Chelsea kept their hopes of progressing into the Champions League knockout stages alive with a 4-0 win over Maccabi Tel-Aviv last night.
The match began at a blistering pace and the hosts had a very near sight at goal within the first two minutes, as Dor Peretz’ effort from six-yards went over the bar. Chelsea would overcame some shakiness to find the early breakthrough though, after goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic could only parry Gary Cahill’s header back into the Englishman’s path for an easy finish.
While Maccabi managed to keep things competitive after the first goal their hopes were largely dashed when defender Ben Haim was shown a red card for a harsh clip on the heel of Diego Costa, although the confrontation had been building between the two from the outset with the Spanish striker’s usual antics on show.
Many expected it to be fairly elementary from there, but Jose Mourinho’s side would have a difficult time trying to find cracks in the 10-man Tel-Aviv, who forced a decent close-range save from Asmir Begovic in their search for an equaliser. A typically sublime free-kick from Willian finally opened the floodgates for the visitors in the 73rd minute, with Oscar soon adding a third and Kurt Zouma capping things off in stoppage time, however, a suspected injury suffered by captain John Terry in the second-half did dampen the victory.
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