Chelsea 3-0 Schalke - Match Reports, Reaction and Video

Match reports

The Guardian, Dominic Fifield: “This was a reaffirmation of the José Mourinho effect. The manager had been so disgusted by his team’s display on Tyneside – and dismayed by Eden Hazard’s timekeeping – that he carried through his threat to reshuffle the pack in search of a response, albeit not with 11 changes but six, one of which was enforced, surely stinging the pride of the discarded. There was validation, too, of the club’s lavish summer pursuit of Samuel Eto’o and Willian from Anzhi Makhachkala, with that pair, so rusty upon arrival, enjoying their most productive evening yet in English football.”

The Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: “This was an important result, and strong performance, an antidote to the supine effort at St James’ Park. It reminded the squad what Mourinho required: tactical selflessness, total commitment and being alive to every eventuality. Eden Hazard failed to show that by missing training on Monday and was left to languish in the stands. Eto’o delivered on Mourinho’s demands, scoring twice.”

The Independent, Sam Wallace: “Fernando Torres’ training ground injury on Monday left the Chelsea manager with no choice but to make a change in attack and so his team moved on from that scrappy defeat to Newcastle on Saturday with a classically ruthless European performance. Mourinho’s side were not at their best, and they will have to play much better sides than Schalke, but it was the home team who took their opportunities. That was Eto’o who scored his second and third goals for the club, the first of which was a perceptive poacher’s goal that severely embarrassed the Schalke goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand. He scored a second on 54 minutes to kill the game and left to a standing ovation. His replacement Demba Ba scored the third, his first goal of the season.”

The Official Chelsea FC Website: “Chelsea’s position in Group E was greatly strengthened by our third straight win in the competition, a Samuel Eto’o double strike and a late goal from substitute Demba Ba giving us back-to-back victories over the Bundesliga side. If Eto’o’s first goal tonight owed a lot an opposition mistake, the second certainly didn’t when he capped a swift move with an emphatic finish. Schalke had threatened early on but were kept at bay for most of the game although Petr Cech was called on early in the second half with the score 1-0.”

Goals

31’ Eto’o 1-0 54’ Eto’o 2-0 83’ Ba 3-0 Highlights

Jose’s reaction

“We started a bit nervous and made a lot of mistakes. We lost a lot of balls in dangerous positions and we allowed Schalke to counter-attack with some danger. They had two good situations but after that our team recovered the balance and we controlled the game.

“We had comfortable possession, recovering the ball and playing in an aggressive way, attacking the spaces with two, three or four players. When we lost the ball we were aggressive the way we pressed and the way we defended.

“Our three guys behind the striker - Schurrle, Oscar and Willian - were very strong when the team lost the ball, very strong recovering positions and when the team was winning the ball, they were very strong attacking spaces with good pace. We won in quite a comfortable way.

“The Basel defeat put us in a difficult situation and it is fantastic that after the fourth fixture we are almost qualified.”

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