The Los Blancos had knocked out LA Galaxy and Everton with 3-1 and 2-1 wins respectively to reach the final, while The Blues had beaten the two Milan sides with 2-0 wins to face the Spanish giants. So it was all building up to be a spectacular match to watch. There was also the small matter of old friends reunited, or in some cases, old enemies. Jose Mourinho was facing the Madrid side after spending 3 years at the Bernabeu, just 2 months after being appointed as manager of Chelsea. As to Mr. Carlo Ancelotti, he was facing his former team after 2 years of parting company, where he led them to win The Double for the first time in their history. But one thing was certain in today's match. It was going to be a cracker !
The match started in a way that no one wanted it to end. Lots of fierce tackling combined with the second-by-second reaction at the Sun Life Stadium in Miami was just too much for the game to go on without a goal, and it didn't. Marcelo received the ball from Luka Modric on the left wing, and, with the absence of the two holding midfielders, Van Ginkel and Lampard, Marcelo found himself alone with just Gary Cahill in front of him. The Englishman was in Petr Cech's eye sight, so when Marcelo shot the ball in between Cahill's legs, Cech couldn't stop the ball from going past him and making it 1-0 to Madrid just after 14 minutes. Little did the Spanish side know that the game was going to be levelled after 2 minutes of their goal.
A nice passing movement by the Chelsea midfield resulted in Lukaku providing the steamy Ramires to go past 2 defenders and going one-on-one with Iker Casillas. Ramires, who is an excellent finisher, made the Spanish captain look like an amateur with a wonderful chip to level the scoreline. Reminded us a little bit of that historic chip against Valdes a year ago.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who was eager to show his former manager what he's missing, was making life very difficult for right back Branislav Ivanovic, who ended up getting a yellow for a silly foul on the former World No.1. That foul later proved to be very costly for the blues, as Ronaldo himself took center stage and slotted it past Petr Cech, who had nothing to do but to apply a small touch for it hit the bar and make it 2-1 for Real. The special celebration of the Portuguese suggested -although it was later denied- that it was meant for The Special One. Chelsea tried to get back to the game before half-time through a Lampard shot but The Saint was awake and caught it in 2 attempts. The game was as intense as a World Cup Final. Tackles were flying out everywhere, especially from the English side which was frustrated for lack of ball possession. Three passes could not be completed without the referee blowing his whistle, and the half-time whistle was the only whistle that nobody in the crowd wanted to hear.
After the break both teams picked up where they left off but with a slight decrease in intensity. Mourinho rested Lampard and brought on young Belgium winger Kevin De Bruyne. Real Madrid had the advantage of longer possession of the ball and started to threaten the Chelsea goal, when suddenly Ramires took advantage of some bad marking by the Madrid defence and cut them through with a cross to Hazard, who found himself alone with Casillas. The Saint prevailed this time and had it brilliantly saved. That was Chelsea's best chance of the second half.
Madrid went on to some higher gears and started pressuring the Chelsea back-line to get that assuring goal. They were assured when Ronaldo, just outside the 18 yard line, passed the ball to the left wing -where new signing Isco was craving for it- then started running. Isco crossed it and Ronaldo was there to head it past Cech. Mistakes were obvious in the Chelsea defence in that goal, and Mourinho has some work to do in the next few weeks. After the match ended, he went on to have a nice chat with former players Fabio Coentrao and Xabi Alonso, then made his way to the dressing room. Carlo, on the other hand, was quite pleased with his side's performance, with his mark clearly showing on the players' attitude and style of play. One thing is for sure, this was not a friendly !!!
I hope you like my blog, it's my first, and plenty to come hopefully in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment