The scorching heat in Greece welcomed the Blues. Both the teams were facing each other for the first time. From the start, PAOK seemed an unsettled team with Coach scratching his head in dismay, players unable to create chances and Chelsea proving out to be stronger than the echoes of home fans. Chelsea’s energy on the ground could only be matched by the home crowd even after leaving Hazard on the bench.
Just seven minutes into the game and Chelsea were already 1-0 up with a brace from captain Willian. Two minutes later, Chelsea could have been 2-0 up if Morata’s failed header could have gone into the nets. The Spaniard missed an easy chance and slapped his hand in frustration. Opportunities kept on coming to Morata but he could not convert. One after another he would find himself in perfect position to score, unlike his shots that kept on missing the woodwork.
In the first half, PAOK could hardly control the ball and always ended up giving it away to the Blues. Whereas, the Blues kept on pushing forward but again lacked a perfect finisher to score the ball past goalkeeper. The halftime score ended 1-0 which could easily have been 2 or 3 goals more, if Blues did not blunder inside the box or Hazard would have been playing. Maybe both. Chelsea did miss the Belgian and his dancing shoes on the ground.
Their erroneous display of Blues continued in the second half with their shots either too weak or too far from the post. Kepa who was left out by PAOK in the first half was judged by PAOK’s forward in the later stages of the game but none of their shots could be of any danger to the record transfer keeper. Sarri who was supposed to rest Pedro and Alonso did give them a start, later substituting them in the 60th minute of the game.
The result was what Chelsea would have wanted but would have loved the scoreline to be more than 1-0.
With the tournament approaching it’s pace, PAOK will have a lot of questions to answer. How do they defeat big names of Europe? How do they gift themselves a title chance? How do they match the class of big teams like Chelsea?
