Chelsea facing Champions League oblivion

Roberto Di Matteo’s decision to start against Juventus with Fernando Torres on the bench didn’t pay off as his Chelsea side lost 3-0 in Turin.

The Italian lined his men in what appeared to be an 4-2-3-1 formation, with Eden Hazard the furthest player forward. César Azpilicueta lined up on the right on midfield alongside Oscar and Juan Mata.

Many felt Di Matteo was right to drop Torres but the lack of another striker with Daniel Sturridge recovering from a knock, left  Hazard playing an unfamiliar role. The Belgium did have a good chance after Oscar ran two thirds of the pitch, but could only send his shot wide of Gianluigi Buffon goal.

When the home side scored in the 38^th minute it was no surprise. Midfield maestro Andrea Pirlo shot bounced off the boot of Fabio Quagliarella and wrong-footed Petr Cech.

It looked to be getting worse for the Londoners as Ashley Cole cleared of the line from Quagliarella, while Pirlo shot just wide of the goal after half-time. Juan Mata and Ramires had efforts but neither challenged the comfortable Buffon.

The Old Lady doubled their lead on the hour when Arturo Vidal volleyed home from just outside the box. While they made it 3-0 in the first minute of injury time as Cech came rushing out of his goal and Sebastian Giovinco rolled the ball underneath his body.

It was the worst possible result for the Blues as Shakhtar Donetsk beat Nordsjaelland 5-2, meaning Chelsea have to beat the Danes when they come to Stamford Bridge in a fortnight.

Over in Portugal, Celtic lost 2-1 to Benfica as the Champions League dream continued. They went down to an Ola John goal in the 7^th minute but Georgios Samaras leveled the tie just after the half hour.

Ezequiel Garay returned the lead to the home side in the 71^st and despite the best efforts of Gary Hooper and Victor Wanyama they had to accept defeat. Although Neil Lennon knows his teams fortune still lay in their own hands.

It was just as well that Manchester United are already through to the knock-out stages, as their young side lost 1-0 to Galatasaray. An starting line-up that included Nick Powell, Alexander Büttner and the returning Darren Fletcher held out for 53 minutes before Burak Yilmaz sent the ball past Anders Lindegaard.