Chelsea: David Luiz 'blessed' Fernando Torres when striker was struggling for goals | OneFootball

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·19 October 2021

Chelsea: David Luiz 'blessed' Fernando Torres when striker was struggling for goals

Article image:Chelsea: David Luiz 'blessed' Fernando Torres when striker was struggling for goals

Fernando Torres was never the same player after he joined Chelsea in January of 2011.

At Liverpool, the Spaniard was virtually unstoppable, scoring goals for fun and making world-class defenders like Nemanja Vidic look foolish on a regular basis.


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But in west London, Torres was a pale shadow of the man that lit up the Premier League for quite a while.

The 37-year-old spent four years at Chelsea and in that time, he scored only 45 goals at a rate of around one every four games.

For a player of Torres' quality in his prime, that return is far from great - especially when you factor in that the Blues spent a cool £50 million to sign him.

The World Cup winner's first year at Chelsea was arguably the most difficult, with criticism over a lack of goals coming from all angles.

Article image:Chelsea: David Luiz 'blessed' Fernando Torres when striker was struggling for goals

Going into the team's Champions League fixture against Genk in October 2011, just less than nine months after his arrival, Torres had found the back of the net only three times for the club.

It was really tough for the striker, so just before kick-off in the match against the Belgian outfit, David Luiz performed a pre-match ritual to 'bless' his teammate.

And as luck would have it, Torres went on to produce a two-goal masterclass versus Genk to help earn Chelsea a 5-0 victory.

Video: Torres being 'blessed' by Luiz before Genk game

It really was a lovely gesture from Luiz.

The 2011/12 campaign went on to be a fairly decent one for Torres, the forward netting 11 goals and contributing 16 assists in all competitions.

In the Champions League that season, El Nino was key to the team's unexpected triumph, with the standout moment being his famous last-minute goal against Barcelona that sent the Blues to the final.

But he still never came close to replicating his Liverpool form at Stamford Bridge and when the summer of 2014 rolled around, Torres was off to AC Milan on loan.

Article image:Chelsea: David Luiz 'blessed' Fernando Torres when striker was struggling for goals

The Italian club eventually signed him on a permanent basis, although the very same summer they did that, Milan bizarrely loaned the striker to Atletico Madrid for the 2015/16 season.

Torres called time on his career back in 2019 after a short spell in Japan with Sagan Tosu.

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Article image:Chelsea: David Luiz 'blessed' Fernando Torres when striker was struggling for goals

Who moved from Barcelona to Real Madrid in 2000?

Luis Enrique Luis Figo Javier Saviola Cristiano Ronaldo

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