Chelsea's Ivorian striker Didier Drogba scored a brace on Tuesday night in his first game back after a three-match ban incurred during a fractious Champions League semi-final clash with FC Barcelona on May 6.
When Didier Drogba
lost his head with an obscenity-laced rant (see embedded NSFW video) into the TV camera following Chelsea's
UEFA Champions League elimination by a combination of an excellent Barcelona team and a decidedly less excellent display of refereeing, it was obvious to any observer that the striker from Côte d'Ivoire was heading for a whole world of hurt.
To be fair, there were good reasons for his tantrum, not least the denial of three and possibly four clear penalty shouts for Drogba's Chelsea team in a match which ended with a 1-1 scoreline and Barcelona's advancement into the tournament's final on the
"away goals" rule.
But professionals have a responsibility to keep their cool, and once the arguments had died down, the only remaining question was a simple one: For how long would Drogba be banned from playing in Europe? The answer arrived an agonising 43 days later, with the governing European football body
UEFA imposing a heavy yet unsurprising
six game ban (two of which were suspended) on arguably the world's best striker. This was subsequently reduced to a
five-match ban (with two suspended) after a personal appeal by the player himself.
Fast forward to today, and in Drogba's first game back in Europe's biggest club competition, against an underachieving Atlético Madrid team, you might say the Ivorian redeemed himself,
scoring the two goals that secured a tie and his team's advancement to the knockout stages of the Champions League.
The African striker has been on fire this season, scoring 9 goals in Chelsea's 11 Premier League games so far. When asked if he was in the best form of his career,
he said simply "I think so," although he did concede he was frustrated that his team didn't win the game. If anything, he slightly played down his almost scripted return to European action, saying:
"I've played many Champions League games before but it's good to be on the pitch - I always say I am happy to be on the pitch and playing."
He also admitted that they might have been distracted by Sunday's upcoming English Premier League game against Manchester United, who themselves qualified after recovering from 3-1 down to tie CSKA Moscow with a
trademark thrilling late comeback:
"I think we were also thinking about Manchester United tonight but we did everything we had to do today. Now we can focus on Sunday because it's very important to beat them [United] at home. We have to show different qualities and be better than today."
A week may be a long time in politics, but six months in football can feel like a lifetime.
