Having missed over a week of course work because of flu, I really needed to put in extra effort. I tried but on Tuesday, Wednesday and tonight (Thursday), I just couldn’t resist 90 minutes of great football from the UEFA Champions and the Europa Leagues.

On Tuesday evening, my night study schedule was interrupted by the game between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. I’m a big fan of Chelsea FC but with a soft spot for Real Madrid.

(Photo credit: Reuters)

It was great to see Real Madrid triumph at the Santiago Bernabeu by 2 goals to nothing for Dortmund but it was not enough to see Jose Maurinho’s squad to the finals having lost 4-1 to Dortmund at their home a week earlier.

I was rooting so much for Real Madrid and was quite disappointed that the one goal they needed to progress had eluded them. Not a great end to my football night but it was an exciting game to watch.

On Wednesday evening, it was the turn of FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Having lost 4-0 to Bayern in Munich the previous week, I was looking forward to the game with glee. Barcelona are not one to usually go down in any match but on the few occasions they have been, they have fought back to the top. It seemed a miracle was needed for Barcelona to score 5 goals but the confidence their supporters had that it could be done was more fascinating than watching the team lose with such determination, yep! Determination is the word!

They tried and tried but Bayern Munich’s quality on the night was undeniable and in the end, Barcelona were beaten 3-0 in their own home.  The last time Barcelona lost at home by 3-0 was in 1997 to Dinamo Kiev.

I must say never have I been so excited to see a team lose. I’ve never been a supporter on Barcelona and never will be. The noise their fans make over the team, especially Lionel Messi is quite annoying to me so it was definitely a joy to see them lose. I may have missed out on studying and getting some work done but just because I watched Barcelona lose by 7-0 aggregate, it was definitely worth my time.

Then tonight, it was the turn of my favourites, Chelsea FC. Coming into the second round with a 2-1 lead against FC Basel, I was confident we would sail through to the Europa final. However, just at the stroke of half time, Basel fired one back to make the score line 2-2 on aggregate.

They still needed a goal to progress to the final so I was still hopeful. When it comes to Chelsea, my faith is sky high. It certainly shot beyond the skies when 5 minutes into the second half, Fernando Torres equalized for Chelsea. Barely 2 minutes later, Nigerian star, Victor Moses made it 2-1 for the night.

Twenty minutes into the second half, David Luiz scored the most beautiful goal of the night to cement Chelsea’s position in the Europa League final.

Three days of incredible football, loss of productivity on my side but it was so worth it to see Barcelona humiliated and Chelsea make it to the Europa final. In two weeks, we will be Europa League Champions! Yes, I believe Benfica will be no match for the Blues. I love my team!

After such thrilling moments, I have to turn back to finishing some course work. I’m almost in panic mode, it’s going to be long nights from now till the weekend.

Coming to a second leg with a win and two away goals under the belt was always going to make the current Champions League holders the firm favourites, but Salah looked to have a different script, scoring in first-half injury time to claw the aggregate tie back to 2-2.

It was a demolition job in nine second half minutes and the match was killed before the hour mark, as Torres, then Moses, then a spectacular from Luiz ensured Chelsea’s passage. It may not be the premier European competition, but another final, to be played in Amsterdam in 13 days time, is more than a mere consolation.

The omen was on Chelsea to progress. Out of the 125 teams to have won 2-1 away from home in the first leg of this competition’s knock-out ties, 119 have progressed. Coupled that with the fact Chelsea are unbeaten in 12 European home games, Stamford Bridge was looking a fortress.

The talks over the last few days of Mourinho’s imminent return to The Bridge has intensified, but Rafael Benitez was in no mood to work up a sweat. A strong side did not include Juan Mata or John Terry, but still possessed the ever-hungry Frank Lampard and Eden Hazard.

And the home side started off brilliantly. Lampard hit the post, Torres forced a save from Sommer whilst Ramires was also put through by Moses.

Basel had their opportunities also. Streller’s audacious volley was always going to be a dream but it nearly was a reality, only narrowly missing the far post. Salah had the chance as the half neared it end but his shot was straight at Cech.

Going into the break at 0-0 would have been a good score-line, but Basel had other ideas. Salah, who had been testing before, finally made a chance count and steered past Cech into the corner for the last kick of the half. The Blues have now kept just one clean sheet in their last 10 European home games.

Fear not, as Benitez’s half-time team-talk clearly did wonders. Fernando Torres scored within five minutes of the restart. Lampard’s left-foot drive was saved, but the ball fell kindly into the path of the Spaniard to slide home his seventh goal in his last six European home games.

Victor Moses then grabbed the second just two minutes later. This time the Spaniard turned provider, having his shot blocked, but Victor Moses was on hand to tap home.

Luiz then scored the goal of the game. Lampard’s lay off was deft and Luiz had a lot to do from 30 yards, but his first-time left-foot strike swerved in as Sommer could only stare.

5-2 down on aggregate, the life was sucked out of Basel. Frei saw his chance hit the bar, whilst Die was also getting in on the act for mere consolations.

Hazard’s chip proved to be his last contribution as no less Juan Mata entered the fray, displaying glorious touches and passes, but the Chelsea goals were drying up.

Lampard pressed on to search for his record-equalling 202nd Chelsea goal, but that would have to wait for another game yet. Cech was having another day at the office with strong saves, where there were the few and far between Basel chances.

It may not be the heights of Camp Nou reaching Munich, but a final date booked will always go down well.

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Link to the squad on FUThead.com

A quick overview of the team then. I’ve gone for a fairly attacking 3-4-3 line-up. The players from the TOTW that I chose are:

Thiago Silva
Diego
Sergio Sanchez
Philippe Coutinho
Jordan Henderson
Christian Benteke

I left out Huntelaar simply because it was hard to fit him in, and his card really didn’t look that impressive. I think Benteke will be incredible so I might just have to try him out. His silver card is really good, so his gold card with 95 strength, 93 finishing and 94 shot power has to be absolutely amazing. Coutinho and Thiago Silva are also looking really good. Silva with 84 pace and 90 defending! If you concede with him in your team then you might have to consider retiring from Fifa.

I put Sergio Sanchez in the squad because Liga BBVA are short of Spanish CBs with more than 70 pace, and since he is relatively unknown he’ll probably go for not much more than discard value. His non-IF is a RB and with that 87 strength he’ll definitely be worth checking out.

I’m not too sure about diego, nor Henderson. They’re both originally CMs and would suit better in that position in my opinion. Because FUT is heavily based around pace they lack just a little too much of that when playing on the wings. Though they might still be worth checking out. Can’t imagine Diego going for much, though Henderson probably will since he’s an English silver in the PL.

You would think that they’d have a few shots where Nando’s aim was better, you know? They’re adorable though. Enjoy the video in the article link…

- Lozil

Oscar scored in the 43rd minute, and if, as cliché goes, conceding right before half-time is hugely psychologically damaging, another in first-half stoppage time — a penalty from Lampard — won’t have helped matters.

It means the Blues now head the London trio fighting for only two Champions League places.

Swansea, meanwhile, have stepped into mid-table mediocrity and having secured a European spot via a Capital One Cup win, have stepped off their gas in their pursuit for absolutely nothing. The Welsh side had drawn two and lost two of their last four league matches.

Benitez, meanwhile, was going into his 42nd game as interim manager of Chelsea, a startling figure for someone who is only meant to be a stand-in, and more than Di Matteo and André Villas-Boas.

Of all the 41 matches played thus far, the average score-line has been a 2-1 victory, and with Swansea yet to win from a losing position this season, the onus really was on Chelsea to make the break-through.

That would have to come through Demba Ba and his trio of the amicably-named Mazacar. Hazard and Oscar started alongside birthday boy Juan Mata. John Terry, meanwhile, had a defensive pairing with Gary Cahill, who was playing his first match since the start of the month.

Eden Hazard and Demba Ba looked intent on scoring early, but as so often in a tricky schedule, Chelsea started off lacklustre in the face of a game every three days.

Thankfully for Chelsea, Swansea were failing to capitalise on fatigued legs after a trip to Switzerland mid-week, and despite attempts from Michu and Hernandez, Cech was standing firm. The goalkeeper needed just one more clean-sheet going into this game to take third place in the list of Premier League clean sheets, and the Czech stopper was intent on doing so.

Mark Clattenburg’s return to Stamford Bridge after being cleared of racial abuse was mercifully smooth. Mikel was benched to spare a handshake, whilst his defensive partner Ramires soon had to come off too. Frank Lampard was the man called on.

And a man with intent to break the record set by Bobby Tambling, who was watching on and made an emotional half-time lap of honour.

But right before half-time was when the game was really won.

The old guard of John Terry and Frank Lampard combined and fed through the younger generation of Oscar, who firely firmly past Michel Vorm.

Juan Mata, wanting to celebrate his 25th with a win, then was felled in the box by Leon Britton and Frank Lampard was on hand to smash home his 201st. Then came the appearance of Tambling.

No time to reminisce, though, for Chelsea, who needed to truly kill off the game. The previous Premier League match against Swansea ended 4-1, and Lampard looked hungry for a second. Ba too went close.

The match opened up but for all Swansea’s finesse and passing, they lacked the final punch. Chelsea, similarly, were not clinical and on another day, could have recorded a scoreline similar to the 4-1.

202 was not to come for Lampard on his 400th Premier League appearance. The penalty — his 163rd Premier League goal — equalled Andy Cole’s league record, and meant the veteran midfielder has now scored against 38 different Premier League teams.

Both sides have scored eight times in the final 10 minutes this season, but the points were in the bag already.

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• Chelsea 2 Swansea City 0: Lampard moves closer to goal record in Blues win (standard.co.uk)

In recent games, David Luiz has carved his name as a fan favourite especially since he scored an astonishing free-kick against FC Basel in the final minute to clinched a 2-1 win at Switzerland.

Let me remind you that his free-kick against the Swiss side is not his first as he had scored the same great goal against Aston VIlla and Nordsjaelland.

Talking about free-kicks, one cannot deny that there is other players that able to score with the same amazing-ness like David Luiz but then again this is a defender we are talking about and that enough to say that we should respect the Chelsea man.

So here is a video that potrays the Brazilian free-kick technique and perhaps it could teach young footballers out there how to take a good free-kick.

Perhaps this is the right time for the lad to shine and under Benitez he certainly did and hopefully his form continues until the start of the new season.

The little magician, the maestro, el matador. You know exactly who I’m talking about. The one, the only, Chelsea’s very own Juan Mata Garcia. Recently nominated for the PFA Player of the Year Award, it would be considered a crime if he doesn’t receive the award. Even though he may not be the Premier League’s top scorer, Mata has easily been one of the best players on Chelsea and in England. Of course, Bale and Van Persie’s goals are bound to get in the way of reason.
We seem to be unable to perform when Mata’s not on the pitch. Are we dependent on him? Perhaps, but we really can’t blame the team for that. Not when Mata brings such energy and inspiration even if he’s not having the best day.  With 18 goals and 31 assists in all competitions this season alone, it’s easy to say that Juan has been a steal. Its remarkable that a player who has been at the club for such a short time is already preferred in the centre attacking midfield role to Frank Lampard who, of course, is one of the best players so ever sport Chelsea blue.
Unlike Oscar and occasionally Hazard (with all due respect to these players), who recently seem to have a great effect on a game when brought in as a 2^nd half substitute, Mata consistently creates chances and space for our other attacking players, forwards, and even defenders (just look at Terry’s goal at Fulham). Mata who is gifted with great vision is at times, unfortunately, one step ahead of his teammates. He does, however, show great link up play with Hazard, Oscar, and Torres in particular. Despite receiving assists from other players, both Torres and Mata have scored some amazing and important goals from work from each other. Torres unselfishly has gifted Mata with goal scoring opportunities while Mata has more than reciprocated the favour. Although not a Chelsea game, the connection between Mata and Torres in the Euro 2012 final was out of this world. They seemed to be on a wavelength above and beyond their teammates when Torres, after scoring his goal unselfishly and wisely passed the ball, despite having a good shooting chance, to Mata who finished a goal he wouldn’t have missed if he was sleeping with no legs.
After reading an article which more or less put the blame for Torres ‘low scoring’ (absolutely ridiculous as 19 goals for any striker is considered a great season) on the selfishness of the midfield. However, if you examine our Mazacar combo, each player knows he can score goals. Hazard is known for spectacular goals and being able to hold onto the ball for inconceivably long amounts of time. Oscar has made an impact with his tricks, skill and outstanding European goals. And Mata, can hold onto the ball, move around defenders like their cones in training, score, but most importantly, foresee when it’s best to take the opportunity himself, or pass the ball onto another player, be it Torres or Petr Cech, if he were in the position. Mata is hardly Gerrard or the rest of Liverpool who seemed perfectly happy passing the ball to Torres no matter what ridiculously impossible position he was in. With all due respect to the legend Stevie of course.

Of course, like any human beings (I’m still waiting for confirmation that he’s not from some football planet deep in outer space) Mata does have a weakness. “Weakness you say? Off with her head!” Before you gather your pitch forks, Mata’s weakness has nothing to do with talent or skill. It is, essentially, his size. He is a bit of a lightweight and lacks the power to bully defenders in the way Yaya Toure can. This isn’t a huge concern though. Look at Leo Messi (who I feel more than confident in comparing with Juan), who could very be described as large or robust influences the game by his presence alone. Just being on the field during the 2^nd leg of the Paris Saint Germain match intimidated the defenders enough to create space for their equaliser.  With some grooming Mata is bound to become this type of player.

Much speculation has been given to David Luiz and his ablilty to take over the reins as captain once John Terry and Frank retire, but has no one considered Mata? Yes, David is hugely influence, charismatic and made purely out of talent and potential for captaincy, but Mata is more than able to carry about the same role with his more humble approach.
At only 24, Mata is looking to be one of our best buys in recent years, and the future of Chelsea Football Club is looking so bright, we’ll have to start wearing shades.
Keep the Blue Flag Flying High!

The final score was 1-2 for Chelsea. Congratulations to the Blues! But, we have to admit that there is a return game. People think that Basel is a bad team, that they can’t play football. People think like that, because they never heard about the team (in most of the situations), I was one of them. But yesterday, I saw an amazing Basel. They were playing great! Basel is a strong team and they will do everything to win this game in Stamford Bridge. BUT, Chelsea will play in front of thousands of blues, thousands of Chelsea lovers. The players will do everything to win this game. To make the blues proud. They made us last year proud, and I’m sure they want to do that again! This is football, and everything is possible in the game. There are 90 minutes to play and in 90 minutes, everything can happen. But, I believe in my team, I believe that we’ll reach the final. That we’ll go to Amsterdam to play the final. Yeah, I believe that!

ROAD TO AMSTERDAM!

KEEP THE BLUE FLAG FLYING HIGH!

Chelsea started the game well after Victor Moses scored from a Frank Lampard corner inside 12 minutes to give the away side a priceless away goal. Chelsea had the chance to make it two when Moses put Hazard through on goal but his first touch let him down.

Moses opens the scoring!

Into the second half and Luiz should have seen red after a horrible challenge on Philipp Degen, but Luiz escaped with just a caution. Torres then was put though on goal but was denied by the post, and Chelsea then rued their missed chances as Basel were awarded a penalty. Azpilicueta brought down Stocker and Schar stepped up to fire it down the middle and equalise for the home team.

The home fans could only celebrate for 7 minutes as a masterpiece from Luiz with the last kick of the game silenced the home crowd. Chelsea are now favourites to progress to the final with the away goals in their favour, but Basel are not out yet.

Luiz celebrates a special goal!

If the second leg next Thursday brings as much flare from the first leg, then we are in for a treat. Meanwhile Chelsea are back in action on Sunday where they face Swansea as they look to cement champions league football for next season!

David Luiz hit an added time winner for Chelsea (Picture: Getty)

Chelsea’s match-winner Daivd Luiz insists the Blues must remain mentally strong for next week’s Europa League second-leg against FC Basel.

Luiz’s side ran out impressive 2-1 winners at St. Jakob Park in the first leg of their semi-final, with goals from Victor Moses and the Brazilian cancelling out Fabian Schar’s late spot-kick.

But Luiz insists the job is not yet done as the Blues eye an Amsterdam final next month.

‘Scoring two goals here against a very good team and with the last kick of the match is amazing for us, but we have to keep our minds strong for the second leg because that is another difficult game for us,’ he said.

‘I want to go to the final. It is not finished yet, we need to play the second leg and it is important for us. I want a title for my career and for Chelsea as well.’

Moses opened the scoring for the visitors after just 12 minutes as he headed home a Frank Lampard corner.

David Luiz was delighted with the Blues’ result in Switzerland (Picture: EPA)

The Blues remained in control for the majority of the game without adding to their tally, before Cesar Azpilicueta was adjudged to have fouled Valentin Stocker in the 87th minute, much to the bemusement of most in the stadium.

‘I didn’t see the penalty. I cannot say it is not because the referee gave it. A draw would have been ok but to win is better,’ Luiz added.

But the 26-year-old stepped up to strike home a free-kick in the last second of added time to put the Blues in the driving seat ahead of next week’s return leg.

Victor Moses set the Blues on their way but an 87th minute penalty awarded by the Czech Republican referee to Basel was taken with open arms by Schar. It looked like Chelsea had to settle with just the one away goal, but the win was also in the bag thanks to the last kick of the match.

Ashley Cole was warmly welcomed back for his first match in 24 days, whilst John Terry was afforded a starting line-up, with Lampard completing the England trio. Hazard was the Number 10 — Mata rested — whilst Luiz and Lampard were tasked at the base of midfield.

The joy for Basel, who were playing in their first European semi-final, was evident from the off. Cheered on by Roger Federer in the stands, early pressure thankfully only landed on the roof of Cech’s net.

Lampard’s wait for the record appears ever more elusive, but he could have done better from Azpilicueta’s cross. It did not matter for Chelsea moments later, as the veteran midfielder’s cross floated towards Ivanovic, but Moses managed to get the vital touch right behind the big Serbian.

Basel looked to come back in the game and attacks were met with John Terry clearances or, as a last resort, the woodwork was struck.

Ramires could have made it two had Moses’ pass been better, and Torres had an overhead kick horribly miscued. It was all Chelsea but without the killer goal.

Would it prove costly in the second half? Nearly. Two minutes in and the woodwork was struck again as Basel rallied with the home backing.

It was an end-to-end match and it was Torres’ turn to his the post after a fantastic Hazard run. Nine yards out, the Spaniard ought to have done better when faced with a good opportunity.

Dragovic and Frei had Cech worried, but it looked like Chelsea were weathering the storm well as time elapsed.

Until the 86th minute when Kralovec awarded a penalty to the hosts. It was in fact great defending by Azpilicueta and none of the Basel team appealed, but somehow a penalty was awarded with minimal contact. Schar sent Cech the wrong way.

But Luiz had the last laugh. His Brazilian team-mate Ramires was felled just outside of the box and presented Luiz with a decent opportunity. Not sensing enough room to get his shot over the wall and back down, the former Benfica man side-footed through a gap in the wall and Sommer could not react in time. This, for all the Suarez controversy on Sunday, was indeed a legitimate goal.