Galatasaray 1 Chelsea 1. Finally, an English club managed to score a Champions League goal but Fernando Torres' strike for Chelsea was later cancelled out by a goal from Aurelien Chedjou, leaving the tie in the balance ahead of the second leg at Stamford Bridge on 18 March.
Earlier in the week Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was caught complaining about the quality of his strikers, and his criticism appeared justified as the Blues failed to put to bed a tie they dominated in the first 45 minutes.
Torres had given the Blues the perfect start on nine minutes in Istanbul, sweeping Cesar Azpilicueta's cross into the Galatasaray net after former Arsenal right-back Emmanuel Eboue had given away possession to the visitors.
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Willian and Torres then squandered chances to put Chelsea further ahead and when Galatasaray coach Roberto Mancini made a tactical substitution on 32 minutes the shape of the game changed. Replacing winger Izet Hajrovic with central midfielder Yekta Kurtulus, Mancini gave Chelsea less space in which to work and suddenly the Blues began to toil.
Torres should still have doubled their advantage in the second half when he was put clear by Eden Hazard but he was thwarted by an excellent save from Fernando Muslera.
Worse was to come for Chelsea and on 64 minutes Galatasaray levelled when John Terry and Petr Cech both failed to deal with Wesley Sneijder's corner and Chedjou nipped in to score.
Chelsea remain favourites to progress to the last eight but Mourinho knows the sloppy equaliser has made life more difficult for his side. "We are not a team who kills opponents," he told reporters. "We are paying for that in the Premier league, losing points, and in the Champions League we might have got a different result."
Chelsea's weakness, he said, was that "some other teams have three chances and score three goals... we have five and score one. This is not a criticism of the strikers, like sometimes people think. It's just the profile of the team we have."
Nonetheless, Mourinho called the result "acceptable", adding: "In the first half it was an opportunity missed, in the second half it was a fair result. In the first half we were the best team, we had three or four chances where we should have been more effective and scored."
The result was a tactical victory for Roberto Mancini, whose first-half change of formation took the sting out of Chelsea. The Blues' counter attacks were exposing the lack of cover in the middle of the pitch, explained the former Manchester City manager. "I brought off Izet Hajrovic - he didn't have a bad game - but we needed another midfielder. A 1-1 draw is a good result and we have a chance."
Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, playing against his old club for the first since leaving in 2012, echoed Mancini's view that the result is a good one for Galatasaray. "Chelsea are the better team on paper but in the second half we showed we can create them some problems," said the 35-year-old. "Now we have to go out and do it at Stamford Bridge. If we manage to score a goal there, it's a different game."
