, setting out with a high defensive line that Chelsea cannot have witnessed since André Villas-Boas was their manager. As a result, Galatasaray often resembled sitting ducks in the face of Chelsea’s inevitable counter-attacks and were repeatedly exposed.
Chelsea’s opening goal was a case in point, and its genesis will not have surprised any watching Arsenal fans, as it resulted from Emmanuel Eboué giving the ball away after recklessly venturing too far forward. The Ivory Coast defender was caught in possession by César Azpilicueta and Schürrle took full advantage, showing the presence of mind to give the ball back to his team-mate down the left rather than carrying the ball forward himself. The Spain full back also kept his head, as he has done since supplanting Ashley Cole , by advancing into the penalty area before calmly picking out Torres, who timed his run to perfection to shoot into an unguarded net.
Torres’s goal was the first by an English club in Europe since Roberto Soldado scored for Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League on December 12, but for all his travails in the Premier League he remains potent at this level, and has scored six goals in his past five Champions League appearances.
Chelsea could have taken the lead even earlier, the industrious Willian chipping the ball over the bar in the fifth minute , and created enough chances to have put the game to bed before half-time. Ramires shot over the bar after Schürrle had played him in from the right and Azpilicueta found himself in a dangerous position on the edge of the penalty area after being released by Hazard. Galatasaray created plenty of chances themselves, however, with Selcuk Inan striking the far post at close range from Drogba’s header , and they equalised two minutes later. Chedjou was left unmarked to volley in Wesley Sneijder’s corner. Gary Cahill had his hands full with Drogba, but Terry should have followed the run of the Cameroon international.
Mourinho reacted immediately by replacing Schürrle with John Obi Mikel in a clear statement of defensive intent, which paid off as Chelsea saw out the final 20 minutes . While Mourinho’s claims to support fair play and the sanctity of officialdom should be taken with a pinch of salt, he can be relied upon to take his remaining responsibilities in the Champions League with extreme seriousness.

Galatasaray (4-4-2): F Muslera — E Eboué, A Chedjou, H Balta (sub: S  Kaya, 46min), A Telles — I Hajrovic (sub: Y Kurtulus, 31), Felipe Melo, Selcuk Inan, W Sneijder — Burak, D Drogba (sub: U Bulut, 80). Substitutes not used: U Ceylan, C Gulselam, Emre, S Sarioglu. Booked: Inan.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): P Cech — B Ivanovic, G Cahill, J Terry, C Azpilicueta — Ramires, F Lampard — E Hazard (sub: Oscar, 90), Willian, A Schürrle (sub: J Obi Mikel, 66) — F Torres (sub: S Eto’o, 68). Substitutes not used: M Schwarzer, A Cole, D Ba, T Kalas. Booked: Terry, Schürrle, Ramires, Cech.
Referee: C Velasco Carballo (Spain).

======================

Mirror:

Galatasaray 1-1 Chelsea: Fernando Torres scores away goal but Turkish giants claw back Blues
 
By Martin Lipton

Jose Mourinho's side took an early lead in Istanbul, but their Champions League last-16 tie remains in the balance
He warned everyone, even if it upset the men he diminished.
But Jose Mourinho knows the biggest threat to Chelsea’s ambitions is contained within their own ranks.
The Portuguese does, indeed, have a team but not a striker, lacks the sort of man who makes the difference. And in the final analysis, it is that shortcoming, that absence of quality, that could deny Chelsea the silverware they crave.
As he was caught admitting by that eavesdropping French camera crew in Switzerland last week, Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba are not good enough.
Any remaining doubt, surely, was ended amid the fervent ferment of the Turk Telekom Arena, as Chelsea conspired to breathe life into a tie that should have been over already.
A goal up inside nine minutes, as Torres converted a simple chance, impossible for any striker to miss, Chelsea were shredding Roberto Mancini’s men on the counter.
But chances went begging, time and again, Torres, on his first start in seven weeks, missing the best of them. Breaks with four and five against short-handed defences were not converted, as the final pass was missing – perhaps because the Spaniard was not making the right runs.
Those are the runs top strikers, the likes of Edinson Cavani, Radomel Falcao, Robert Lewandowski, Diego Costa, Sergio Aguero or Wayne Rooney make as a matter of course. Chelsea, as Mourinho inadvertently revealed in Nyon, do not have that quality, or anything like it.
They are like a bird with an injured wing, have been all season, in those defeats at Everton, Newcastle and Stoke, the draw at West Brom, even the win at Norwich. And after Didier Drogba finally broke free from the shackles locked on him by John Terry to awaken the storm winds of the Bosphorus, Chelsea were made to pay by defender Aurelien Chedjou.
Leaving the Cameroonian a virtually open goal six yards out from a Wesley Sneijder corner was an act of almost criminal negligence by Mourinho’s men.
Then again, as Mourinho did his best not to mention Roberto Mancini’s name, he rued his team’s failure to capitalise on their classic counter-attacking dominance. Mancini said his side had played with "too much fear" in the opening phase but that, surely, was a consequence of Chelsea’s start.
Willian, otherwise excellent both off the ball and on it, should have scored inside four minutes when a hurried clearance by Uruguayan World Cup keeper Fernando Muslera landed at his feet 35 yards out, the Brazilian failing to loft the ball over the stranded gloveman.
Five minutes later, though, that seemed unlikely to matter, the goal developing with a remorseless inevitability from the instant Cesar Azpilicueta robbed former Arsenal man Emmanuel Eboue on half-way.
Galatasaray, with no answer to Chelsea’s poise, were chasing shadows as Azplicueta slipped to Eden Hazard, kept running to meet the recalled Andre Schuerrle’s ball into the hole Eboue had vacated, and pulled back for Torres to slide home.
Evidence, too, of why Ashley Cole has become the forgotten man of SW6, his future clouded in doubt. Azpilicueta has been exceptional.
With Drogba dropping deep to try and influence proceedings, Sneijder peripheral, the home fans loud but fearful, Chelsea should have taken advantage. Ramires shot over but too often there was a failure to convert brilliant positions into a decisive attempt on goal. Torres, played in by Hazard at the start of the second half, should have finished it but having shaken off his marker, allowed Muslera to turn behind.
Galatasaray, still unhappy that a Bukan Yilmaz "equaliser" - with the second ball on the pitch after some Terry cynicism – had been rightly chalked off, began to believe. Skipper Selcuk Inan, three paces out, nudged against the outside of Petr Cech’s right-hand upright from Drogba’s nod down.
The warning was unheeded, the Blues absent without leave from the next corner, delivered into the danger area by Sneijder, with Chedjou barely believing the space he had to volley home.
Cech’s fine late save from left-back Alex Telles ensured Chelsea remain the favourites to go through. But compared to the goal threats that Barcelona, Bayern and Real Madrid have at their disposal, Chelsea are well short. And that may prove telling.

======================

Express:

Galatasaray 1 - Chelsea 1: Fernando Torres flies the Blues' flag

CHELSEA kept the Champions League flag flying for English football as they snatched a precious draw in the hotbed of Istanbul – but they knew it should have been more.
By: Tony Banks

After three first-leg defeats for England’s other clubs in the round of the last 16, Chelsea at least ground out a result and are strong favourites to make it into the quarter-finals – probably on their own as far as the Premier League is concerned.
But after Fernando Torres, one of the strikers manager Jose Mourinho was bemoaning this week, gave them an early lead with his sixth goal in five Champions League starts, Chelsea wasted a hatful of good opportunities to bury this tie.
They were punished when Aurelien Chedjou capitalised on sloppy marking at a corner to equalise after 64 minutes. But Mourinho will surely feel this should be enough to take into the second leg.
The rest of the round as far as English football has been concerned had been pure carnage. Three games played by three of the Premier League’s finest, three defeats, no goals scored, six conceded.
So virtually anything bar a disaster that Chelsea could manage in the Turk Telecom Arena last night was bound to be an improvement.
And with Galatasaray going into the tie with manager Roberto Mancini saying that Chelsea had an 80 per cent chance of progressing, home hopes hardly seemed high on the Bosphorus.
Mourinho is bidding to become the first manager to win the Champions League with three different clubs. Old rival Mancini has never made it past the quarter finals.
It was far from the old, infamous Ali Sami Yen stadium, the renowned “Welcome to Hell” arena. The Telecom Arena is a modern, gleaming edifice on the outskirts of Istanbul – but there was still plenty of noise, plenty of the usual fanaticism.
And there was 35-year-old Didier Drogba, Chelsea’s hero of that epic night when they won the trophy in 2012 and now up against them in the orange and red of Turkey’s champions – and with 10 goals in 27 games this season.
In contrast, into Mourinho’s team for his first start since January 11 came Torres, one of the goal-shy strikers he embarrassingly and inadvertently bemoaned in public this week. Eight goals to his name.
The Turks almost gifted Chelsea a goal in the third minute, as goalkeeper Fernando Muslera’s kick dropped straight to Willian, but his effort towards an empty net was deflected just wide.
But six minutes later they were ahead as Cesar Azpilicueta galloped onto Andre Schurrle’s pass and squared for Torres to stab home.
English’s football’s first goal of the round – in fact the first in Europe for seven hours 58 minutes.
The Drogba-John Terry battle between the two old friends was a no-quarter-given, bare-knuckle contest. But there was no question who was winning.
Chelsea should have added to their score when Schurrle broke down the right and crossed, but Ramires lifted his shot over the bar.
Galatasaray replied as Izet Hajrovic shot, but Petr Cech saved comfortably. But the Chelsea keeper then had to move smartly to tip Alex Telles’ low cross round the post.
Burak Yilmaz then had the ball in the net, but the Galatasaray players and crowd were furious as referee Carlos Velasco disallowed it having stopped play to book John Terry for throwing the ball away at a throw-in.
Chelsea’s sheer pace on the counter attack was catching the Turks out, but all too often the final ball was the wrong one, and while it was only 1-0 there was always an edge to the game.
Another chance on the break went begging as Uruguayan keeper Muslera tipped Torres’ shot round the post.
Felipe Melo headed over as Galatasaray tried to impose some control, although Chelsea, driven on by Terry, looked in command. But then Drogba for once won the battle in the air and nodded down, and somehow Melo manged to hit a post from point-blank range.
Then from a corner carelessly given away, Wesley Sneijder curled the ball into the area and centre-back Chedjou was totally unmarked as he scored.
Now the nerves showed, as Willian lost the ball on the edge of his own area and Telles forced Cech to superbly tip his shot over the bar.
Mourinho threw John Obi Mikel on to shore things up, but it was a tight and tense last 20 minutes, when it should all have been calmness and serenity.

GALATASARAY: (4-4-1-1): Muslera; Eboue, Chedjou, Balta (Kaya 46), Telles; Hajrovic (Kurtulus 31), Melo, Inan, Sneijder; Yilmaz, Drogba (Bulut 80).
Booked: Inan. Goal: Chedjou 64.
CHELSEA: (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Ramires, Lampard; Schurrle (Mikel 67), Willian, Hazard (Oscar 90); Torres (Eto’o 68).
Booked: Terry, Schurrle, Cech, Ramires. Goal: Torres 9.
Referee: C Velasco (Spain).

=============

Star:

Galatasaray 1 - Chelsea 1: Fernando Torres puts the Blues in pole position
FERNANDO TORRES edged Chelsea closer to the Champions League quarterfinals last night.

By Scott Coleman

The Spaniard struck after just nine minutes, steering home a right-foot shot from a fine cut-back by Cesar Azpilicueta.
And despite a 64th-minute equaliser from Aurelien Chedjou, after some slack defending, Jose Mourinho’s men will fancy their chances of reaching the last eight in the second leg.
Before last night, English clubs had suffered carnage in the round of 16.
Three games played by three of the Premier League star teams, three defeats, no goals scored, six conceded.
So Chelsea were trying to end the embarrassment in the Turk Telecom Arena in Istanbul.
“Five minutes later Mourinho’s side were ahead anyway, as Azpilicueta galloped on to Andre Schurrle’s pass and squared for Torres to score”
And with Galatasaray going into this tie with manager Robert Mancini insisting that the Blues had an 80 per cent chance of progressing, home hopes hardly seemed high on the Bosphorus.
Mourinho has his heart set on making it to the semis for the eighth time in 10 seasons, and to become the first manager to win the Champions League with three different clubs.
Galatasaray chief Mancini, an old rival, had never made it past the quarter-finals.
But also lurking in wait was Didier Drogba, Chelsea’s hero of that epic night when they won the trophy in 2012, but now up against them for the first time.
Despite his veteran status at the age of 35, he still went into this match with 10 goals in 27 starts this season.
In stark contrast, Mourinho opted to give goal-shy Torres his first start since January 11 after netting just eight times in all competitions.
The Turks almost gifted Chelsea a goal in only the third minute, as goalkeeper Fernando Muslera’s raced from his area but his kick dropped straight to Willian.
But the Muslera redeemed himself with a superb leap to deflect the Brazilian’s chip towards the gaping net with his head.
Five minutes later Mourinho’s side were ahead anyway, as Azpilicueta galloped on to Andre Schurrle’s pass and squared for Torres to score. It was English’s football’s first goal of the round – in fact, their first in Europe for seven hours 58 minutes.
There were no holds barred in the Drogba versus John Terry battle at the centre of the Chelsea defence. And it was the centre-back who was clearly coming out on top.
Chelsea should have added to their score when Schurrle broke down the right and crossed, but Ramires then lifted his shot over.
Galatasaray replied as Izet Hajrovic shot, but Petr Cech saved comfortably.
But the Czech international then had to react smartly to tip a low effort from Alex Telles round the post.
Burak Yilmaz thought he had fired in an equaliser from a narrow angle after a quick throw.
But the goal was disallowed because Terry was still holding the original ball, which he threw down as he tried to get back to defend. The decision was made even more strange when the Chelsea star was booked. he home fans.
The Turks pressed in the second half and Selcuk Inan somehow hit the post from point-blank range after Drogba had knocked it down.
But they did level in the 64th minute.
A Wesley Sneijder corner was swung in from the left and it dropped over Terry, leaving Chedjou with a simple side-footed volley from six yards.
And Galatasaray almost won it when Willian was robbed 25 yards out and Cech had to stretch to turn over a piledriver from Telles.

=====================