Jubilant Huddersfield confirm safety with draw as Chelsea’s Champions League hopes falter

Chelsea 1-1 Huddersfield Town: Laurent Depoitre scored a crucial goal and although Marcos Alonso equalised, the visitors held on for a vital point

Huddersfield celebrate Laurent Depoitre’s crucial goal (Getty)

A feeling money can’t buy, all the more so because of the money Huddersfield shouldn’t be able to compete with.

Despite that, despite a late home onslaught at Stamford Bridge, David Wagner’s tenaciously defiant team got the 1-1 draw and point they need to definitively stay in the world’s wealthiest league, almost certainly denying Chelsea a place in the Champions League.

It is a sensational achievement by the German manager – maybe, according to the economics, one of the Premier League’s finest – that only makes Antonio Conte’s errors here look worse.

The Italian may well have made his final mistake as Chelsea manager, as he opted for a starting XI without Eden Hazard and Olivier Giroud, and it has all but ended their chances of finishing in the top four. It said much that they were brought on immediately after Laurent Depoitre had scored the fateful first goal that will now go down in Huddersfield history.

Marcos Alonso scored a freak of an equaliser, but that did not matter in the relegation battle, and may not matter in the chase for the Champions League. Chelsea now need something close to a miracle on Sunday to qualify, although that is what Huddersfield and Wagner have offered by staying up.

The difference in consequences led to highly contrasting scenes at the end of the game, but celebration and frustration were not the only emotions on display. There was also gratefulness, relief and rage – not least from Chelsea at referee Lee Mason, as they were aggrieved at a series of decisions – as the clarity of that result for Huddersfield came from the utter chaos of the second half.

From that, goalkeeper Jonas Lossl should be as much a Huddersfield hero as Wagner or Depoitre. He offered a series of supreme saves at the end of the game, not least from a near-point-blank Andreas Christensen header at the end of the most hectic goalmouth scrambles.

It probably still wasn’t Chelsea’s best chance of the game. That came much earlier, when they were so lacking the ingenuity of Hazard, especially against the impressive industry of Huddersfield.

There still shouldn’t have been much ingenuity required for that 12th-minute chance, though. All that was needed then was a better touch, after the most rudimentary of moves. A corner kick was swung in, Cesar Azpilicueta headed it down, but Antonio Rudiger could only divert it wide from mere yards out.

With a few more opportunity just eluding them, Chelsea were getting increasingly frustrated with themselves but on half-time, had real reason to be frustrated with referee Mason. That was because they thought it shouldn’t be half-time. The referee remarkably blew up just when Willian was about to take a corner.

Huddersfield had admittedly been admirably resilient before then and, perhaps sensing increasing tension around Stamford Bridge, temporarily became impressively adventurous.

Shortly after half-time, Aaron Mooy played a fine lofted ball up to Laurent Delpoitre. He managed to beat the onrushing Caballero to beat the ball and then, out of the ensuing mess in the Chelsea box, offered the assurance of the goal Huddersfield needed.

Chelsea players surround the referee (AFP/Getty Images)

There were again grounds for Chelsea frustration with Mason, as some believed it might have been a foul, but there should mostly have been frustration with themselves.

Conte then ceded. Hazard and Giroud were introduced, and Chelsea’s game did come on. They also got back in the game, although there wasn’t much ingenuity to that. Azpilicueta slid a cross across goal, Zanka attempted to clear and – in a moment reminiscent of James Milner’s own goal against AS Roma – the ball cannoned off Marcos Alonso’s face and in.

It was after that Stamford Bridge again saw some of the reasons that some of the support won’t be too disappointed if Conte leaves. There was a predictability to their attacks, as Chelsea attempted the same patterns all the time, only to result in the same end result: more frustration.

Desperation ensured that predictability soon just became profound chaos, but it didn’t lead to a loss of control from Huddersfield or Lossl. They remained focused. They remain in the division.

This might well have been Conte’s last home game for Chelsea. Sunday, however, will not be Huddersfield’s last game in the Premier League.

The competition has just seen a feat deserving of real respect.