Chelsea Manager Roberto Di Matteo reacted to the poor finish of the Blues at home in Stamford Bridge against Italian club Juventus in their first game of the UEFA Champions League Campaign for the 2012/2013 season.
Di Matteo said Chelsea is blaming itself for blowing a two-goal lead and making the title defence sloppy from the start of the campaign after giving up the lead to settle for a draw against Juventus ending the game 2-2.
From the start, Chelsea proved to be ready for their title defence with debutant Oscar scoring a stunning first-half double, but the Italian champions ruthlessly exposed the holders’ defensive deficiencies to snatch a Group E draw at Stamford Bridge, with Arturo Vidal and Fabio Quagliarella on target.
Chelsea’s defending was bad enough when Juventus pulled a goal back through Vidal before half-time. But just when it looked as if the holders had done enough to hang on, they went missing again, with John Obi Mikel giving the ball away and failing to track back with David Luiz straying away making impossible to stop Quagliarella whose goal drew level for Juventus.
Di Matteo said he thinks Chelsea should have dealt with it a little bit better as there was no pressure on the ball and it was pretty difficult to play offside.
The Chelsea Manager said Chelsea lost possession just beforehand and should have reacted much quicker to losing the ball than his team did even though Chelsea played some good stuff but loose the ball a bit too cheaply.
Oscar was sensational in term so good football in a two-minute spell just past the half-hour mark. Di Matteo raised eyebrows by handing the £25million Brazil star his full debut but it proved an inspired selection.
The 21-year-old’s opening goal owed a lot to the kind of luck Chelsea enjoyed in spades en route to their Champions League triumph but his second was the kind of spectacular strike that would have had billionaire Roman Abramovich drooling.
Di Matteo said it was a great debut for Oscar and he thought it was the right game to start him and he did a perfect job tactically because he proved that by scoring two goals and the second one was a wonderful goal. He is a big talent and he has got a bit of everything.