Galatasaray 1-1 Chelsea: Mancini takes early action to correct his initial error
The starting line-ups
Chelsea were completely dominant for the first half hour, but Roberto Mancini's early substitution meant the game became more even.
Mancini surprisingly named a 4-4-2 system from the start, with Izet Hajrovic on the right flank, and Wesley Sneijder tucking inside from the left.
Jose Mourinho used Willian in the centre, two direct wide options down the flanks, and a mobile central midfield zone in the absence of cup-tied Nemanja Matic.
Chelsea should have won the game in the opening half hour, but Galatasaray fought back commendably.
Galatasaray system
Galatasaray's first-half performance was shocking, with Mancini's system playing perfectly into the hands of Chelsea's counter-attackers in almost every way. Chelsea had various promising moments on the break, although their attackers often made wrong decisions and failed to build up a significant advantage.
Mancini's 4-4-2 featured two strikers and two attack-minded wide players. This asked an awful lot of Selcuk Inan and Felipe Melo in the centre of midfield, and they were often overrun by Chelsea's midfield trio – and were unsure whether to drop deep and protect their defence, or push up and pressure Chelsea's midfielders.
Overall Galatasaray weren't anywhere near compact enough, and their forwards did little without the ball. Chelsea could work the ball forward easily from defence, and then their midfielders had ample time on the ball to chip easy passes over the heads of the Galatasaray centre-backs, who were located too high up the pitch.
Galatasaray too high up the pitch
To save self-plagiarism…
The first half's major feature was Galatasaray's suicidally high defensive line, which was repeatedly breached by Fernando Torres' runs in behind. Perhaps Mancini was attempting to replicate the tactics deployed by his former club Manchester City in their recent 2-0 FA Cup victory over Chelsea – where the City defence played high up the pitch and minimised the space between the lines, closing down the Chelsea attacking midfielders as soon as they received passes.
Torres doesn't possess the lightning acceleration of his Liverpool days, but he enjoyed an enormous speed advantage over Galatasaray centre-backs Hakan Balta and Aurelien Chedjou. Balta was exposed repeatedly in the first half, most obviously when he was extremely fortunate to be awarded a free-kick when competing for a long ball against Torres – this wrongly denied the Spaniard one-on-one with Fernando Muslera. Balta was removed at half-time.
Muslera, meanwhile, was uncomfortable playing behind a such a high defensive line, mishitting an early clearance when sweeping to hand Willian the chance to chip from distance, then darting forward unnecessarily for Torres' opener.
Torres was in his element here, reminiscent of how dangerous he looked against Andre Villas-Boas' high line earlier in the season at White Hart Lane, even when he was sent off.
Eboue forward
As has become customary with Galatasaray,
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