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Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas confident of catching Tottenham despite Swansea draw: A seven-point gap is nothing
The Portuguese admits that his side left it "very, very late" and had to "adapt to a different style" against the Swans as the Blues fought back to nick a point in Wales
1 Feb 2012 00:08:00
By Tom Marshall-Bailey
Andre Villas-Boas believes that Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Swansea at the Liberty Stadium was the epitome of a game of two halves, and remains confident of catching Tottenham despite losing ground on third spot.
Chelsea rescued a late point against Brendan Rodgers' men courtesy of an own-goal from Neil Taylor in the 93rd minute.
The result leave the Blues seven points behind third placed Spurs, who saw off Wigan 3-1 at White Hart Lane on Tuesday, but the Portuguese boss is confident catching Harry Redknapp's side.
"I think there were two different halves in the game," he told reporters.
"In the first half, Swansea had most of the chances and it was completely different in the second where we had all the chances.
"I think that if the first goal had come earlier, we would have found a second, because we had the motivation, the impetus and the control of the game.
"We left it very, very late. We persisted a lot to find it, [the goal] but it came late and didn't give us enough time to score the second."
The Portguese boss admitted that he was slightly disappointed with his side's first-half performance and felt that they could have applied more pressure to the slick-passing Swans.
The 34-year-old said: "To play against Swansea, you almost have to adapt to a different style and press them hard and make them commit mistakes.
"We didn't do that in the first half, we did it in the second half with much more efficiency.
"Normally, Swansea are a team that are prepared to escape your pressure and they are very, very well organised.
"I feel if the first half was like the second, then we would have got another three points."
The only slight blotch on the evening's work for the Blues was the dismissal of Ashley Cole, with the 31-year-old full-back sent off for a second yellow after a challenge on Nathan Dyer.
And, whilst Villas-Boas refused to condemn his player, he seemed pessimistic about appealing the red card.
"Well, it is a difficult challenge," he said. I think Ashley goes all in on the challenge because he thinks he can get to the ball.
"Dyer just anticipates on the challenge and, I think, Ashley in the end touched him.
"We will have to see the incident again to see if there is any chance of rescinding the card."
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Chelsea rescued a late point against Brendan Rodgers' men courtesy of an own-goal from Neil Taylor in the 93rd minute.
The result leave the Blues seven points behind third placed Spurs, who saw off Wigan 3-1 at White Hart Lane on Tuesday, but the Portuguese boss is confident catching Harry Redknapp's side.
"It’s a gap that grows. Two weekends ago it was reduced so it’s the same. We go back to how we were before. A seven-point gap is nothing in the Premier League.
"It’s never satisfying to get just a point here but Tottenham are still within our reach. Let’s see with our own games from now on what we can do."
Villas-Boas also conceded that a draw may have been a fair result but believes if his side had scored the equaliser earlier, they could have gone on to win the game."I think there were two different halves in the game," he told reporters.
"In the first half, Swansea had most of the chances and it was completely different in the second where we had all the chances.
"I think that if the first goal had come earlier, we would have found a second, because we had the motivation, the impetus and the control of the game.
"We left it very, very late. We persisted a lot to find it, [the goal] but it came late and didn't give us enough time to score the second."
The Portguese boss admitted that he was slightly disappointed with his side's first-half performance and felt that they could have applied more pressure to the slick-passing Swans.
The 34-year-old said: "To play against Swansea, you almost have to adapt to a different style and press them hard and make them commit mistakes.
"We didn't do that in the first half, we did it in the second half with much more efficiency.
"Normally, Swansea are a team that are prepared to escape your pressure and they are very, very well organised.
"I feel if the first half was like the second, then we would have got another three points."
The only slight blotch on the evening's work for the Blues was the dismissal of Ashley Cole, with the 31-year-old full-back sent off for a second yellow after a challenge on Nathan Dyer.
And, whilst Villas-Boas refused to condemn his player, he seemed pessimistic about appealing the red card.
"Well, it is a difficult challenge," he said. I think Ashley goes all in on the challenge because he thinks he can get to the ball.
"Dyer just anticipates on the challenge and, I think, Ashley in the end touched him.
"We will have to see the incident again to see if there is any chance of rescinding the card."
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Live!
England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 4-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.
Hosted by Joe Doyle
Hosted by Joe Doyle
19:59 BST
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
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