On a night where Chelsea needed a victory, everybody inside Stamford Bridge played their part to perfection.
From minute one to the final seconds of added time, all 15 Chelsea players that stepped onto the pitch played a significant role in a much-needed win for the Blues and Graham Potter. While victory against Leeds stopped a run of six games without a win, the Champions League clash against Borussia Dortmund was seen as the defining game in Chelsea's season.
Behind by a goal from the first leg, the Blues needed to muster up reserves of courage and fight to bypass a team who had not lost a competitive game since early November, and that was exactly what they did. A scrappy opening to the game mostly dominated by Dortmund sprung into life from a Chelsea perspective when Raheem Sterling was played through on goal, but the offside flag prevented that play from progressing.
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However, the next time Sterling faced the Dortmund goal he made no mistake. After scuffing his first attempt from Ben Chilwell's cross, the 28-year-old fired a second effort into the roof of the net. In the second half, Kai Havertz then doubled Chelsea's advantage, placing them in front in the tie, from the penalty spot after VAR deemed that Marius Wolf handled an attempted ball into the box from Chilwell.
After initially missing his first attempt from 12 yards, Havertz was given another shot from the spot as several Dortmund players entered the penalty box before he struck the ball. With the German outfit now behind they were forced to push for a goal back on the night and an equaliser in the tie.
However, Chelsea held firm with Kepa Arrizabalaga rarely tested as Chelsea secured a second clean sheet in four days and back-to-back wins for the first time since October.
While the players put in a tremendous shift and Potter got his substitutions bang on, Chelsea already had the mental advantage over Dortmund courtesy of the Stamford Bridge faithful. Those who tuned into the clash on TV at exactly 8pm would have certainly been surprised when adverts were playing, but that was because kick-off had been delayed by 10 minutes because the Dortmund team bus got delayed on route to the ground.
The reason for the significant hold up was because Chelsea fans had blocked an entrance to a road used to gain access to Stamford Bridge. The Dortmund stars therefore did not get into the ground until 7pm, at least 15 minutes after their planned arrival.
Pre-match preparations for Edin Terzic and his players were therefore likely very disrupted and the delay could have directly contributed to the injury suffered by Julian Brandt inside the first five minutes of the clash.
The atmosphere was raucous in west London throughout the clash as the Chelsea stars deservedly celebrated with their supporters at full time. Those few hours were likely the most emotional Graham Potter has been during his tenure as he let out several Jurgen Klopp-esque fist bumps at full time.
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