Kalidou Koulibaly received good reviews.
Chelsea lost 0-1 to Dortmund in the first leg of the round of 16 of the 2022-23 season European Football Federation (UEFA) Champions League (UCL) held at Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany at 5:00 am (Korean time) on the 16th. .
It was not easy to predict the outcome. Dortmund had the upper hand in the recent atmosphere. It showed ups and downs until the World Cup break, but after that, it continued its winning streak in six official games. Chelsea, on the other hand, have not been able to get out of the downward trend. It was difficult to find a place under manager Graham Porter’s system and recorded only one win in the last eight games. 메이저놀이터
Still, there was something to look forward to. It means that a major change has been made to the squad. Chelsea acquired many players during the winter transfer window, including Enzo Fernandes. In addition, key players such as Reese James and Ben Chilwell returned to the starting list, so the victory was worth expecting.
Like Signal Iduna Park, which is called ‘hell’ by the visiting team, the first half was dominated by the ‘home team’ Dortmund. They were ahead in both possession and number of shots, putting pressure on Chelsea. Although he gave Joao Felix a goal crisis, it was a game that could be expected in the second half.
We got ahead in the second half. In the 18th minute of the second half, Karim Adeyemi, who received a penetrating pass from Rafael Guerreiro, overcame Fernandez’s competition, then passed Kepa Arrizabalaga and fired a shot to break Chelsea’s net. It was a surprising attack worthy of being called the ‘standard of counterattack’.
The match ended with Dortmund winning. According to the football statistics media Whoscored, no Chelsea player scored more than 7 points.
However, the British media ‘Daily Mail’ left a good review for Coulibaly paired with Thiago Silva. The media evaluated, “In his first start in a month, Koulibaly played his best this season. He blocked Dortmund’s threatening attack throughout the 90 minutes and made a huge contribution to not allowing additional goals.”
Prior to this match, the evaluation towards him was not good. He was once highly regarded, comparable to Virgil van Dijk, and entered Chelsea with high expectations this season. However, he is consistent with an uneasy appearance, and his position has decreased little by little, and he has not even played in the last 3 league games. However, in this match, he started instead of Benoit Badi Asil and proved his class.
