Updated at 21.55
CHELSEA EVENTUALLY MADE their numerical advantage count as they inflicted a 4-0 Champions League defeat on 10-man Maccabi Tel Aviv.
It was a tale of two centre-backs during the first-half at the Sammy Ofer Stadium where, after Gary Cahill showed fine anticipation to open the scoring, former Chelsea man Tal Ben Haim made the hosts’ task even steeper by kicking out at Diego Costa and being sent off on the stroke of the interval.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Maccabi caused Chelsea some moments of discomfort as a tense Jose Mourinho saw his team’s early fluency desert them.
It was left to Willian, one of Chelsea’s star performers in their difficult campaign, to lift a customary free-kick over the defensive wall in the 73rd minute and beyond Predrag Rajkovic – the impressive Maccabi goalkeeper who was aggrieved to see Oscar net a powerful header from Baba Rahman’s cross four minutes later.
Oscar turned provider for Kurt Zouma, on for injured captain John Terry, to convert a stoppage-time corner to leave Chelsea with consecutive wins to their name for only the second time this season heading into Sunday’s Premier League London derby against Tottenham.
Dynamo Kiev’s 2-0 win at Porto means a three-way battle for qualification will be played out in the final round of group matches, with pointless Maccabi playing for pride.
