Alvaro scores late to give Chelsea the all important victory against Vidi, who surprised everybody as to their performance and Chelsea’s display on the night.
Alvaro Morata who as usual missed so many opportunities in the game, finally came through late in the game to give Chelsea their second win in two games in the UEFA Champions League.
While speaking on the official Chelsea website as to his judgement of the game, manager Maurizio Sarri said:
‘It’s very important for him to score, but I think it’s very important for him to play a good match. It’s very important for him to play for the team like he did this evening.
‘Alvaro can restart from this performance. He played very well, better than the last period. He has to take confidence from his performance. Sometimes you can score, sometimes not, but the performance is important.
‘He’s a very important player for us. At the moment we have Alvaro and Giroud. We have to play every three days for a long time I think, I hope, so they are both very important for our season.’
It was put to Sarri that Morata looked close to tears after scoring tonight
‘If he wants to cry after a goal, I hope to see him cry very often!’
On the match overall, Sarri found reasons to be positive and negative
‘It was very hard. In the first half we had opportunities for scoring. We didn’t do it, and so the second half was very hard.
‘We created a lot of goalscoring opportunities, but we conceded two or three opportunities to the opponents, and we have to do better in the defensive phase, in the positions under the line of the ball to avoid counter-attacks.’
Vidi were stubborn in defence and posed a threat going forward
‘They are very organised in their defensive phase. They defended very low but well. I was surprised because they were dangerous in the counter-attacks.’
Ross Barkley came on in the second half having received an England recall earlier in the day
‘I am very happy for him. He had a very serious injury last season. Now he is recovering very well and he is improving match by match. He can have a very important future in this club and with the national team.’
The result means Chelsea has had 1-0 victory in their two games in the UEFA Champions League.