Chelsea edge Juve

Chelsea edge Juve in thriller
(AFP) Tuesday 10 March 2009
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Goals from African pair Didier Drogba and Michael Essien earned Chelsea a 2-2 draw at Juventus in the UEFA Champions League to send last year's finalists through to the quarter-finals 3-2 on aggregate.

In a pulsating match Juve finished with 10 men following the second-half dismissal of Giorgio Chiellini but goals from Vincenzo Iaquinta and evergreen Alessandro Del Piero had briefly given them cause to hope. Instead the first of three anglo-Italian ties in the second round went the way of the powerful English Premier League.

But Chelsea had to come back from a goal down on the night, something that had coach Guus Hiddink purring about their reaction. "Playing here at Juventus's home is not the easiest task. We had a job to do, we started rather sloppily, we lost too many duels. They could give some easy passes into their front players and the defence was not marking well," he said.

"But the reaction of the team was ok, we knew that at 1-0 or even 2-0 we must not panic because we were able to score any moment. We reacted at 1-0, had good score on edge of half-time and in the second half we controlled the game a little more and didn't play stupid long balls."

Trailing 1-0 from the first leg and needing to score, Juve coach Claudio Ranieri picked an attacking line-up with Del Piero playing behind forwards David Trezeguet and Iaquinta. It initially paid dividends and at the end of the game Ranieri rued what might have been.