For Chelsea, the champions of
England, this was one of those nights that feels cold and alien. Occasionally they turn up and for whatever reason, they are off the boil. Occasionally they are even beaten.
Barcelona in last season’s
Champions League final was a special trouncing by a special team. But rarely have they been dismantled like this, humiliated like this. Wolfsburg scored four and frankly they probably left a few more out there.
Chelsea are out of this season’s Champions League, and where they go from here is anyone’s guess.
Needing either a draw or a narrow defeat to progress, Chelsea could muster only a fiesta of positional indiscipline, aimless crosses and a general sense of tameness. By the end Emma Hayes was wearing a haunted, vaguely puzzled expression. This is, after all, the same team that had lifted the FA Cup less than a fortnight earlier, who looked poised to take the next step.