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The scowl worn by José Mourinho as he stared out from his technical area said it all. Chelsea remain on edge in this competition, an opportunity to win the group passed up wastefully with a display so anaemic and sloppy as to defy belief at times. Basel claimed a deserved success to complete a double and, over the two fixtures, have appeared by far the better side. Inconsistency still blights Mourinho's fledgling project.
Progress was still secured courtesy of Schalke's goalless draw in Bucharest, but there is work still to be done to claim first position.
This performance seemed all the more feeble in the wake of the Portuguese's pre-match rhetoric proclaiming the weeks ahead as a period "only the brave can survive", not to mention the savagely cropped hair-cut which had suggested a manager meaning business.
Instead, his team heaved to contain eager hosts through the first period and, just as the point they required was close, they caved in at the last. Mohamed Salah's goal, clipped over Petr Cech, was cruel on the outstanding goalkeeper, but not on Chelsea as a collective.
At the other end, the visitors made hardly any impression at all. The blank drawn in front of goal was only a second in 25 Champions League games, the last of which had been that traumatic 3-0 defeat at Juventus a year ago from which Roberto Di Matteo, a European Cup winner six months previously, never recovered.
This squad had returned to Gatwick in the small hours after that loss in Italy for the manager to suffer the sack as the Europa League beckoned. That competition has been avoided, though not in the manner Chelsea had hoped.
If recent form had suggested this occasion would offer the 2012 winners an opportunity to avenge the unlikely defeat suffered to Basel at Stamford Bridge earlier in the campaign, then the reality was distinctly more awkward.
The visitors have been untouchable in this competition since that loss, but they had frozen initially here as the temperature plummeted: the impetus was all Swiss. Their midfielder, Fabian Frei, had spoken in the build-up of Chelsea having "underestimated us in the first game, but this time it will be completely different because they'll want to show how big their team are".
And yet, as the Premier League side surrendered possession far too readily and the hosts poured at them at pace, all those warnings from the loss back in September appeared to have gone unheeded.
Basel are a slick and impressive side when allowed to muster upbeat rhythm. They hustled and bustled through central midfield, where Chelsea had been dominant at West Ham on Saturday evening, and fed their free-flowing wingers and full-backs.
Salah, so menacing when terrorising Ashley Cole in the first group game, appeared fully recovered from a recent illness as he sprinted into space beyond César Azpilicueta, the right-back Kay Voser forever emerging in support. On the opposite flank, Valentin Stocker was a nuisance in combination with Taulant Xhaka. Had Cech not been inspired in the visitors' goal, his team might have been buried long before the break.
As it was they remained intact, if wheezing at the ferocity of Basel's attack, while José Mourinho paced his technical area in clear disgust. Cech was outstanding, the goalkeeper conjuring saves that must deflate the most thick-skinned of forwards. His best was from Salah, pushing away a shot as he tumbled to the floor and the ball reared up from the turf. The tip behind was outstanding improvisation but merely maintained the excellence already offered to deny Frei, Xhaka and Salah from distance.
When Cech was beaten, John Mikel Obi cleared Ivan Ivanov's toe-poke from the goal-line. Each missed opportunity prompted an agonised reaction from a home support increasingly fearing the worst. On this evidence, it was mystifying to consider that Basel had been unable to beat Steaua Bucharest, the group's whipping boys, home or away.
Chelsea had their own issues to address. Theirs had been a lacklustre display void of any real threat in attack or coherence in midfield. They lost Samuel Eto'o before the break, the striker having turned his ankle in an innocuous incident to depart on a stretcher in some discomfort, with Mourinho heading down the tunnel soon afterwards as the half-time whistle approached, no doubt preparing the ear-bashing required to rouse his players from their sloppiness.
There had been none of the zest from Upton Park, and little of the incision needed to unsettle a Basel back-line marshalled impressively by Fabian Schär.
At least Mourinho could call upon Fernando Torres once again after a recent groin injury with Eden Hazard also flung on before the hour-mark in the hope that he might provide a spark. The Belgian did provide some drive down the left, linking up with the Spanish forward and the full-back Azpilicueta.
And yet, as the game drifted beyound the hour-mark, Chelsea had come no closer than Frank Lampard's scuffed free-kick which scuttled through a cluttered six-yard box and was easily cleared by Ivanov.
Instead, the real threat remained Basel's. Serey Die had already come close to supplying a winner when Salah was sent scurrying beyond Ivanovic and into space, the forward lifting his finish over the advancing Cech to supply the hosts' deserved winner.
via Football: Chelsea | theguardian.com http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/nov/26/basel-chelsea-champions-league-match-report
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