The Midfield Battle

The Midfield Battle

Today, I would like to further analyze the soccer/football game played last week between Chelsea FC & Galatasaray AS, in UEFA Champions League. 

The game was played in Istanbul and the result was a deadlock tie score of 1 - 1. 

          Jose Mourinho & Roberto Mancini

The game did not look as close as the final score, in the first 30 minutes of play Chelsea FC was all over Galatasaray AS.  The reason for this, in my opinion was that Gala's manager Roberto Mancini had the wrong formation on the field.  He choose a 4-4-2 formation. This means that there were 4 defenders, 4 midfielders, and 2 strikers.  

This kind of formation against a very good dribbling and passing team like Chelsea FC is not very smart, since it gives the Londoners plenty of room and space in the midfield area.  And in turn, plenty of passes to the strikers for goal scoring opportunities.  Luckily for Gala, Chelsea FC only scored on one of the attacks, instead of 3 or 4.  

          Jose Mourinho in the Bench

Being a good Manager, Roberto Mancini saw this (loosing) battle between the two teams midfielders, and he therefore completed a substitution in the 33 minute to bring in a defensive-midfielder named 'Yekta Kurtulus', and also changed the formation to a 4-5-1.  

This tactic payed-off as Gala started plenty of attacks on Chelsea net, while clearly winning the midfield battle.  

Surely, a goal would come, and it came in the 68 minute, to make it 1 - 1.  

This was an entertaining, well played game by both clubs. 

          Gala Bench

I'm looking forward to watching the 'return leg' of the game between these two clubs on March 18, 2014.  It will be another 'chase match' of a game between Jose Mourinho of Chelsea FC and Roberto Mancini of Galatasaray AS. 

May the better team make it to the last 8 of this competition.  

Thank you for visiting.