Chelsea 0 FC Copenhagen 0: Wasteful Chelsea rely on first leg to see them through

With the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and even Shakhtar Donetsk sending out real messages of intent in their last-16 ties, it was the ideal time for Carlo Ancelotti’s men to do the same against the lowest-ranked team left in the competition.

Chelsea simply cannot afford to squander the kind of chances they missed last night if they are to make it beyond the quarter-finals, regardless of who they draw tomorrow.

How Fernando Torres would have loved to have started up front in what appeared an ideal game in which to end his goal drought, but manager Ancelotti decided it was better for the Spaniard to play a substitute role only ahead of Sunday’s Premier League encounter with Manchester City.

The tone for Chelsea’s wasteful evening was set as early as the third minute when Frank Lampard sent Ashley Cole’s cross wide from no more than four yards.

Yury Zhirkov flashed wide after a lovely backheel by Didier Drogba teed up Cole’s cross and Nicolas Anelka’s poked finish was thwarted by Johan Wiland after Ramires’s brilliant cross-field ball set up a quick break.

Although they could have been 4-0 down inside the opening quarter, Copenhagen were infinitely more lively than they had been in the first leg, before which they had not played a competitive match for three months, and they almost made Chelsea pay for their wastefulness.

John Terry brought down Dame N’Doye 20 yards out and, despite being so close to goal, the Senegal striker managed to crash a brilliant free-kick against a post.

Chelsea’s finishing failed to improve after the restart, Drogba volleying Jose Bosingwa’s whipped ball wide from six yards, John Obi Mikel nodding against the crossbar from no more than two yards and Anelka twice hesitating when clean through.

Ramires then made a mess of an improvised finish from Drogba’s cutback before Torres was beaten to the field by Copenhagen striker Kenneth Zohore, who replaced Pierre Bengtsson.

Claudemir was booked for hauling back Ramires before Torres finally made his entrance midway through the half in place of a non-plussed Anelka, who was withdrawn.

A wicked deflection almost helped Torres make an instant impact and he also sent a low finish straight at Wiland after Copenhagen lost Vingaard to injury.

N’Doye blazed another good chance over on the break as Copenhagen went for broke while Torres was being urged to “shoot” by the crowd every time he got within range. The striker’s team-mates did their best to tee him up but to no avail.

In the night’s other game, Real Madrid progressed to the quarter-finals for the first time in seven years after convincingly seeing off Lyon 4-1 on aggregate .

Marcelo, Karim Benzema and Angel Di Maria struck the goals as Madrid put to bed their miserable record of falling at this stage.