By Victor Kanayo
Chelsea got their scoring groove back on Tuesday night in the second leg knock out stage of their UEFA Champions League clash against visiting Borussia Dortmund at Stamford Bridge.
In overturning the first leg 0-1 deficit, Chelsea beat Dortmund 2-0, to reach the quarter-final of the competition, courtesy of goals from Kai Havertz and Raheem Sterling.
Before then, the Blues have struggled for goals since the beginning of 2023.
However, they demonstrated a more ruthless streak in Europe’s premier competition to win 2-1 on aggregate and ease some of the pressure on Coach Graham Potter.
That was after his side as usual, wasted many clear-cut chances before Sterling made the breakthrough after 43 minutes, firing past Dortmund keeper Alexander Meyer after initially fluffing his shot.
The goal which settled the tie and overturned Dortmund’s 1-0 advantage from the first leg, came in contentious fashion from the penalty spot eight minutes after the break.
Dortmund were furious when a VAR review penalised Marius Wolf for handball from Ben Chilwell’s cross and their sense of injustice heightened, after Kai Havertz struck the post, with his spot-kick only for a re-take to be ordered.
This time Havertz made no mistake and Chelsea were on their way into the last eight.
Back to the English Premier League, Chelsea will now travel to play Leicester on Saturday just as Dortmund continue to seek ways to grab Bundesliga title when they confront Schalke in the coming weekend.
Similarly, Benfica crushed Club Brugge 5-1 to reach the Champions League quarter-final on 7-1 aggregate victory.
Led by a tireless Joao Mario, who netted a late penalty, and the in-form Goncalo Ramos, Benfica showed exactly why they are seen in Portugal as the country’s best side since Jose Mourinho’s Porto were crowned European champions 19 years ago.
