Champions League - Anelka nicks Chelsea win

Eurosport - Wed, 30 Sep 22:33:00 2009

Chelsea beat APOEL Nicosia 1-0 at the GSP Stadium to consolidate top spot in Group D of the Champions League courtesy of Nicolas Anelka's strike.

FOOTBALL Nicolas Anelka Chelsea - 0

The match was the first at home for APOEL in the Champions League, and a vociferous capacity crowd provided Chelsea with an intimidating welcome.

But Anelka's exquisite finish in the 18th minute gave Carlo Ancelotti's side a slender cushion which they refused to relinquish despite the Cypriot side's dogged display to preserve their 100 per cent record in the group.

Ashley Cole represented a serious injury concern for Carlo Ancelotti's side after sustaining a knee injury, but the left-back started with Juliano Belletti and Salomon Kalou handed starting berths in midfield.

Chelsea's five-man midfield dictated the early exchanges as the match began at a frantic pace with Florent Malouda winning a corner within the opening 30 seconds of play.

All that was lacking with the seven first-half shots taken from the visitors was a composed finish, and that was exactly what Anelka provided after Belletti produced a foraging run to the byline before squaring the ball back to him. The Frenchman simply caressed his side-footed shot into the top corner with consummate ease to crown the move.

Nicosia came close to drawing level on the stroke of half-time after imposing defender Christos Kontis stole in at the near post to meet Helio Pinto's corner, but his header skewed off at an acute angle and did not test Petr Cech.

The Nicosia fans, who bizarrely all wear lurid orange shirts despite their side's colours being yellow with blue trim, provided fervent support right through the second half as their side enjoyed good possession.

Chelsea were held under the cosh for extended periods of the second half, and Ancelotti was forced to react with the introduction of Portugese playmaker Deco after 68 minutes.

Much of Nicosia's play was direct, with Nenad Mirosavljevic latching on to the raking long balls provided from deep by Pinto and Nuno Morais.

An aberration from Ricardo Carvalho in the 69th minute almost let in substitute Kamil Kosowski with Mirosavljevic lurking in the penalty area, but Cole was quickly across to avert the danger.

Four minutes later, Frank Lampard stormed into the hosts penalty area to collect Kalou's cut-back from the byline, but the midfielder drove his shot wide of Dionissis Chiotis's near post.

Ancelotti continued to patrol the touchline in an agitated fashion as the ineffectual Deco failed to seize back the initiative for his side, but John Terry and Carvalho marshalled the back-four effectively.

Anelka, who was left increasingly isolated as the second half wore on, proceeded to drop deeper and deeper to link-up the play.

Joe Cole was a popular introduction deep into the second half as a replacement for Kalou, as Chelsea kept possession in the final third to frustrate their hosts.

A final glorious chance came the hosts' way as Constantinos Charalambides peeled round the back of Branislav Ivanovic at the back post to meet Pinto's deep cross, but he did not test Cech from close range as he put his effort wide.

Chelsea clung on to secure a hard-earned victory and subsequently stretch their lead over Atletico Madrid at the top of Group D with two wins from two matches.

Dan Quarrell / Eurosport

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  1. the most annoinyoin part of the game is that we have­ all the players we could ever think of getting but we­ still struggle to get a win, i think our formation has­ problem and the team currently need a moral boost­ playing with liverpool on sunday. more bonus should be­ awarded to the players and they need words of­ motivations and prayers not abuses. they are all­ professionals and i gueess they played as­ professionals. you know atimes, professionals needs­ incentives to perform better. i look forward to a­ better game ahead, i believe in chelsea and ancelotti,­ i believe in the fans of cfc. good luck. chelsea for­ real. Adams from ph­ nigeria

    From professor, on Thu 1 Oct 6:15PM

  2. 21.what a poor game, same old boring football from­­ Chelsea. Malouda and Kalou should'nt even be in­ the­ team, Ivanovic and Carvalho are liabilitys,­ Lampard­ could'nt hit a barn door from 3 yards.­ Glad i didnt­ pay to go and see that load of pap,­ everytime i watch­ them it seems like they are never­ going to score, they­ just walk up and down the wings­ and put poor crosses­ in, cant pass a simple through­ ball in, god i could go­ on and on all night. Better­ get your act together­ Chelsea for Saturday because­ Liverpool wont be a walk­ over. From Scott, on Wed 30­ Sep 10:23PM

    This is not the Chelsea I expected. You­ are 100% right. I am an APOEL fan AND a Chelsea fan.­ Have been to the match to enjoy some quality football­ which never happened (from the Chelsea side).

    From savvas63, on Thu 1 Oct 5:25PM

  3. 21.what a poor game, same old boring football from­­ Chelsea. Malouda and Kalou should'nt even be in­ the­ team, Ivanovic and Carvalho are liabilitys,­ Lampard­ could'nt hit a barn door from 3 yards.­ Glad i didnt­ pay to go and see that load of pap,­ everytime i watch­ them it seems like they are never­ going to score, they­ just walk up and down the wings­ and put poor crosses­ in, cant pass a simple through­ ball in, god i could go­ on and on all night. Better­ get your act together­ Chelsea for Saturday because­ Liverpool wont be a walk­ over. From Scott, on Wed 30­ Sep 10:23PM

    This is not the Chelsea I expected. You­ are 100% right. I am an APOEL fan AND a Chelsea fan.­ Have been to the match to enjoy some quality football­ which never happened (from the Chelsea side).

    From savvas63, on Thu 1 Oct 5:25PM

  4. why do people abuse Kalou, Mikel and Malouda. its such­ an easy way out. No one played well and each of these­ players play out of position in almost every match and­ you cant expect people likie Kalou to be great when­ doesnt get a run in the team. Malouda is a left sided­ midfielder, Kalou is a striker and Mikel wasnt brought­ in as a holding midfielder. Chelsea didnt play well,­ they actually played ok at start of match. Apoel played­ ok but, just cause they arent a big team doesnt mean­ they arent good every team starts somewhere. the­ problem was the formation, if in fact it was a 4-5-1.­

    this whole talk of Ancelotti being Scholari and­ starting good but turning bad is so rediculous it­ annoys me that people writting this are allowed on­ computers or allowed to give an opinion. We lost 1­ game, 1! and we ended the game with 9 men, conceded a­ penalty and had our kepper sent off wich is the worst­ player as you need to then make a sub to put another­ keeper on.

    We should be playing a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2­ depending if we want another centre mid or striker on.­ the diamond can be fine as long as the 2 wider points­ are told to keep their width but when doing that­ lampard is as well dropping back beside Essien and­ Essien moving closer forward so its just a normal­ 4-4-2.

    From yip, on Thu 1 Oct 5:07PM

  5. Top of our group , joint top premiership ! simples

    From Charlie, on Thu 1 Oct 1:33PM

  6. oi!stan boardman!!it's a cleaner sheet than you lot­ kept!!!!!

    From walt jabasco, on Thu 1 Oct 9:32AM

  7. well done chelsea they played better than what they did­ against wigan. we must still improve especially in­ midfield. we mis drogba a lot in aatacking. GUYS PUSH­ WE WANT 2 HAMMERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR­ LIVERPOL. CFC 4EVER

    From Clever, on Thu 1 Oct 9:12AM

  8. I am really worried about chelsea struggling to win­ matches, look at how barca and ManU control their­ opponents whn they attack, anyway i'm glad we won.­ another cos for concern is that we seem to be slipping­ up in central midfield and defence thereby giving the­ opponents a lot of chances, ancelloti has to work on­ that, after watching two matches that ballack­ didn't feature now i know he makes a big difference­ in that midfield, also lampard doesn't seem to hit­ the target as he normally does, i;m shocked to c­ lampard miss the shoot wide from inside the 18 yard­ box, he has to do better than that. anyway so far so­ good, i think the match against liverpool will really­ give us an oppurtunity to access our team very well.­ i'm not impressed with Deco, now wonder he has been­ warming the bench all season, i hope he recovers his­ form and i also pray that joe cole will still be able­ to do his wonders up front, that will add another­ dimension to chelsea attack, cole can provide skill and­ intelligience which will only add to the goals we­ score, finally i am quite impressed with drogba and­ anelka's scoring ability, i am happy they are in my­ team, i will hate to play against drogba anyday cos u­ never know what he is capable of...

    From eric, on Thu 1 Oct 9:09AM

  9. hardly a performance to have Liverpool quaking but at­ least a clean sheet

    From FoeyP, on Thu 1 Oct 8:51AM

  10. post 43;;sirstevejones of the bnp is that you posing as­ someone else??those jedi mind
    tricks don't­ work,notice the poor grammer.

    From THE FUHRER, on Thu 1 Oct 7:50AM

  11. Guys focus on d next match on sunday and bygone b­ bygone. Stop blamin anybody now. Chelsea have 2 start­ playin like dey started dis season or we'll b doom.­ Alex should b at d defence once again. I love cfc

    From mazey2k4, on Thu 1 Oct 7:25AM

  12. well done Anelka!! you have shown that you can play as­ a lone striker in the absence of Drogba.

    From kamaraosmans, on Thu 1 Oct 5:51AM

  13. ANELKA KEEP IT UP. ANCELLOTI A JOB WELL DONE.
    MY­ PRAYER IS THAT WE MAINTAIN AN UNBEATEN RECORD IN THIS­ ROUND OF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.
    LIVERPOOL BE WARNED!!! BE­ WARE!!! CHELSEA IS A HOT ROD!!!!
    LET US ALSO GAIN BACK­ OUR RIGHTFUL POSITION IN THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE­ FROM MAN U THIS WEEKEND. LET US WREST THE MANTLE FROM­ THEM.
    VITALICE NYAGWAN

    From Vitalice, on Thu 1 Oct 5:23AM

  14. Anelka rocks.

    Well done Chelsea and repeat your­ performance in next PL game too. Anelka and Ballack wii­ be the players to watch.

    Good Luck.

    From razi_x2006, on Thu 1 Oct 5:17AM

  15. Well done Chelsea
    Tope

    From TOPE, on Thu 1 Oct 4:49AM

  16. nice gritty result for the blues..now,beat the S***E­ out of the 'SCUM'!!!..
    THEY KNOW WHO­ THEY'RE!!!...

    From Those Rats likes Bin dippin for free Cheeseburger, on Thu 1 Oct 4:42AM

  17. again another fine comment from walt jabasco. With the­ old formula, there were less games but the build up for­ each game was fantastic. Fans debating, injury scares,­ going to watch the team prepare fo the­ ''crucial game'', coaches mind games.­ Just awesome. One game could cover newspapers for 2­ months before its date and 2 months after. Now it is­ different. By the time the teams reach the 2nd round­ and the next group stage, fans will have already had­ enough of the CL, and the ''big game''­ become ''just another game''. The CL­ feels like just another EPL with few great teams and­ the rest as games that might be interesting. Why do we­ need 2 EPL-like tournaments?

    From Half A Brain, on Thu 1 Oct 4:18AM

  18. can't help but think champs league has lost­ it's sparkle,especialy the group stage,who
    really­ gives a monkeys about 2nights lot??and if chelsea have­ already qualified by the time we play the final fixture­ i can't see a big fat crowed at full price,,i do­ think
    going back to the old system will be better,and­ then the champs of europe really will
    be that and not­ 5th best in england or where-ever,and that will surely­ give fans real
    value for their money.....CFC FOREVER­ FOREVER CFC.........

    From walt jabasco, on Thu 1 Oct 3:20AM

  19. And also mario, how did pool do yesterday in their­ match? O yeah thats right they lost. Better a 1-0 win­ than a 2-0 loss in my opinion. Cya Saturday. Up the­ BLUES!!!!

    From treynmey, on Thu 1 Oct 1:27AM

  20. I hope this is not another Scolari. We started with­ flying colors, and it seems we are falling apart again!­ Sigh.

    From Fernando M, on Thu 1 Oct 1:21AM
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