Chelsea vs Roma : Match Preview

The game started with mixed expectations. Chelsea starting the game at the back of two straight defeats needed a victory tonight to salvage their confidence and just as mixed the expectations were, such was the starting line-up for Chelsea. Conte made quite an unusual change and played in a 3-5-2 formation with Luiz playing as a Defensive Midfielder.

The game started with great tempo from Chelsea who in the 11^th minute scored the opening goal of the game through a wonderfully curled strike from David Luiz and almost 20 minutes later, Eden Hazard, scored his first goal for Chelsea this season and half way through the first half, the home team was leading with two goals but a wonderful piece of individual skill from Kolarov gave Roma their first goal of the game and at the end of 1^st half, it was 2-1.

Immediately at the start of the second half, Roma looked very threatening and were too much for Chelsea to handle and unexpectedly, a second half substitution for Chelsea was made where Luiz was replaced by Pedro. This move truly puzzled me as he seemed to be well settled in that position and was controlling the game very well. Immediately after his replacement, the Italian giants scored two goals in a short span of time both by Dzeko and his first goal was one spectacular strike that many will remember for a long time. All of a sudden, the entire complexity of the game had changed and the team that were trailing by 2 goals were leading the game 2-3.

Just as Chelsea fans were having a worried look on their face, Eden Hazard, scored his second with a rare headed goal and it was back to square one. From that moment on, both teams were searching for the elusive winning goal. It was going back and forth with Chelsea holding much of the possession in the dying minutes of the game.

Finally, the game ended 3-3. Chelsea will definitely be disappointed to not have won the game though they were 2-0 up at the start of the game but regardless of the result, Chelsea should really be proud of themselves as they played some amazing football which was missing for the past couple of weeks and Roma showed great skills in their game.

In my earlier post, I had predicted a 1-1 draw but it had ended 3-3 but my prediction of a draw had been right. 

Overall, this was a cracker of a match which had just kept me glued to the seat.