The famed Champions League anthem resonated throughout the stadiums in Lviv and Paris as the Round of 16 presumed in the UEFA Champions League. After Shakhtar Donetsk’s home – The Donbass Arena, was shelled by pro-Russian rebels, the Ukrainians were forced to move to the Arena Lviv and surprisingly, it can’t be termed as even ‘even close to home’ with their temporary abode nearly 750 miles from Donetsk. In the other encounter on Wednesday, injury-ravaged PSG hosted Chelsea FC at the Parc des Princes.
The first-half in Lviv was scrappy to say the least, as either side tackled and tackled to very little effect. Shakhtar did their homework and boy, they did it well! Bayern were often caught cold after losing possession and if it wasn’t for some poor finishing, Shakhtar may have easily taken the lead a couple of times. The first 15 minutes were dominated by Bayern, with the Germans simply passing the ball around for fun, to the delight of the local fans. With no clear chances created, Bayern succumbed to pure frustration and gave away silly free-kicks and Rafinha and Xabi Alonso earned themselves yellow-cards, the latter, I must say, lucky to stay on the pitch. Tackles flew all over the park and Vyacheslav Shevchuk received a boot to the head and left which left the Shakhtar man bleeding. It wasn’t a surprise it ended 0-0 at halftime.
Xabi Alonso was fiddling with fire throughout the game and it wasn’t a surprise he was sent-off for a second bookable offence on Alex Teixeira. It was always going to be an uphill task for Bayern to win this relatively winnable match and Alonso didn’t do his team any favors. Pep Guardiola was left shaking his head but he can take solace from the fact that the next leg is at the Allianz Arena. A clumsy and quite frankly, boring passage of play followed and yellow cards were raining. It ended in a stalemate in Lviv and Bayern will be undoubtedly disappointed at this display, while Shakhtar will be pleased at their performance but will have to produce something out of the ordinary to win in Munich.
Thiago Motta’s late exclusion did no favors to the already injury-ravaged PSG and former Chelsea man David Luiz was deployed in central midfield. Nevertheless, this was the more enthralling of the two encounters; fast-counter attacking football combined with smart possession-based play resulted in a match to watch out for. And the Parisians could have scored two goals hadn’t it been for Thibaut Courtois, who denied fine headers by Blaise Matuidi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 11th minute. The Belgian kept out Edinson Cavani’s header at the far-post with a smart save and Chelsea hadn’t made any clear-cut chances on goal. Hazard finally zipped across the PSG defense only to pass the ball into Salvatore Sirigu’s confident hands. But this is Chelsea and after Ibrahimovic gave away a free-kick near the half-way line, the parry by Thiago Silva fell straight to John Terry and he combined with his fellow centre-back Gary Cahill who flicked the ball to another defender Branislav Ivanovic who hit in a header unanswered for to send the visiting fans into raptures. After Chelsea took the lead, there was very little incident and after Ibrahimovic wasted a free-kick, it was half-time.
After the interval, PSG came all guns blazing and in the 54th minute, marathon man Blaise Matuidi whooped in a glorious cross and Edinson Cavani headed in majestically. A few minutes later both Ibrahimovic and Lavezzi had their twin strikes blocked and there was flutter of half-chances from both sides. Eden Hazard made a nuisance of himself and earned a few free-kicks which came to no avail. A scrappy time of play ensued and Chelsea hung on to ensure a 1-1 draw in Paris. Courtois unquestionably, was the hero of the match and PSG will be somewhat disgruntled with their performance.
Tags: Bayern Munich Chelsea PSG Shakhtar Donetsk UEFA UEFA Champions League UEFA Champions League 2015
