Chelsea 5 Genk 0:THE CHAMPIONS League is not supposed to serve up mismatches as resounding as this. Chelsea juggled their first-team options and still strolled to their biggest ever home win in this competition last night, hardly breaking into a sweat in the process.
Life among Europe’s elite is not normally this comfortable. Genk, the champions of Belgium, chased shadows, their garish pink kit offering them no chance to hide. They will be quaking in their boots at the prospect of meeting these opponents again in a fortnight. For Chelsea, even with their lead at the top of Group E still only a point, the section is already feeling like a breeze.
Even with a selection that reflected Sunday’s derby against Queens Park Rangers, Chelsea might have anticipated this saunter. The visitors had arrived in disarray, their confidence brittle and the team severely depleted. Key players from their title-winning side have since been sold, the coach who steered them to the championship, Frank Vercauteren, having departed for Abu Dhabi in August. Genk are ninth in the Jupiler League with 13 points. It is a reflection of their regression that they had twice as many points at the same stage last term.
Theirs was a makeshift back-line still, with the midfielder Daniel Tozser an unfamiliar centre-half and his partnership with Abel Masuero fledgling and, with Chelsea pouring at the visitors, utterly exposed.
This was no occasion to blood young and inexperienced players, or ask more seasoned performers to operate in unfamiliar roles. Genk may not have had a choice, but neither did they stand a chance. The centre-backs almost contrived to conjure an own goal in the opening four minutes though, with their play tentative and their positioning prone, their evening quickly degenerated from that far from promising start.
The contest was over by the interval, by which time the Belgians’ only real objective was to avoid complete humiliation, though even that felt beyond them. Raul Meireles, conducting Chelsea’s rhythm from a deeper lying position alongside Oriol Romeu, had probed and profited, his speculative attempt from 25 yards eight minutes in having fizzed past a static Laszlo Koteles and into the corner.
A first goal for the Londoners since his €13.7 million deadline day move from Liverpool was well merited, with Meireles this side’s creative hub given Juan Mata loitered among the rested. Yet it was Fernando Torres, restored to the line-up while midway through his domestic suspension, who truly revelled in the inadequacies of his opponents. The Spaniard had not scored a goal in this competition since netting against Chelsea for Liverpool in April 2009, but that wait – amounting to 875 minutes of football – was cut short swiftly enough here. The Spaniard had already poked an attempt against a post when Meireles and Frank Lampard combined, the latter sliding his pass across Masuero for Torres to collect. His finish was smartly steered beyond Koteles.
Genk’s clearest route back into the game seemed largely to be David Luiz’s tendency to over-elaborate in possession. The Brazilian remains an eye-catching talent when allowed to maraud forward, but his defensive discipline is a work in progress. There was a booking for a lunge at Jelle Vossen, and rather too much meandering out of the middle for Andre Villas-Boas’ comfort. Thankfully for Chelsea, Masuero’s deficiencies influenced the outcome of this occasion rather more.
The Argentinian was not tight enough to Torres midway through the half, the Spaniard guiding a free header wonderfully beyond Koteles from Meireles’ cross. Daniel Pudil’s foul on Nicolas Anelka just before the interval earned the left-back a suspension from the return fixture. As the Czech contemplated this, Branislav Ivanovic leapt above Masuero to nod in a fourth from Florent Malouda’s free-kick.
This game had been the subject of an attempted boycott by supporters incensed by a hike on ticket prices. If the official attendance of 38,518 suggested that had failed, those who had stayed away might have cursed missing the turkey shoot. Torres should have completed his hat-trick after meeting Bosingwa’s cross inside the six-yard box, only for Koteles to conjure a staggering save. True to the Hungarian goalkeeper’s dismal luck, Salomon Kalou, on the pitch for barely five minutes, tapped in the rebound. This had long since started to feel cruel.
CHELSEA: Cech; Bosingwa (Alex 78), Ivanovic, Luiz, Cole (Ferreira 46), Romeu, Lampard (Kalou 68), Meireles, Anelka, Torres, Malouda. Subs Not Used: Turnbull, Mata, Mikel, Sturridge. Booked: Luiz.
GENK: Koteles; Ngcongca, Masuero (Camus 46), Tozser, Pudil, Buffel, Vanden Borre, Hyland, De Bruyne, Vossen (Nwanganga 81), Barda (Dugary 70). Subs Not Used: Sandomierski, Durwael, Ogunjimi, Limbombe. Booked: Hyland, Pudil.
Referee: Alexei Nikolaev (Russia).
