Chelsea manager Andre Villas Boas has spoken in the defence of under-fire striker Fernando Torres who failed to score in front of an open goal against Manchester United, a game which the Red Devils won easily by a margin of 3-1.
Villas Boas behind Fernando Torres despite Spanish striker’s shocking miss
In an interview to Sky Sports, the former Porto manager said, “Today, Rooney missed a penalty which is just the same really. The worst things happen to the best strikers in the world and it happened to both of them today. He (Torres) made a good comeback in the second half today, that’s all I have to say.
The Portuguese manager did not show any more interest in talking about the Spanish striker, and instead started revealing his thoughts on how Chelsea could have won the game against United.
The gaffer continued: “It was a very strange game. It was very open and there were a lot of opportunities for both teams.
“Luck could have played a better part for our side today because we had very good chances to level the score or even to score first.
“Suffering early on against United when they are in a goal-scoring spree like they are could have taken its toll on the players but I thought we reacted well. We continued to play well and create opportunities, such as the Ramires chance which could have made it 1-1.”
He added further, “Eventually they found the back of the net with Nani which was just a wondergoal. I think we initially closed down the space well but then should have done a little bit better. The third goal was just an unfortunate ricochet and these things can happen.
“The response for the second half was very good; we recovered a goal straight away and then had a couple of good opportunities to level the score. You are always playing right on the edge as chasing goals when you are 3-0 down away to United is always difficult. We had to take risks without exposing ourselves too much which was why we couldn’t do anything else than we did by way of our substitutions.”
He concluded saying: “It was a good display. We had good opportunities to do something in the game. Eventually it fell United’s way but it was competitive and the scoreline doesn’t show the difference between the two teams because we are both very even.
“The scoreline in the first half was just crazy compared to how we played. I cannot say what happened in terms of the refereeing decisions, it doesn’t matter now because it’s a fact that it happened – they were offside, it’s a refereeing mistake and that’s unfortunate for Phil Dowd. To be fair, I’m not even sure it’s a foul for the free kick before the first goal, but some things like this can happen in a game, you just have to respond to it.
“The 3-0 was very heavy for the first half and doesn’t correspond with what happened in the game, the key moments just didn’t fall our way this time.”
Tags: Andre Villas Boas, Chelsea, English Premier League, EPL, Fernando Torres, Football, Manager, Manchester United, Red Devils, Sky Sports, Striker
