By
April 20 2007

Late posting on this report I’m afraid – too much work on at the moment so this is going to be brief! Not too many surprises to be honest – we knew this was going to be a tough one.

Blackburn were fighting for the possibility of a glorious end to their season and, more importantly for them, a guaranteed UEFA place (as it turns out, with both ourselves and Manchester United in the final now, 7^th place in the league now means a spot in that competition).

 

What was a surprise however was that the rhythm of the two halves went the opposite from what I expected – the 1^st half we controlled comfortably and scored – the 2^nd half they went at us with all they had.

 

Blackburn deserve much credit for their 2^nd half performance and thoroughly merited extra-time, in fact, with better finishing they may have stole the match and it says a lot that Cech was MOM.

 

For our part, we looked alarmingly tired at times and it appeared that the season was taking its toll until extra-time arrived and another gear kicked in and “normal viewing was resumed”.

 

There was a bizarre miss form Shevchenko after a Drogba lay off and what was even more bizarre was that the Ukrainian injured himself in the process.

 

Lampard´s goal in the first half was very well taken after an inch perfect pass from Ballack and the Londoner remains top scorer in this competition with 6 goals. 

 

Blackburn’s equaliser came in the 2^nd half when Roberts deflected in a Pederson free-kick leaving Cech no chance.

 

Ballack then finished well in extra time after good work form Wright-Philips.

 

Blackburn: Friedel, Emerton, Samba, Nelsen, Warnock, Bentley (Derbyshire 114), Dunn (Peter 106), Mokoena, Pedersen, Roberts, McCarthy.
Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Kerimoglu, Henchoz.

Booked: Emerton, Mokoena, Pedersen, Warnock.

Goals: Roberts 64.

Chelsea: Cech, Essien, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Makelele (Mikel 81), Lampard, Shevchenko (Kalou 63), Drogba, Joe Cole (Wright-Phillips 97).
Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Boulahrouz.

Booked: Mikel, Ballack.

Goals: Lampard 16, Ballack 109.

Att: 50,559

Ref: A Wiley (Staffordshire).

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81qhJFNEPtQ