Once again, on a night of excruciating tension at Stamford Bridge, it was all about player power. Once again, it was all about Chelsea’s notorious old guard taking charge of a rudderless ship.
Heroes were needed if Chelsea were to overturn a 3-1 deficit and reach the Champions League quarter-finals for the seventh time in nine seasons. So step forward the old campaigners — Didier Drogba, John Terry and Frank Lampard — who competed valiantly and scored the goals to take this nerve-shredding tie into extra time before Branislav Ivanovic, another who has seen plenty of managers come and go in his four years at the club, secured a famous comeback just before half-time in the added period.
At the end, Lampard sank to his