The man behind the mask

As a superstitious man, Fernando Torres did not cut his hair on one goal scoring run which suggests Torres will preserve his mask even when his nose heals.

Fernando Torrres scored the decider against Steaua to confirm Chelsea’s place in last 8 as he bled just before he scored. May be his broken nose has brought back his luck as the £50 million man missed the penalty before his nose was broken.

Torres opened up account for Chelsea in 16th minute before Victor Moses doubled the lead for Chelsea. Meanwhile Torrres scored his second to build two goals lead for the blues before they go into second leg of Europa league quarter finals.

If Torres scored with the mask on, Benitez would like to continue Torres wearing the mask to boost up his superstitious belief and maintain his confidence.

And will the mask stay on while Torres keeps on scoring? “He may have to do that anyway,” Benitez commented after the match.

Here’s what Torres had to say about the incident and the mask in an interview with the Daily Mail :

‘It wasn’t too bad thankfully, just a lot of blood,’ said Torres. ‘I didn’t need surgery but the mask is uncomfortable, it is too tight. It’s a good idea because they leave a space between the mask and the nose so if someone hits you it doesn’t touch the nose.

‘This means it is tight around your head. It has to be like this because if it’s moving, it’s doing nothing. But after 90 minutes or after training you have headaches.’

Let’s take a look at his performances since the mask appeared :

Rubin Kazan – Scored twice and made the other goal. Bright, sharp and dangerous throughout. Great improvisation for the opening goal and a confident, powerful header for the second. Every display can still seem to go to either extreme but was making runs off the ball that he often doesn’t.

Sunderland – Made an instant impact after replacing Ba, his dynamic run starting the move from which Chelsea equalised. Perhaps should’ve done better with a header when teed up by Oscar but Rafael Benitez will be pleased to have a more confident Torres leading the line.

In the same interview (Daily Mail), Torres talked about his career at Chelsea, past, present and future :

‘I want to do the things I used to do all my life,’ said Torres. ‘I did them at Atletico, I did them at Liverpool and I am not doing them at Chelsea. I am working on it. If I knew the reason, I would fix it in one minute. But the only way to fix these things is to work at it.

‘I am training every day and I will never, ever give up.’

I am happy here,’ said Torres. ‘I am enjoying London and happy at this club. I know my  statistics at Chelsea have not been the same as in other years in my career. But I am fighting to get back to those statistics and I will never, ever give up.

‘I want to do the things I used to do. I did them at Atletico, I did them at Liverpool but I am not doing them at Chelsea. If I knew the reason, I would fix it in one minute. But the only way to fix these things is to work at them.

‘I will try my heart out for this club. There are too many things I have to give back to these people and I want to show my thanks to them. Hopefully this season we can give them two more trophies and next season we can fight again for the biggest ones, the Champions League and the Premier League.’

Fernando Torres has been playing well since the mask was put on his face. While I doubt that the mask is the main reason behind it, it certainly seems to be helping the cause. Torres seems to be owning up to his lack of success at Chelsea and his recent interview might show the new soaring amounts of confidence.