FC Nordsjaelland 0-4 Chelsea: Blues Show Class Late On to Take Three Points against Danish Champions

Fernando Torres of Chelsea

The Wild Tigers of Denmark put up quite a roaring fight today against the defending champs of the Champions League. The Danish Superliga champions showed that they were no pushovers and really gave the Blues a run for the money, even after conceding 10 minutes before halftime.
Nordsjaelland had a fairly good game against the Londoners, as they out-matched them in every stat line except the all important “Goals” one. The Tigers had 53% of the possession, won half of every aerial battle, had twice as many successful tackles with 12 to Chelsea’s six, and even had a better pass success rate, completing 89% of their attempted passes.

Statistics and form is great and all, but Chelsea’s sheer talent and quality finally shined through in the second half, though much later on than the fans and staff were probably comfortable with. The sealing fate for the Farum-based side happened in the 79th minute, when David Luiz curled a free kick into the bottom left hand corner of the goal. From there, it was all Chelsea, as Mata scored again with a sweet touch to put the ball in the back of the net and Ramires put the cherry on top of a dominant second half, as he placed the ball home from close range, assisted by Oscar.
The efforts of the hosts were admirable, as they have performed very strongly in their debut matches in the Champions League. Their main flaw just seemed to be gifting the ball to the opposition in crucial parts of the pitch, such as right outside of their own 18-yard box. With every go that the Tigers had at the Chelsea back line, though, Chelsea just took the ball and used their sheer amount of pace, especially through the play of Victor Moses and Juan Mata, to counter quickly.
Speaking of Mata, he had a brilliant game paired up beside Lampard. He controlled the game well, dictated Chelsea’s movement in the offensive third and just played an overall brilliant game. His two goals were well-deserved for the work he put in on the pitch, today.
The Blues now top the group with four points from their first two games, but only lead on goal differential, as Shakhtar drew with Juventus today, giving them four points from two games as well. Next up in Group E play is another difficult match for Nordsjaelland, as they face the storied Italian giants, Juventus, three weeks from today’s match on October 23rd. Chelsea also play that Tuesday hosting a home match against Shakhtar Donetsk.