Enzo Maresca’s side were taught of a bit of a lesson by Bayern Munich on their return to the Champions League and one Chelsea star in particular will have been pleased to escape the Allianz Arena with a “scrambled” head and the boos continuing to ring in his ears.
Trevoh Chalobah diverted the ball into his own net early on before Harry Kane scored a penalty having been brought down in the box by Moises Caicedo to give Bayern a two-goal lead midway through the first half.
Cole Palmer hit back almost immediately with a quite beautiful finish after starting the counter-attack with a run from deep inside his own half.
Malo Gusto provided the assist for Palmer’s goal but was then at fault for Bayern’s third and Kane’s second after gifting the England captain possession after a poor touch.
Chelsea weren’t bad in general, but saw their mistakes punished on an evening where the difference between the Conference League and Champions League was made plain, as was the enduring and wonderfully petty hostility aimed at Marc Cucurella by the German football fans.
The Spain international has emerged as one of the very best left-backs in the Premier League after an inauspicious start to life at Chelsea but had a torrid time of it up against Michael Olise, who was regularly tying the left-back in knots at the Allianz Arena, if – as Pat Nevin explained for BBC – he felt that necessary to “pull the Chelsea defence apart”.
Nevin said in the first half after Olise had already beaten him on a couple occasions: “Cucurella got himself in a terrible position there and Olise almost got away. I think his head is getting a little bit scrambled.”
Later on, Nevin added: “Olise is an utter joy to watch. Everything is done at a calm pace. He is completely in control, not just of the ball but of everything around him.
“He’s not even needing to take Cucurella on, he’s just pulling the Chelsea defence apart.”
While we can’t imagine Cucurella is a guy too negatively affected by the animosity of rival fans, actually likely quite used to it as one of the foremost sh*t-stirrers in world football, he was probably quite surprised that the rancour of Germany fans had a) crossed from international football into the club game, and b) persists over a year after an infraction that wasn’t his to punish in any case.
It’s not Cucurella’s fault that neither of the English officials – referee Anthony Taylor and VAR Stuart Attwell – decided to award Germany a penalty in extra-time of their quarter-final defeat to Spain at Euro 2024 after Jamal Musiala’s shot hit his hand in the box.
Cucurella opened up on the boos which continued in the semi-final during the victory over France which saw them through to the final against England, where he was again roundly jeered.
He said: “I realised it for the first time when my name was read out before the game and a lot of people whistled. I thought about it a bit and then realised it was because of the handball situation.
“I didn’t think much about it, but at the same time I was a bit sad that people came to the game just to boo a single player. Some people wasted their tickets. They could have gone to fans who would have really enjoyed the game.”
We can only delight in just how long this glorious pettiness can last. And the best thing about this is that the Bayern fans who had either forgotten about Cucurella’s perceived slight or had decided to let bygones be bygones, are now right back on the board the booing train. Here’s to a German opponent for Chelsea in the knockouts.