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When Roberto Mancini and Jose Mourinho clash, it is same old same old. Mourinho almost always finds a way to get ahead of his Italian rival.
In the first leg, Mourinho clearly won the tactical battle of the first half by ensuring midfield dominance and Mancini tweaked his team to even things up. In this game, Mancini retained the tactics that tipped the scales in the last game only to find out that he needed to play catch up again.
The Chelsea boss would have loved to include the cup-tied Nemanja Matic as a holding midfielder but he had to turn to Frank Lampard to partner Ramires. Mourinho knew that it would limit Chelsea’s dominance in the middle of the park, but it also added Lampard’s assured passing to quickly spread the ball to wide areas, especially to Eden Hazard on the left.
While the Portuguese manager didn’t change the roles of the back seven, he had Hazard and William running in wider areas than usual to exploit spaces that Galatasaray left. Oscar frequently pushed up to partner Samuel Eto’o by making runs into the channels.
In the last game Mancini, initially played an open team, but only gained control after changing to a diamond midfield. He came into this game with the same diamond midfield: Felipe Melo had to sit in front of the back four, Wesley Sneijder was on the left, Selçuk İnan on the right and Yekta Kurtuluş slightly forward. Didier Drogba and Burak Yılmaz played up front.
The whole plan was centred on dominating the ball and floating balls to Drogba because the 36-year-old Ivorian cannot roam around looking for spaces the way the more mobile Yilmaz can. Therefore, for Galatasaray to get the best out of Drogba, they had to get balls into the box more often where the Ivorian’s upper body strength and power could influence the game.
As the game went on, the crowded Galatasaray midfield couldn't get the majority of the ball as planned; Ramires covered too much ground, a fresh Lampard also worked hard and Willian drifted inside to help out, so the ball possession was roughly even.
On the other hand, the incredible work rate of Lampard, Willian and Ramirez neutralised the input of five of Galatasaray players, including Emmanuel Eboue. As the former Arsenal man kept pushing forward to help his midfielders, Hazard found a lot of space to run in behind and cause problems. Sometimes Melo moved across to try and help out but Hazard was just too good for the visitors to contain.
This game’s two first-half goals forced Mancini to remain offensive as he had to chase the game. Drogba couldn’t affect the game as he became increasingly isolated. He tried to exploit Cezar Azpilicueta’s aerial weakness but the full-back minimised this threat by remaining cautious.
Mourinho’s slight changes were boosted by Etoo’s early goal; even though Mancini could see that Eboue needed to drop back and concentrate on picking up Hazard, he couldn't instruct him to do that because he needed numbers in offensive positions. It is never ideal to always play catch up and the first half goals complicated things for Mancini.
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