Chelsea’s World Cup exiteers: Final grades for Willian, Andreas Christensen
By Nate Hofmann
Two more Chelsea players exited the World Cup in the knockout rounds. Willian made it to the quarterfinals, while Andreas Christensen’s campaign ended in the Round of 16.
Willian and Andreas Christensen will watch a handful of their Chelsea teammates play in the semifinals of the World Cup, and at least two will make the finals. Before they return to Cobham for an awkward reunion under Some Manager, here are their final ratings from Russia.
Willian, Brazil – Round of 16: 8.0, Quarterfinals: 6.0
When Willian tells his grandchildren about his 2018 World Cup, he’ll probably focus on the match against Mexico. Brazil’s 2-0 win against Mexico in the Round of 16 was his best performance, highlighted by his assist to Neymar for the opening goal.
Willian’s best moments for Chelsea have usually been unexpected – a free kick here, a left-footed screamer there – and that same unpredictability ended up being one of the deciding factors in this match. When Juan Carlos Osorio made up his gameplan for how to stop this Brazil side, he probably never accounted for the possibility of Willian – ostensibly a right winger – popping up on the other side of the box, taking a touch (or miscontrolling, I can’t decide) past most of the Mexican defense, and playing a clumsy ball back across the face of goal for Neymar to finish at the far post. It was effective but unconvincing, much like Brazil in general throughout their run in Russia.
Unfortunately, whatever vein of form Willian found for the match against Mexico, he clearly exhausted all of it by the time he took the field against Belgium in the quarterfinal. While Brazil started off looking the more dangerous team, Fernandinho’s early own goal clearly deflated the team. They spent the rest of the first half looking dazed and out of sorts, giving possession away a number of times to release Belgium on – and I’m estimating here – probably a thousand counterattacks.
Belgium’s relative defensive stability (key word: relative) in the first half provoked Tite to make a tactical change at halftime, yanking Willian in favor of Roberto Firmino. This, along with bringing in Douglas Costa for Gabriel Jesus, seemed to kickstart the Brazilian attack. For the final half hour of the match, it seemed almost inevitable that Brazil would score two and push the game into extra time.
Alas, they came up one goal short, partly due to a god-level save by Thibaut Courtois in the closing minutes.
Overall, a wildly inconsistent and generally disappointing tournament for Willian and Brazil as a whole. From a Chelsea perspective, this is less than ideal for one of two reasons: a) it means a sad and disappointed Willian heading into the new season, or b) it hurts the transfer fee for his move to Barcelona. Everyone loses!
Andreas Christensen, Denmark – Round of 16: 7.0
Christensen had a weird against Croatia. Despite a solid defensive showing throughout the group stages, Age Hareide decided to change things up and play Christensen in midfield against Croatia in the Round of 16.
It was an understandable decision, given that most of Croatia’s danger lies in Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic in the center of the park. But it very much seemed to be fixing something that wasn’t broken. The strategy worked well for around 115 minutes. It was just those first five that were a problem.
Remember Michy Batshuyai’s hilarious punt-to-post-to-face celebration after Adnan Januzaj’s goal against England? Christensen experienced something very similar, except it wasn’t self-inflicted and it wasn’t funny. Henrik Dalsgaard’s attempted clearance just about blew out Christensen’s eardrum from close range, and then fell conveniently to Mario Mandzukic to equalize in the fourth minute, bringing the Yakety Sax-esque opening minutes of the match to a glorious conclusion.
What followed was an ugly, cagey two hours of football, ultimately culminating in a penalty shootout victory for the Croatians.
Regardless of the result, Christensen deserves praise for playing out of position (albeit he occasionally played defensive midfield at youth levels and on loan at Borussia Monchengladbach) and keeping Croatia’s dynamic midfield at bay for the better part of two hours. Denmark generally failed to impress most casual viewers throughout the World Cup, but Christensen’s commendable performances against France and Croatia should bode well for Chelsea’s backline going into this season and beyond.
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