Last night the Europa League was certainly full of last minute surprises and for once was actually a brilliant watch across the board. Once regarded as the ugly sister of the Champions League, this season the fact that stellar names Atletico Madrid, Napoli, Spurs and Chelsea not to mention Inter Milan made it to the last 32 meant that it was sure to be a cracker.
It did not disappoint and with Spurs last minute Mousa Dembele goal to send them through, not to mention brilliance yet again from Luis Suarez, Thursday night turned out to be quite a good one. All of this however did not manage to compare to the Chelsea game which looked like it was going to extra time after both sides managed to register away goals with very little else occuring.
In the dying seconds however, an absolute bullet of a strike from Eden Hazard prevented the extra 30 minutes and potential penalty shoot out and is more than worthy of taking the spot on our video jukebox today.
The Europa League may not be what Chelsea ideally want to be in, but it still represents a good shout at winning a trophy or at least getting to a final and Rafael Benitez is fully aware of that. Despite Frank Lampard being sat in the stands after being given a rest, Chelsea still managed to go through – with yet another dire performance from Fernando Torres, he will be eternally grateful of the sublime goal from Hazard that took them to the last 16.
Take a look at the strike for yourself below. What a way to take the Blues through to the last 16.
[youtube 9Eaw5S4h5lk]
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