Chelsea on Saturday announced that they are parting company with their first team coach Avram Grant. This announcement was on the expected lines after Chelsea lost in the finals of Champions League and ending the season without any trophy. Avram Grant came in as an stop gap replacement for Jose Mourinho, who was sacked by Roman Abrahimovic after a poor start to the season. Grant's first match in charge was against Manchester United at Old Trafford and Chelsea lost that 2-0. And after that Chelsea went on a winning spree in both league and Champions League. Under Grant, Chelsea played more attractive football and scored lots of goals, something that they did not do under Jose. But in spite of the results going his way Grant was under severe pressure from the media that the players did not like him and he commanded no respect but Grant denied them all.
Chelsea, who were 10 points behind the leaders Arsenal at one point kept their focus and reduced the gap at the top of the table. They also reached the finals of the Carling cup. But Grant's tactical mistakes like the team selection and substitution cost them the match which they lost 1-2 in extra time against Tottenham. After this match Grant was under severe pressure. All these can be attributed to the fact that none seemed to like him because Chelsea were doing alright on the field and there were no reasons to complain. Chelsea crashed out of the FA cup against Barnsley. Now they had the league and Champions League to focus. Chelsea emerged as the sole competitor to Manutd after Arsenal lost to United at Old Trafford. Chelsea beat United at the bridge and pushed the title race all the way to the last week. The mood in Chelsea was optimistic as they were in with a chance of winning both the league and UCL. But United won against Wigan to retain the title. And in the finals of Champions League, Chelsea lost 6-5 on penalties. After this result his sacking was expected but the fact is he preserved the long unbeaten record at Stamford Bridge, reached the finals of the Champions League and missed the league title by a whisker. Grant's first and last match were against Manchester United, both of which Chelsea lost.
His style had more flow but his failure to land trophies(especially Champions League) might have been the reason for his sacking. Chelsea are now on the look out for a new manager who can win trophies and more players are expected to follow Grant out of Stamford Bridge.
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Germany managed to edge Turkey in the final minute, thanks to a Lahm goal and march into the finals of the Euro2008. Turkey who had just 13 players available for this match played some great football, they had the lead twice before letting them off. Germany now await either Spain or Russia.
