Archive for March, 2007
FA Cup semi-final ticket
19 March 2007The Blues picked up a deserved place in th FA Cup semi-finals by triumphing over Totenham Hotspurs at White Hart Lane. Andriy Shevchenko showed his striking pedigree by scoring a sensational left footed goal and a goal from Shaun Wright-Phillips helped seal a victory.
Spurs fought back with a goal from Robbie Keane from the penalty spot after Ricardo Carvalho brought down Dimitar Berbetov from behind in the penalty area but the premiership champions showed great character to see off a determined Spurs side.
The FA Cup is the only domestic cup which has eluded Jose Mourinho since he too over at Chelsea but he hopes to correct that. A semi-final match against Blackburn Rovers is all that stands between The Blues and a place in the final at the all new Wembley Stadium
Chelsea not to be written off
17 March 2007Chelsea stayed very much in contention for the Premiership title this season by beating Sheffield United 3-0 at Stamford Bridge to keep the gap between it and League leaders at a surmountable 6 points. the Premiership Champions should not be written off as they show the much needed character which saw them lift the trophy twice in concesion………….
An early 4th minute goal from Shevchenko who returned into the team after recovering from an ankle injury set The Blues on their path to securing a well deserved 3 points. Goals from Kalou who is slowly finding his feet in Chelsea and Ballack who came off the bench to score completed the goal haul from Chelsea’s three unlikely sources.
Six point gap
14 March 2007Chelsea closed the gap between it and the League leaders to six after a win at The City of Manchester Stadium. Stuart Pearce’s team has been under immense pressure in recent weeks for its loss of form which has seen Man City getting cut up in a relegation infested zone.
The Blues however continued their unrelentless march towards a third consecutive Premiership title by seeing of a hard fighting Man City.
John Terry returned from injury to captain the team and although he had his own fair share of knocks and bruises from a gruelling encounter, he saw his team through to get all three points
The Reds and Blues of Manchester Unite!
14 March 2007Chelsea take on Man City hoping to reduce Man Utd’s lead at the top of the Premiership.
The Reds and Blues of Manchester are not the best of friends but I would be no witch doctor to say that Man Utd fans will be routing for City as they know that just one blip could see them tumbling.
Under fire City Manager needs a win to assure City’s fans that he is still the man to take them to great things; though am sure he knows that this is not feasible. But just like they say, “Football is not Mathematics” and anything is possible.
Chelsea hope to put our defensive nightmares behind as we seek to pile pressure on Man Utd.
Chelsea Still On Track
7 March 2007It was a nervy start for Jose Mourhino’s men in the first half of the encounter with Porto FC. The visitors drew the first blood in the 15th minute when they beat Chelsea’s offside trap.
Chelsea was nervy in possession especially in the last third. You would be forgiven for wondering where the goal was going to come from. Chelsea continued to miss their inspirational captain. The visitors were more than content with their lead and were willing to just knock the ball around rather than go for the jugler, thank God for little mercies!
After the break, it looked like a different Chelsea with Robben equalising from a kick that should have ended as a corner at best. That goes to tell you that in football anything is possible as Porto’s Keeper helped the ball into his own net.
The Match appeared to be heading into extra time with only one likely winner, Chelsea! The Blues were getting stronger with every kick especially after the introduction of Mikel Obi.
Dangerous balls kept being knocked into Porto’s area with most of the chances going begging. Not so when Shevchenko knocked one into Ballack with his head. The former Bayern man made no mistake hooking the ball beyond the Keeper.
This made for a nervy end as extra time was definitely out and a goal for Porto would mean that Chelsea would need to score again. We need not have been scared as the Blues Millionaires were more than capable of seeing out the Match.
Jose said that at half time he challenged the Blues to enjoy the Match as they were at that moment out of the Competition. I really like that as being scared tightens you up and Chelsea would certainly have crumbled! But not when you start to enjoy something, you find you start doing things well and My God, how it worked.
The Bridge was a sight to behold, the Supporters were fantastic. Roman, everybody played a part in the big, big victory that put us in the quarter finals.
All hail “The Blues”. We are still on track!
Liverpool also lost 1-0 at the KOP but progressed thanks to a superior away goal aggregate against Barcelona with former Chelsea player Eidur Gudjonsson scoring the only goal of the night.
Chelsea 2 Porto 1
6 March 2007Chelsea came from one goal behind to beat FC Porto 2-1 and advance to the last eight of the Champions League. Well played Chelsea. We were booed off the field after the first half when we were still one goal down but The Mighty Blues showed the stuff they were made of by coming back to win.
DROG - African Footballer of the year
2 March 2007Didier Drogba has been named the 2006 CAF African Footballer of the year edging out Barcelona’s Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto’o and his Chelsea team mate Ghanian Michael Essien. The 28 year old player from the Ivory Coast captained his country in the 2006 African Nations Cup and played in the world Cup finals as well as helping Chelsea win two Premiership titles.