Chelsea 2 Bayer Leverkusen 0: Chelsea cruise to opening triumph

Brazil defender David Luiz showed Fernando Torres how it should be done when he netted with a fine strike as Chelsea opened their Champions League campaign with a victory over Bayer Leverkusen at Stamford Bridge.
By The Newsroom
Published 14th Sep 2011, 10:17 BST

With one eye on Sunday’s domestic showdown with Manchester United, Blues manager Andre Villas-Boas rested Chelsea captain John Terry completely and left Frank Lampard on the bench.

Misfiring £50m striker Torres was given another chance – but it was centre-half Luiz who curled a fine 18-yard effort on 67 minutes, with Juan Mata wrapping things up in stoppage time.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

New manager Villas-Boas had insisted before the game that the Blues were not further than ever from realising Roman Abramovich’s dream of European glory. But they did little to show that they were about to end their billionaire owner’s eight-year quest until a moment of inspiration from marauding defender Luiz midway through the second half.

Villas-Boas denied his decision to leave captain John Terry out of the squad and name Frank Lampard as a substitute was a gamble, insisting that omitting the key duo was not a risk.

He said: “I don’t see things like that. I think you are trying to look at the negative when there are so many positives. We have a very competitive squad.”

“There was tremendous work-rate, tremendous possession and a tremendous amount of shots and good attacking fluency.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Prize money for this season’s Champions League will be the same as last time, meaning English clubs can earn up to £50m if they win the competition.

Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United are guaranteed £22.5m even if they fail to qualify for the knock-out stages. Last season, Sir Alex Ferguson’s United side earned £46m in getting to the final.

Each of the 32 teams in the group phase receives a participation payment of 3.9m euros and 550,000 euros for every match played in the group stage. Performance bonuses will see 800,000 euros paid for every win and 400,000 euros for each draw.

Each team reaching the last 16 will get a further 3m euros, quarter-finalists 3.3m euros and the four semi-finalists 4.2m euros. The Champions League winners take home a further 9m euros and the runners-up 5.6m euros.

Related topics:Champions LeagueFrank LampardChelseaBrazilStamford Bridge