By Since66
May 24 2013
In the first of the two ‘waste of time’ post-season money spinning American friendlies in the impressive Busch Stadium of St Louis, home of MLB St Louis Cardinals, Chelsea contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, conceding four goals in the final twenty nine minutes in the early hours of Friday morning, UK time.
Despite sustained City pressure and a host of missed chances notably from ‘Kun Aguero’ coupled with some excellent Cechie Boy saves, Chelsea worked themselves into what should have been an unassailable lead in the early stages of the second-half.
Demba Ba gave Chelsea an early lead when City’s Joe Hart completely missed the flight of Mata’s harmless cross allowing Ba to head into an empty net.
Azpilicueta scored his first Chelsea goal from the penalty spot just before half-time after Mata was fouled and then to round-off what should have been a good night for Chelsea, Oscar scored Chelsea’s third ten minutes into the second-half.
The Fat One started with a strongest sort of team, giving a full 90 minute run-out to U18 star Anders Christensen and Ruben Loftus-Cheek impressed on his 80 minutes before being replaced by Ake.
Fatty made wholesale changes at half-time and then with 29 minutes to go, Cech was replaced by Jamal Blackman in goal and before the poor lad could get a proper feel of the ball, he was picking it out of the net as Garcia pulled one back for City.
Three minutes later, Dzeko got his first of two and then two goals inside the final five minutes from Dzeko and Richards gave City an unlikely but some will say a deserved win.
The crowd of 48,263 (a new stadium record) at the Busch Stadium sold out (pro-rata) quicker than a Justin Bieber concert!
Both teams now move on to New York, where they will face each other on Saturday 25/5/2013, k.o. 5.30pm local time, 10.30pm (UK time.)
The game is free to view on Chelsea TV, channel 421.
Chelsea: Cech (c) (Blackman 61), Ivanovic (Ferreira h/t), Christensen, Cahill (Luiz h/t), Cole, Mikel, Loftus-Cheek (Ake 80), Azpilicueta (Ramires h/t), Mata (Oscar h/t), Benayoun (Marin 61), Ba (Torres h/t).
Goals: Ba 15, Azpilicueta (pen 44), Oscar 54
Man City: Hart, Zabaleta (Maicon 55), Kompany (c) (Richards h/t), Rekik, Clichy, Garcia, Toure (Huws h/t), Rusnak (Milner 55), Silva (Nasri h/t), Aguero (Dzeko h/t), Tevez.
Goals: Garcia 61, Dzeko 64,85, Richards 90
COME ON CHELSEA
TWITTER: @WVOMChelsea
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