In a competition that Sir Alex Ferguson has said that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is "obsessed" with winning, Chelsea bowed out in the quarterfinals to their rivals Manchester United. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said, "That is certainly why they signed Fernando Torres in January. There is no question of that in my mind. Abramovich has very much nailed his colours to the mast in that respect; I've felt that for quite a while with him. But to have an obsession with winning the European Cup can stretch you a wee bit. It's a fantastic competition but, at the end of the day, it is also a very difficult competition to win. All the best teams are there."
Chelsea certainly went a long way to sign the 27-year old Torres from Liverpool. His deal with Chelsea was the third-most expensive transfer fee in history and broke the British transfer record at 79.5 million dollars. Torres was extremely disappointing in his first ten games with Chelsea missing countless opportunities in the premier league and champions league. He had 0 goals and 0 assists in his first ten games with his new team. Coming into Chelsea's champion league game against Manchester United, Torres hadn't scored a goal in 648 minutes.
Torres still started for Chelsea however in the second leg of their champions league tie against Manchester United. Ferguson argued, "I think having signed Torres for the money they paid, they had to play him. I wasn't 100 percent sure but I couldn't see how they could leave Torres out." However, Carlo Ancelotti said that he was under no pressure to start Torres in the game. Ancelotti said about playing Torres, "I have to choose the players, not comparing the players with the money the club paid for them. I have to choose the line-up looking at the training sessions, the condition of the players, and the spirit. Fernando knows this very well.''
After another ineffective performance by the Spaniard, Torres was replaced at halftime by fellow forward Didier Drogba, who scored Chelsea’s only goal in the 77th minute. After the game when Ancelotti was asked if it was a mistake to start Torres, he said, "Maybe. Could be. But, I told you a lot of times this season I wanted to start with Fernando for this kind of game, for these type of tactics, but Didier played very well in the second half. He did better than Torres in his 45 minutes." Torres will look to get his first goal in a Chelsea uniform on Saturday against 10th place West Bromwich Albion in the premier league.
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