Fantastic! Fabulous! Brilliant! I’m running out of adjectives! What a win!! Hats off to Jose and every single Chelsea player and the die-hard Chelsea fans who complement this wonderful team. This should come as a shocker for a lot of jerks who hate Chelsea and thought we’ll get eliminated at Spain. If we need to break a record to win the tie, so be it! The first English team to win at the Mestalla. It’s fair to say, we tamed the lion in its den. Man Utd bettering a tennis score against Roma at home is an achievement too. But I would put this Chelsea win right on top.

The Special One rightly said:

I am so proud of my players. Every Chelsea fan must be proud of them and why not?

Jose Mourinho took the risk of starting with Michael Essien, which put away any chances of SWP or Maka playing. We played 4-4-2 with a rare flat midfield. The first half was quite an ordinary one for Chelsea. Though we had a huge percentage of possession, we did not create too many genuine chances. It looked as if the plan is to score form the set pieces where Valencia looked vulnerable. We tried to sneak in a corner at every possible chance. Whereas Valencia created two or three clear cut chances of which they scored one. That Morientes goal was real horror defending. I was reminded of those days of Terry-less, Carvalho-less central defence with Hilario in goal. When a striker like Morientes is given so much space and time inside the box, that’s gonna result in a goal. In Premiership games, I can understand if we attack the ball instead of the players during set piece defending. While you’re playing a team of Valencia’s quality and proficiency in winning headers, it would have been wiser to go for the players instead of the ball.

It was nice to see Ballack having a good game. Won a lot of balls and was very very unlucky not to score a goal. It was a great header by Ballack to send the ball to the bottom corner. Only a miraculous save from Canizares prevented Ballack from scoring. Mikel was a little wobbly in the first half, may be over-awed by the Mestalla but he improved steadily and was very sharp and effective in the second half. The way he made a fool of Villa in a smart peiece of defending said it all. He is a real class act Mikel. If he progresses in this way, he could be one of the top 3 performers of Chelsea next season.

Lampard again, did not score or did not assist but played very well. He delivered some good corner kicks some of which could have resulted in goals some other day. I was particularly impressed with this tackles tonight. The one man who stood out all through the game was Michael Essien. Making a somewhat hasty return from his injury, he showed absolutely no signs of fatigue. I wonder how much ground he covers every match and how many miles he runs on the pitch! He played as if he was never out, just like Joe Cole. It’s a shame that Essien would miss the next match due to suspension.

Except that horror moment that gave the lead to Valencia, our defence did a great job. Ashley Cole must thanking all stars that he joined the Champions leaving the Champions league spot battlers who have no cups to play for but still lose at home in a league match. The Ashley Cole-Drogba longball combination would have produced another goal but for a brilliant save by Canizares. The whole defence put in a very solid performance that Cech must have been feeling bored all alone at the back. While this was the story of our defence, Valencia defence resorted to their rowdy practices. Ayala once again lucky in this leg too for not having sent off, after his one more elbow. The number of fouls committed by them will clarify their strategy for this game.

At half time, Jose swapped Diarra for Joe Cole which also meant that Essien would move to the right back and if need be change to 3-4-3. This really paid off as Chelsea grew stronger in the second half with every passing minute. As I was always suspecting, Valencia made a meal of a set piece. Essien’s very well curved cross somehow brought the ball to the Sheva’s feet, who took the goal very neatly with just micro seconds available for him to react. While Chelsea was pushing another goal for Valencia never showed interest in playing football. The first English team to win at the Mestalla. May be they had the penalty shootout in their mind. Having equalised and playing in such tempo and vigour Chelsea were always going to get the winner, sooner or later. Well it’s later in here.

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/3xz4L4imHOl7RbRjc[/video]

As always, Chelsea did not appear to have been ruffled too much about the approaching full time whistle. In their relentless pursuit for the winning goal, they never get pressurised by the time left. With all Valencia players getting tired and heavy, hoping for the full time whistle, Joe Cole and Essien, the two returners set up a thundering winner. When Joe Cole got the ball right in front of the goal, in his striking zone, he opted to pass it to Sheva, who made a smart pass into the box. In comes Essien running in like a raging bull which won’t convince you that it was in the 90th minute! When Essien stormed inside penalty box, with Sheva, Ballack, Drogba, Lampard, Carvalho and Terry waiting for a cross, not many would have thought Essien would blast that towards the near post. Probably that’s what caught everyone including Canizares by surprise. After this goal, there were three minutes of stoppage time. Valencia had by that time surrendered and they were down and out. And it was so strange that we were still pushing them and attacking for a possible third!

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/51HDc5xhgl6a5bRhJ[/video]

Jose is particularly happy about his matchwinner:

Essien is a special player. He is an athlete. He can run forever. He could play a game every day. He is a superb athlete. When we lost him one month ago it was a big, big loss. But he was ready to come for this crucial game. I know he is suspended for the next game but this one was the crucial one. The next one is not crucial.

Couple of interesting things happened here. If you had read my post on Valencia earlier, I had mentioned that Valencia has this tendency to concede goals in the 45 – 60 mins period. Chelsea’s equalisers in both the legs came in this period. And then comes our habit scoring goals in the last 10 minutes. Put both these together and you get a historic away win!

Jose on the match:

It was a great performance, especially in the second half. A great performance against a good team. We had a difficult start and were losing 1-0 and out of the competition. But the second half was amazing. We dominated the second half but I did not have to give a hot half-time talk. I was just telling my players to be strong and to have a strong mentality. I told them to resist the pressure. We made a tactical change by putting Essien at right-back. He is offensive and powerful in that position and Joe Cole and Shevchenko helped us to create more two-on-one situations. We deserved to win the game over 90 minutes. (Santiago) Canizares made two unbelievable saves – especially the one against Michael Ballack’s header. I thought the team was very strong. I had the changes ready if it went to extra-time. But when I saw the ball in the net in the last minute with Valencia needing to score two, it was great. It happened to me when I was at Porto – we scored in Old Trafford in the last moment. Like all goals, there was great emotion.

Jose Mourinho did a few crucial things which were instrumental in this win:
1. He selected Essien to play
2. He did not play SWP/Maka (1 min does not count)
3. He opted for a flat midfield as we had to attack them relentlessly
4. Brought in Joe Cole for Diarra as early as half time
5. Had his team looking for set peices
6. Boldly switched to 4-3-3 and 3-4-3 intermittently

More than all these he said this GEM before the start of this match

The Mestalla will be a pressure environment, but fans don’t score goals

Having drawn the home game and conceding an away goal, going to the haunted away stadium where no English team had won before, facing the most fearsome and vocal home crowds, coming back from a goal behind, and equalising only in the second half and scoring the winning goal in the 90th minute of the game – absolutely incredible. The odds were completely against Chelsea making it through. But we went there and dominated them throughout the match, had twice the possession, twice the shots and twice their will, grit and passion to win this match.

The Chelsea fairytale of this season continues. Most probably, Liverpool will be our semi final opponents again. We certainly have a score to settle with them. Just like the way we avenged our defeat to Barcelona, we need to teach some lessons to the scousers. We were beaten by them in the 04-05 Champions League semifinals, we lost in the FA Cup semi finals last season and we lost three crucial points in our match at Anfield in January. Ah, there are too many reasons for a revenge!

{democracy:30}