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Champions League trouble for Anderlecht

RSC Anderlecht and Rapid Wien both lost their first-leg matches in the second preliminary round of the Champions League, while Glasgow Rangers failed to score against Kaunas.

BATE stun Anderlecht

Anderlecht hosted BATE Borisov in Brussels and thought to be heading for a positive result after a goal from Gillet in the 66th minute.

But only a minute later, the Belarusian visitors were handed a penalty and Krivets scored from the spot. The event also meant the end of the match for Wasilewski, who went off with a red card.

Despite losing Stasevich (ex-pulsed) in the 75th minute themselves, BATE kept their focus and went on to score the winning goal through Nekhajchik with three minutes to play.

Rapid Wien stand no chance in Cyprus

Rapid Wien surely hoped for a better result at Anorthosis Famagusta on the island of Cyprus, but were left with little hope as the home side won 3-0.

Skopelitis opened the score after 35 minutes, and two goals from Salpingidis earned the Cypriots a comfortable win and make things extremely completed to the Austrian side next week.

Zenit target Valbueha transfer

Russia’s reigning champions Zenit St Petersburg have made French top flight side Marseille an 18-million-euro offer for their midfielder Mathieu Valbuena, local press reported Thursday.

Reports also said that Zenit, this season’s UEFA Cup winners, have offered Valbuena, who is supposed ultimately to replace Andrei Arshavin in Zenit’s line-up, an annual three million euro salary.

Valbuena is under contract with Marseille until 2012.

Spurs in talks with Pavluychenko

Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly in talks with Russian forward Roman Pavluychenko as they seek to fill the gap left by Robbie Keane’s departure to Liverpool.

The 26-year-old striker was a standout performer at Euro 2008 and is set for a big money move to either the Premiership or La Liga this summer.

BBC Sports reveals today that the Spartak Moscow forward and the English sides haven’t come to an agreement yet, but plan to continue their talks soon.

The 26-year-old, born in Mostovskoy, played for Dynamo Stavropol and Rotor Volgograd before joining Russian giants Spartak five years ago.

Since 2003, the player appeared in 145 matches and scored 75 goals.

Despite his impressive scoring record, he was relatively unheard of until his impressive showing at Euro 2008 where he scored three goals and earned a place in the team of the tournament.

He also scored both goals in Russia’s 2-1 win over England in Moscow last September.

Tottenham would reportedly pay around twenty million Euros for the striker, who if he joins the London outfit, joins up with other new signins as Gómes, Luka Modric and youngster Giovani Dos Santos.

Chelsea Wraps up Asian Tour

The Blues wrapped up their 3-match tour of Asia yesterday with a 2-0 win over the Malaysian XI. That match was their hardest test as they ended the tour with 13 goals for, and zero against. None of the other Asian teams seemed to trouble Chelsea who outclassed them fairly handedly in their first matches of the 2008-2009 preseason.

Chelsea FC 4 - 0 Guangzhou Pharmaceutical

The first stop on the trip was a match against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical. In his first match in charge, Scolari opted to use a 4-1-2-1-2, similar to the 4-2-2-2 that Brazil used during his tenure that employed “flying fullbacks” to add attacking width. Bosingwa limped off with an injury on the 19th minute mark (and was replaced by Ferreira), but up until that point he appeared to offer good attacking potential up the wing, as did Ashley Cole. Also in his Chelsea debut, Deco made an impact, helping set up the first goal: a nicely fed ball to Lampard, who passed off to Kalou to finish calmly across the keeper for the first goal of the Scolari Era. It would remain 1-0 to Chelsea until half time, with Petr Cech mostly a spectator between the sticks facing only two shots.

The second half begun with a return to the more familiar 4-3-3 formation and some substitutions: Cudicini for Cech, Alex for Terry, Bridge for A. Cole, Malouda for Essien and Di Santo for Anelka. Just five minutes after the restart, Frank Lampard netted the second goal of the game. Frank Lampard noticed Guangzhou goalkeeper Li Shuai was a little too far off his line; this resulted in a beautiful Lampard lob overtop of the helpless ‘keeper form 25 yards out. In the next 15 minutes, Shaun Wright-Phillips was brought on for Kalou and not long after Branislav Ivanovic came on for Deco. Wright-Phillips came close to a quick goal after latching onto a precise Lampard long-ball and just barely shooting wide from about 20 yards out. Substitute goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini, like Cech, had been a spectator until the 15 minutes remaining mark; he then had to be at his best to punch over a lob attempt. Only a few minutes later, Franco Di Santo, on his debut with the first team would score his first goal. Malouda had found space down the left side to fire in a low cross which the 19-year-old Argentine had to slide for to poke home; not a bad way to impress the manager on your debut. It was not long before Wright-Phillips tacked on the fourth from close range after a Wayne Bridge cross with three minutes plus stoppage time remaining. Wright-Phillips’ goal was the icing on the cake for a comfortable Chelsea win.

Official Line-ups (courtesy of ChelseaFC.com)

Chelsea
First-half (4-1-2-1-2): Cech; Bosingwa (Ferreira 19), Carvalho, Terry (c), A Cole; Mikel; Essien, Deco; Lampard; Kalou, Anelka.
Second-half (4-3-3): Cudicini, Ferreira, Alex, Carvalho, Bridge; Lampard, Mikel, Deco (Ivanovic 62); Kalou (Wright-Phillips 57), Di Santo, Malouda.
Guangzhou Pharmaceutical (5-4-1): Li Shuai; Bai Lei (Jia Wenpeng 64), Li Zhihai (c), Ismael Enrique (Ma Liang 64), Tang Dechao, Xu Liang (Yang Pengfeng 58); Wu Pingfeng, Li Yan, Diego (Cao Zhijie 58), Lu Lin; Luis Alfredo.

Chelsea FC 7 - 0 Chengdu Blades

A comfortable win by Chelsea in a match that was more of a confidence boost than anything. Chelsea started slowly but with class as Chelsea began to show some skill. It only took 14 minutes to find a goal however, as Wright-Phillips played a clever ball through that Anelka managed to latch onto, round the goalkeeper, and finish calmly from a yard out. It only took another mere 15 minutes to find a second goal after Wright-Phillips again played a nice ball for Anelka, who centred for Kalou to finish coolly into the bottom left corner; 2-0 to Chelsea. Lampard soon found his second goal of the preseason, after Kalou laid a ball off to him, allowing him to blast one home just under ten minutes from half. Just before half, Chengdu had their first opportunity when their skipper Wang Song decided to try his luck on a long range effort that sailed over, forcing Petr Cech to at least keep his eyes open and not doze off.

Going into half, the Blues were in cruise control: it was just too easy. At half, Blues’ boss Luis Felipe Scolari opted to make five changes in personnel and none in formation: Ivanovic for Ferreira, Carvalho for Alex, Bridge for A. Cole, Mikel for Lampard and Malouda for Kalou. The restart was fairly uneventful, no real clear-cut chances or penalty appeals. On the 53 minute mark, Scolari brought Joe Cole on for Terry; this moved Essien to right-back and Ivanovic into centre-half. It only took a minute for Joey to make an impact though; Carvalho took a goal kick and advanced down the right side to play a ball to Anelka who made the killer pass for Cole to run onto. Joe calmly rounded the Chengdu goalkeeper, Yan Li, to slot home with ease. On the hour mark, Chelsea made two substitutions, bringing on Hilario for Cech and Di Santo for Anelka up front. Di Santo, like Cole, wasted little time as well to add his name to the scoresheet; after just five minutes, he calmed slotted home a Carvalho cross that was mis-controlled by a Chengdu defender. Not long after Chelsea survived penalty appeals from Chengdu after Carvalho got turned around and thrown off balance by Chengdu captain Wang Song and appeared to lunge at him; the officials deemed that there was no contact and play was waved on. With just under ten minutes remaining on the clock, Joe Cole would have made Cristiano Ronaldo proud with a cheeky goal; Essien, working down the right channel, blasted in a low cross which Cole redirected courtesy of a backheel flick at the near post. Joe Cole’s impressive, tricky finish made it 6-0 to Chelsea; and the match seemed to be over. Two minutes later, Malouda crossed from just inside the penalty area; after twisting and turning away from the Chengdu defense, only to have his cross hit Wright-Phillips in the back and deflect into the net. The fluke goal made it 7-0 to Chelsea. Di Santo almost added his third of the preseason and second of the game, only to hit a low cross into the ground and have it bounce over the net. The final whistle blew, with both Chelsea ‘keepers as spectators to the match.

Official Line-ups (courtesy of ChelseaFC.com)

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech (Hilario 60); Ferreira (Ivanovic h-t), Alex (Carvalho h-t), Terry (c) (J Cole 53), A Cole (Bridge h-t); Deco, Essien, Lampard (Mikel h-t); Wright-Phillips, Anelka (Di Santo 60), Kalou (Malouda h-t).

Chengdu Blades (4-4-2): Lan Yi; Liu Cheng, Demar, Li Mingyi (Ding Qi 55), Zhu Xiaogang (Xu Chao; 62) Zhang Chaosong (Yang Zezhi h-t), Li Tie (Peng Xingli 78), Xia Qiqi (Zhou Peng 55), Zhou Yougen (Jiang Xiaoyu 82); Shi Jun (Denilson h-t), Wang Song.

Chelsea FC 2-0 Malaysian XI

On the final stop of the Blues’ tour of Asia, they would be given their toughest test after playing two relatively tame teams. There were changes in the line-up as Shevchenko (returning from minor injury) was named a substitute as well as youngster Scott Sinclair returning from England U19 duty; Essien would also start this match at right-back.The opening minutes of this game saw the Blues’ opponent attack, something they weren’t expecting, but it did not bare fruit for the home side. Chelsea slowly started to settle in, with Deco firing a beautiful volley that was heading straight for the top corner and highlight reels, service was provided by a Lampard free-kick in the corner that was played out to him. It was only another 10 minutes before Anelka received a through ball from Joe Cole to blast it past Helmi, the Malaysian goalkeeper. Chelsea continued to have a stronger showing, with notably Joe Cole and Deco linking up quite well.

At half, four changes were made: Alex for Carvalho, Malouda for Wright-Phillips, A. Cole for Bridge and Ferreira for Joe Cole (Essien moving to midfield). The restart did not go as planned for the Blues: play was relatively poor and passing was sloppy. Just 10 minutes short of an hour, Chelsea found an insurance goal. Malouda had crossed low to Lampard, who faked a shot to play the ball onward for Ashley Cole to make a textbook finish. 2-0 to Chelsea, although Cech had to be at his best to stop a striker 1-on-1; but not have to worry, however, about an excellent build up from Malaysia that looked promising, only for the finish to be poorly struck wide. Substitutions were made not long after with: Cudicini on for Cech, Shevchenko on for Deco and Di Santo on for Anelka. Helmi and Cudicini were forced into saves not long after. In the final quarter of an hour, Branislav Ivanovic was put on for John Terry and Scott Sinclair came on for Lampard.

The Malaysian XI squad proved a tougher test for the Blues, who might not have been expecting decent competition with their recent Asian experiences. Regardless, it allowed the team to develop better chemistry and gain some fitness; the scoreline was a bonus as well.

Official Line-ups (courtesy of ChelseaFC.com)

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech (Hilario 60); Ferreira (Ivanovic h-t), Alex (Carvalho h-t), Terry (c) (J Cole 53), A Cole (Bridge h-t); Deco, Essien, Lampard (Mikel h-t); Wright-Phillips, Anelka (Di Santo 60), Kalou (Malouda h-t).

Chengdu Blades (4-4-2): Lan Yi; Liu Cheng, Demar, Li Mingyi (Ding Qi 55), Zhu Xiaogang (Xu Chao; 62) Zhang Chaosong (Yang Zezhi h-t), Li Tie (Peng Xingli 78), Xia Qiqi (Zhou Peng 55), Zhou Yougen (Jiang Xiaoyu 82); Shi Jun (Denilson h-t), Wang Song.

The Asian tour allowed Scolari to better the team fitness, test out line-ups and formations, as well as let the team develop better chemistry. I think it has been a success, the results were good; as the Blues’ obviously don’t want to be facing top class competition right away. This was an excellent build up and a good way for players to showcase their talent and make a case for them to be starting. Di Santo impressed and I hope to see more of him. Deco was involved in much of the attack, creating several of Chelsea’s scoring chances; if he can continue this form into the season than Chelsea might have made one of the biggest bargains of this summer transfer window. I’m quite pleased with Deco, I was hoping that he would be able to be creative in midfield (something Chelsea lack for the most part) and he delivered big in Asia. The injury to Bosingwa is disappointing, but there is quality cover at right-back until he returns.

Chelsea now travel to Moscow to play in the Railways Cup, where they will face Lokomotiv Moscow in their opening match on August 1st.

Nick Wojcik

Cantona’s Ronaldo Warning

Manchester United legend Eric Cantona has claimed that it would be ‘stupid’ for Cristiano Ronaldo to join Real Madrid.

The Portuguese winger has been at the centre of the summer’s hottest transfer saga, after the star stated his wish to join the Spanish Champions.

However, United are unwilling to let him go, and Cantona, who is still worshipped by the Old Trafford crowd, has said that his style perfectly suits the Premier League and European Champions.

“Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world right now,” Cantona said in the Daily Star. “He is a genuine artist.

“His style of play fits Manchester United’s very well, and the reverse is also true. It is pleasing to see such harmony.

“As for him wanting to join Real Madrid, I don’t really know his personality. Maybe he has valid reasons that drive him to leave United.

“He is still young, and so maybe he wants to take on fresh challenges. I can understand if this is the reason why he wants to leave for Real.

“But if he were to leave because of something else, I think he would be doing something absolutely stupid.”

Sammy Lee

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