Brave. Foolhardy. These were the typical adjectives that greeted Roberto Di Matteo’s second Champions League team-sheet.
What about smart? Calculated? Or just plain correct? When Andre Villas-Boas dumped Frank Lampard and Michael Essien to the bench in Napoli, Jamie Redknapp called the line-up a “suicide note”.
Now that Di Matteo has done the same with rather more success, it might be viewed differently - as a job application, perhaps.
In steering Chelsea to their first overseas knock-out victory in the Champions League for five years, the caretaker manager enhanced has his reputation no end. He got his team selection and tactics spot on, and the players responded with an accomplished, intelligent performance.
In many ways it was a classic away day performance and it will gladden the hearts of those with one eye on the future that it was achieved with as many unsung heroes as gnarled thirty-somethings.
Di Matteo did not quite go the whole hog and relegate Ashley Cole, as Villas-Boas did in Naples, but it was still quite a gamble to press ahead with the phasing out of the old guard in such a big game.
The cool Italian had seen his team falter in the final third of the club’s two matches against Manchester City and Tottenham and opted against an unwelcome hat-trick.
Lampard, Essien and Gary Cahill followed up successive Premier League starts with a spot of bib-wearing on the bench, while Daniel Sturridge, Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa were also relegated in the pecking order.
“I wanted to freshen up the team with some energy,” explained Di Matteo in a snap interview before kick-off.
The Estadio Da Luz is a second home for ex-Benfica pair David Luiz and Ramires, while Raul Meireles and Paulo Ferreira, who is usually only seen on matchdays wandering around in a tracksuit, are also well acquainted with the venue.
With the club fighting on three fronts, Di Matteo knows he cannot rely on the same group of players. He needs to tweak, shuffle and rotate. The key is to get the big calls right.
The 3-1 defeat in the cauldron of Naples a month ago that effectively determined the fate of Villas-Boas was marked by disorder and a chronic imbalance in the team.
The recently deposed Chelsea manager stripped the team of know-how and chaos reignedIt was a similar story in the quarter-final first leg but the ending was far happier for the author.
“I put in some players who know Benfica very well, the atmosphere and are used to this type of game,” observed Di Matteo.
How they repaid the interim boss with display fusing diligence and dynamism that gives Chelsea the crucial away goal and a handsome advantage going into the return leg at Stamford Bridge next week.
Benfica had scored in each of their last 65 home matches in all competitions but David Luiz and company ensured the run did not extend to 66 games by snuffing out the considerable threat of Nicolas Gaitan, Oscar Cordoza and Pablo Aimar.
Luiz was inspired by the venue where he made his name and remains a celebrated figure. He threw himself into diving headers, crucial blocks and well-timed tackles, as well as making a brilliant goal-line clearance to keep out Cordoza’s thunderbolt. A liability so often, he was a lionheart against his former club.
John Terry and Ashley Cole were masterful in the type of overseas assignments that they have proved for a decade their fortitude cannot be ignored, while on the counter-attack Chelsea had the pace and cleverness to rip apart Benfica’s cumbersome defence.
Torres fully justified his selection ahead of Drogba as the never-ending game of centre-forward musical chairs continued.
The Spaniard worked the channels brilliantly, particularly the right in alliance with the dynamic Ramires, and set up the goal by tearing away from Jardel and feeding Salomon Kalou with a low cross. His performance deserved a goal.
Kalou has spent most of his Chelsea career in the shadow of Drogba but he made the most of the limelight with a snappy display on the left flank. Mikel Jon Obi's calmness and unfussiness was a bonus rather than a hindrance. Ferreira benefitted hugely from the energy of Ramires in front of him but he was a bastion of solidity before inevitably bowing to cramp.
It is to Di Matteo's great credit that the hangers-on and bit-part players rose to the occasion in such a demanding assignment.
He has been damned with faint praise since taking over as a managerial locum for the lack of viable alternatives. But he has steered Chelsea through one against-the-odds European tie and is on the verge of navigating a way out of another.
What we know of Roman Abramovich is that he put special store in Champions League success. He will have noted that the interim boss made the biggest selection of his career in Lisbon. He got it right, too.
Blueprints are not worth the paper they are written on when managerial pay-offs and compensation clauses are treated with casual indifference. But Di Matteo has shown he can come up with a plan and make it work.
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