Champions League: Rosenborg 0 - 4 Chelsea
Match reports
The Guardian, Dominic Fifield: “The Champions League was supposed to have done away with mismatches like this. Chelsea won Group B at a canter last night, ripping a floundering Rosenborg to shreds and ensuring that, when this competition resumes for the knockout phase, they will be paired with a runner-up rather than a group winner. Avram Grant’s conviction that a first European Cup can be secured in Moscow in May remains unswayed.”
The Times, Matt Hughes: “With a typically powerful demonstration of his art, [Drogba] fired Chelsea into the knockout phase as group B winners last night, scoring two early goals to set them on course for a comfortable victory. Alex, the Brazilian who resembles an old-fashioned English defender, and Joe Cole, the Englishman who plays like a Brazilian, scored the others to finish off limited opponents in style.”
The Independent, Jason Burt: “Drogba didn’t so much overwhelm Rosenborg as humble them, taking control inside the first minute. The Ivorian, known as “King Drogba” in his homeland, struck twice in the first-half – he now has 21 goals in 38 appearances in this competition – to make a mockery of the pre-match claim by the home side’s veteran defender Vidar Riseth that they had “devised” a plan to stop him. Some plan.”
Daily Telegraph, John Ley: “With Christmas less than a month away Chelsea banished the ghost of managers past with another hugely impressive performance, to move into the knockout stages of the Champions League with a game to spare. Norway traditionally gift Trafalgar Square a Christmas tree; last night, Christmas came early for Chelsea in Norway.”
Official Chelsea FC Website, Andy Jones: “After sealing qualification on a cold night in Trondheim, Chelsea’s Champions League campaign is just hotting up.”
The goals
07′ Drogba 0-1
20′ Drogba 0-2
40′ Alex 0-3
73′ J. Cole 0-4
The good
- Four goals. Brilliant performance. Qualification for the knock-out stages. Group winners. No fresh injury concerns. A good night all round.
- Didier Drogba. It cannot be overstated just how important Drogba is to Chelsea Football Club; he’s almost irreplaceable. Simply awesome in this game.
- Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Great wing play and defensive displays from both. Cole made Drogba’s first goal (I’m sure Tony was pleased to see Joe have a pop himself), and Wright-Phillips was instrumental in his second. I’d like to see Cole and Wright-Phillips play together more often.
- Alex’s goal. For its comedic value alone.
- 13 games unbeaten, of which 10 have been clean sheets.
- Apparently Ricardo Carvalho’s injury is not as bad as first thought.
The bad
- It would be nitpicking to try and find holes in an impressive performance like this one. I enjoyed every second of it. Perhaps we should have scored at least six more goals?
Man of the Match
It has to be Didier Drogba. An outstanding night’s work from the big man.
Related links
- Posted at 02:50 AM · Permalink · Print · 2006 views · Last indexed by Google on the 12th May 2008
- Tags: Alex, Avram Grant, Champions League, Chelsea, Didier Drogba, Joe Cole, Ricardo Carvalho, Rosenborg, Salomon Kalou, Shaun Wright-Phillips
More attacks and shots on goal than we get in a normal month, cart-wheeling defenders, physio pulling Drogbas shorts down and 4 goals – that’s what I call entertainment.
Joe Cole was terrific but a pity that Essien seems to be using Jesper Gronkjaer as his role model for passing and shooting.
Plus the English boys were out there in short sleeves whilst the foreign legion had long sleeves and gloves. England may be out of the Euro Championships, technically weak, unable to bond as a team and tactically useless but when it comes to freezing our bollocks off in an Arctic wind we’re still World Champions!
A cruise in the Trondheim snow….
Interesting though…. We had a very similar number of shots to the home game,which ultimately cost Jose his job.
A very sound performance though, and both wingers really played well.
I have been qick to slag off SWP, but his strength to create the second goal for DD was great to see.
Joe Cole too played really well, and a nice big win against the Hammers on Saturday will make for a very successful November ( Yes , I know Saturday’s game is actually in December!)
Na Na Na Na
Avram Avram
Na Na Na Na
Avram Avram
Lovely win for the team that we had to get even with and to do this in their backyard tops it for me…
More of the same please more of the same…
The only player I felt was not up to par was Makalele. He certainly patrolled midfield effectively, but on a couple of occasions, he lost the ball much too easily and with better opposition we would have been badly punished. SWP’s persistence that lead to the second goal hopefully sums up the teams’s current attitude to the game. Alex had a quietly impressive game though perhaps Rosenborg did not really push him too much.
We’ll know better how good they are after the Gooner’s game. Fingers crossed.
PS Amazed by the number of Blue shirted supporters that made it to the game. Now that’s true devotion.
The only irritation of the night had to be Kalou. With his Henryesque powers of gliding past a defender only to metamorphosis into an amalgamated form of ghosts pasts; Fleck/Sutton/Gronk/Allon etc..
Shevchenko was denied at least two good scoring opportunities by the blinkered Kalou.
That aside it was a good fun match to watch.
Completely agree with Berkshire Blue, Kalou’s continued inability to understand what ‘on target’ means is infuriating to say the least. Let’s hope we’re never in a situation where have to score and he’s anywhere near the goal (based on last night, I can only assume his finish against Derby was a mis-hit).
Also, and I’m ashamed and amazed at the same time to be writing this, I though we looked comfortable at the back EXCEPT for JT. Granted, he’s on his way back from injury, but he was ordinary and nothing more. His headers all found men in white, his passing deserted him.
I’m surprised how much praise Makelele got, against better opposition he could have cost us. I dont know why someone who’s only job is to win the ball and pass it 10 yards insists on trying to out-pace players 15 years younger than him, or try fancy tricks 20 yards from goal. His last European campaign surely.
I’m impressed at how ruthless we were at times, and how we continued to try and score more, but the decision making by some players leaves a lot to be desired. Essien must have a ratio of scoring, what, 1 from 50+ shots from outside the box, so why he continues to be selfish and neglect passing to those that can hit the target is annoying.
It was surprising DD wasn’t taken off sooner, the game was over as a contest by half time, and we keep mentioning on this blog about what happens in January, and AG still decides to only give Sheva 20 mins and Pizarro even less. Maybe we’ve got something sorted already ??
Very impressive performance, one of Grant’s three best so far and very similar to the City game in that we kept going where in the past we’d have stopped - a reluctance to put teams to the sword has been an undoubted failing in the past year. Can’t argue with the man’s ability at getting great players to win easy game without complication.
Thought everybody played well - and Alex is really coming on - but would be worried to see Maka line up against Arsenal (as seems likely with Essien suspended) and thought Drogba should have come off as soon as he scored his second. Cole and SWP were both great, although it has to be said that Rosenborg were dismal and had no answer to Drogba and Essien’s sheer power.
Really good turn out by Chelsea fans.
Good all round showing, but of course as far as the world is concerned the big story was Liverpool…..after all the precious “reds” must qualify else there’ll be a national disaster announced in the press. The lack of focus on us at the moment makes me wonder if this is what Roman wanted, the heat taken off by removing the main story generator.
Anyway they were all very good, barring Makalele who for me gave the ball away too often and then at the end gave away a stupid and unnecessary free kick that was unnecessary, a crime he has often been guilty of before. I still think he’s an “off the bench” man at best these days.
Yeah, was just thinking myself that having the pressure lifted has made a big difference. Though, of course, that is partly down to getting good results. As soon as we start to drop a few points, the pressure will return tenfold and then we’ll get a better idea of what Grant’s balls are made of.
Surely amongst the bad we can count that we are completely f*ck*D for January when Didier and Michael disappear for a month? Thank god our fixture list isn’t too demanding in that time, hopefully early exits for Ivory Coast and Ghana will get them back in time for the Liverpool game.
I think we’ll have moved into the transfer market by then. Also, our fixtures aren’t that bad - as long as Ivory Coast and Ghana don’t both reach the final…
I have to say that i was actually glad to see Mourinho go - whilst he got results, of that there is no question, he created too much noise and always made me nervous by playing so negatively. I think grant and Cate will take us to the next level and when we get Anelka to play up with DD we will be formidable force.
Last night was ace - we played so well, fluid football and because we kept going - something england should have done when we drew 2-2 with croatia - we didnt have an anxious last 30 mins as it was all in their end. Loved it and hope to keep loving it for a while longer yet!!
Also anyone at Chelsea please dont bid for Ronnie, go for messi instead!! :)
This lot were twice as bas as Man City. We had so much possession in dangerous areas we should really have scored close to double figures — guess they’ll have to realize our next match wont be anything like this, otherwise the step up from this match to regular Prem standard will leave us in a spot of bother.
KALOU was greedy and wasteful and someone really needs to do something about it.
ESSIEN covered ground but WHAT the hell has happened to his passing? (his shooting was always bad)
DROGBA bloody brilliant
SWP - Did really well to set up the 2nd for Drogba. He deserves a bit of praise for that… sheeroutstanding determination is something he definitely has. Unlucky not to score.
Terry - a little rusty
Makelele - you can see he’s starting to struggle
Ah well… we’ll have to see what Marseille can do, and at least it looks as though Sevilla topping the group will mean the Arse will have to play some decent opposition in the next phase.
KTBFFH!
http://www.fifa.com/worldfootb.....d&att=
Ben Sahar and Yasser AL Qahtani — a symbol of hope for mideast unity?
Good game - Drogs was exceptional and further proved the point that he is nigh-on impossible to play when he’s in that kind of form. Essien still not quite at his best but looked to have improved on his recent showings.
Defence looked a little shaky at times but thankfully Rosenborg weren’t quite sharp enough to take advantage (taking part in a competition like this in their close season certainly can’t help their cause). Wet Spam aren’t faring too well against top half sides at present so hopefully more of the same on Saturday lunchtime…
I missed the Alex goal - what on earth was that bloke who came out of the wall up to?!
I think he was auditioning for some Cirque show JD ;-)
Last time I saw anything like that was a bunch of kids on a piece of lino circa 1986…
It was so bizarre, it reminded me of the bloke from Zaire who got a little bored waiting for a free kick to be taken and just toe-punted the ball down the pitch.
http://www.blinkx.com/burl?v=1.....MEtSj0bx2B
(first and third goal by the guy coming to us for a trial period - against Ghana)
Reports that Grant serious about bringing in 3/4 new players in the window.
Miguel tops the list.
He’s also keen on Vagner Love from CSKA instead of Anelka if the reoprts are true.
And a ‘creative’ midfielder’ (Modric? Van Der Vaart? Arteta? Bilyaledtinov?)
Ok — what is the Ghana goalie doing on that first goal? Makes Carson’s effort against Croatia look like Banks vs. Pele.