Chelsea v/s Juventus, CL Match day 1

Chelsea led by two goals and yet contrived to draw to Juventus at home in an uncharacteristically shaky performance, considering how they won last year's CL.

Line-ups:

Chelsea's 4-2-3-1 vs Juve's 3-5-2

No big surprises here, except maybe Oscar as the chief play maker over Mata. It was a simple yet very interesting clash of systems with the Juve 3-5-2 coming up against Matteo's 4-2-3-1.

First half:

Juve started well and looked to pass the ball around. They passed it out of defence well simply because Chelsea only had Torres in that zone and he couldn't press Barzagli,Bonucci and Chiellini all by himself leaving someone always free.

The Juventus midfield is built upon the industry of Marchisio and Vidal and the creativity of Pirlo. Quite predictably, Pirlo was marked well by the young Brazilian Oscar allowing Pirlo hardly any time and space on the ball.So, he was forced to play shorter and square passes meaning there may be possession but not much creative forward play.

Another point here was the massive space available to the Juve centre backs which was best evidenced when Barzagli found Vucinic with a lofted pass but the striker failed to score,hitting it straight at Cech.

What was surprising however, was the threat or rather lack of it from the Chelsea flanks. With a 3 man defence up against a system with both wingers and fullbacks it was supposed to have been a stern test for the wingbacks Asamoah and Lichtsteiner who had good games, partly due to the lack of attacking intent from Chelsea. Hazard and Cole combined well but Ivanovic and Ramires couldn't influence the game much

The goals:

While Oscar's goals were wonder strikes (the second one, especially), it could be argued that Pirlo was too busy pressing Lampard and Mikel, leaving space for Oscar to run in behind him. He probably thought that the three defenders behind him would be able to deal with it.

Juve's attacking was based on Marchisio's runs in from the left side of midfield, Vidals's runs forward and the combination of Giovinco and Vucinic with one drawing a centre half out and the other making a run in behind. It was this movement executed by Matri and Quagliarella that led to their second goal, though John Terry could and should have done better.

Their first goal came from Marchisio who drifted on to the left and played it in for Arturo Vidal who found himself with some space just outside the box because Lampard was unaware of his presence. Vidal converted and even then it was apparent that  Mikel and Lampard were no match for the industry of Marchisio and Vidal on the night.

Second Half:

Di Matteo tried to shift to a more defensive formation, an almost 4-5-1 with Bertrand coming on for Ramires and swapping flanks with Hazard. They tried to protect their 2-1 lead but Juventus' relentless pressing kept forcing them into misplacing passes. With Oriol Romeu on the bench, it was surprising to see this continue. Maybe, Di Matteo thought he could get a goal on the break but this team was barely a shadow of the one that won it last season, despite the majority of players being the same. Both teams kept giving the ball away and Mikel's pass was preceded by Pirlo giving it away to Chelsea. Marchisio picked out Quagliarella who didn't waste his chance. Vidal and Marchisio also played in an advanced role because of Chelsea's lack of attacking threat.

Conclusion:

Lampard and Mikel may have done it in Barcelona but they simply do not look like dependable holding midfielders. One wonders why Meireles, Essien and Oriol Romeu were all allowed to leave or aren't being used.

Chelsea's centre back duo of Terry and Luiz were also drawn out quite easily by the Juve forwards. Conte seems to have thought this through as he knew Luiz is an excitable defender who can be drawn out and has shown poor positional discipline of late and Terry's issues with speed are well documented.

While Terry and Mikel were culpable for the equalising goal, it was surprising to see how no one reacted with any speed to what was happening. It seemed a far cry from the team who had pressed and held their shape so well at the Camp Nou. It wouldn't be surprising if Cahill and Luiz emerged as the first choice pairing sooner or later.

Juventus playing in the CL after so long and away to the European Champions were simply brilliant. The defending was of the quality we have come to expect from Italy with Chiellini in particular being fantastic in his reading of the game. Bazagli, Bonucci, Vidal  and Marchisio all put in superb performances and it would probably have been just reward if Juve had scored a winner.

It wouldn't be surprising to see Juventus go quite far ahead in this year's competition simply on the back of their fantastic defence. It would be very interesting to see how their three man defence would fare against teams with devastating wing play such as Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.