Chelsea are Champions: Do They Have Italy to Thank?
The long wait is over! The Blues faithful can finally celebrate after Chelsea FC claim their first Champions League title in club history with a victory over Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. The match ended 1-1 after regulation and needed penalty kicks to decide the encounter.
At the Allianz Arena, two teams who no one thought would qualify for the final put in a fine performance and demonstrated that they deserve to be there. Both sides were determined and played a very solid game creating various scoring opportunities and defending extremely well. However, it must be noted that the Germans played more on the offensive end though, but scuffed many of their chances well wide or over the net. It was surprising to see players such as Mario Gomez, Thomas Muller, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben all missing clear-cut goal scoring chances.
Chelsea held on and weathered the storm quiet well. Sitting back and defending most of the time, soaking up the pressure and counter-attacking when the opportunity seemed fit. Sound familiar? Yes, it was that boring old style of soccer that everyone hates and thinks does not work. You know the one that is typically Italian – or at least used to be? Yes there it is. Chelsea’s tactics looked very similar to those of catenaccio, which is Italian for defending and counter-attacking when the opportunity strikes – and it worked! Chelsea supporters should praise head coach and ex-Chelsea man Roberto Di Matteo for taking over the reins after the London-side sacked Andres Villas-Boas.
The 41 year old Italian tactician took charge of the remaining 21 games in all competitions: Premiership League, FA Cup, and Champions League. Since then, he has successfully masterminded Chelsea’s resurgence with 13 wins, 5 draws, and only 3 losses – a win ratio of 62%. His victories include the FA Cup final triumph against Liverpool, as well as eliminating SSC Napoli, Benfica, and the world’s best club Barcelona in the knockout rounds of the Champions League.
Prior to appointing Di Matteo as head coach, Chelsea iterated that no decision on a long-term heir to Villas-Boas will be taken until the summer as the club has plans to lure soon-to-be ex–Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola to take control at Stamford Bridge.
Bayern Munich coach Jupp Heynckes believes that Roberto Di Matteo fully deserves to be the full-time manager for Chelsea seeing that he has guided the Blues to success this term. The club needs to seriously consider signing the Italian, not only due to the consistency and improvements he has made during his time, but also due to the fact that he is a former Chelsea player and has Blue flowing through his veins. Appointing an ex-player with dignity certainly does have its advantages. Just look at the marvelous metamorphosis Juventus head Coach Antonio Conte has done with his side this year. After finishing in 7th place for two consecutive years, the Bianconeri went undefeated this term to lift the Scudetto and have a chance to end the campaign with even more success should the Old Lady claim the Italian Cup today against Napoli. Heart, grit, and determination are all qualities that a former player, now coach, can transfer over to the current roster.
All hail Roberto Di Matteo and his catenaccio brilliance for bringing life back to Chelsea, because God knows it would not have happened with Villas-Boas as coach.
…and that is the last word.
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Ben
May 20, 2012 at 4:44 pm
You’d have to be crazy to sack a coach right after he won the Champions League that all your previous high-profile coaches couldn’t win.
But Chelsea’s owner is a little bit crazy.
Still I think its a little much to claim this victory is all due to Italy, Chelsea had a very good team and had people from a number or countries help them to the title. While they wouldn’t have won without DiMatteo, they also wouldn’t have won without Petr Cech, Didier Drogba or a number of other players.
Mike
May 22, 2012 at 11:22 am
Disagree… yes, the coach is important, but it was the players who deserve credit.
Frank
May 23, 2012 at 8:12 pm
coach should get alot of the credit also the players. Andre villa boas was on the verge of getting eliminated from the hands of Napoli. Than Di Matteo takes over, the players bought in to Dimatteo’s style and system, why couldn’t they defend and play disiciplined with vila boas? Also the premeriship has always critized the serie A for there defence first mentality. And that is how Chelsea won.
Paul
May 24, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Why. Thank Italy? Because your Italian? Great work by all nationalities.
Ben
May 24, 2012 at 12:55 pm
I agree Paul, and I’m Italian too. There was far more than just the coach involved here. Not a single regular player for Chelsea is even Italian.
anonymous
May 24, 2012 at 6:18 pm
No, I don’t think it’s because he’s Italian Paul. I don’t think the author is trying to say that it’s all thanks to Italy. Of course, all of the players deserve credit. But he is right in saying that the coach inspired this team to glory. Not even experienced coaches like Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, or Andres Villas-Boas achieved Champions League glory with the same players as Roberto Di Matteo has. That said, all four of these coaches played very different styles of soccer. AVB had a completely different style of play to that of Di Matteo and the players believed in his tactics, and stuck to them. The difference was very noticeable. So I do believe that this coach deserves recognition as well as being confirmed as Chelsea’s coach for next term. It would be absurd to fire a coach after inspiring the Blues to CL glory.
Concetto Faraci
May 25, 2012 at 10:59 am
Mourinho won it with Porto! stop and think for a moment next time, this Chelsea team is better than that Port team. But who am I a Roma supporter to say anything? Just my opinion.
Mike
May 25, 2012 at 11:08 am
I don’t disagree, Concetto, and I am editor! It’s difficult sometimes, determining biases. I can see how one would find biases in this article, but remember we are reporting our opinions on the day’s news, not merely spewing out what journalists write… Luciano is not anti-English football. Rather, he happens to find it important to find how the style of that team is reminiscent of what he sees as a huge Serie A fan.
How many blogs have you been on that merely visited a big site and just changed some wording to pass off as their own? That won’t happen here, that I assure you. We don’t merely regurgitate…we like to be somewhat original.
I’m happy to have you visiting our site, and hope to hear from your in future. I appreciate, as do the writers, thoughtful comments. I will publish any comments, so long as they are not hurtful, so again, thank you for your reply.
Luciano
May 26, 2012 at 9:25 pm
Yes, I know that Mourinho won it with Porto as well as Inter. What I said was that Mourinho could not win with Chelsea. Thinking back to his time there, his Chelsea side was just as talented as this one but younger and still did not win the CL. I know the players deserve credit no doubt. But in my opinion, they played the way Roberto Di Matteo wanted them to play. The players were convinced of his tactics (catenaccio).
That said, I still believe that had Villas-Boas stayed, Chelsea would have been out against Napoli.
Concetto Faraci
May 25, 2012 at 10:57 am
I think the author is biased, coaches help, but either there is a mad bias and inside anger here, or this is a stupid gimmick to create controversy and get views. Either way, it seems like justification for years of boring soccer. Fact is fans lie fast paced action, that is why baseball is dying, in the UFC nobody likes the wrestlers who dry hump opponents all match, in hockey nobody liked that odd defensive system from the stinky state playing my Rangers right now, and in football people like the passing as you see quarterback win every award even though there are more deserving people. Excitement sells.
And if Italy is to thank because of the coach, is it Italy to blame for losing in the worst world cup division of all time. I mean who is to blame, the players? the coach? or Italy?
Because who you choose for that answer is who you pick for the answer upon winning, sports are a puzzle, the coach is a piece of it.
Kind of disgusting to see such bias in an article, reminds me of that woman from ESPN who hates whites…
Luciano
May 26, 2012 at 9:35 pm
I am not biased. It’s merely an observation and opinion and my opinion would remain indifferent if the coach was of another nationality.
To answer your question here about Italy, in my opinion, I do believe that it was Marcello Lippi’s fault that Italy was horrendous in South Africa. In the two years leading up to World Cup 2010, he failed to developed a style of play, strategies, tactics, and the players were not united. In addition, I think he paid too much respect to some of the players who won WC 2006 in Germany and brought them to SA four years later.