Champions League - Drogba hurt in Chelsea draw

Eurosport - Thu, 02 Oct 09:41:00 2008

Chelsea were held to a drab 0-0 draw at Champions League newcomers CFR Cluj as Didier Drogba was carried off on a stretcher with knee ligament damage.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 Champions League Cluj-Chelsea Drogba - 0

The Ivory Coast striker was injured early in the second-half after colliding awkwardly with home defender Cadu as he slid in to try and convert a left-wing cross from Florent Malouda.

Cluj and Chelsea now share top spot in Group A with four points and it was the Romanians who had the better of the chances with Eugen Trica hitting the outside of the post late on.

The minnows defended deep and in numbers and counter-attacked effectively with Uruguyan Alvaro Pereira's fierce diagonal shot narrowly wide of the left post, the closest the capacity crowd came to seeing a goal in the opening 45 minutes.

Petr Cech also had to be alert to push Pereira's close range shot around the post in the closing stages after Jose Bosingwa failed to track the left-back.

Chelsea had plenty of possession but lacked a cutting edge and barely tested home keeper Eduard Stanciou.

Probably the Londoners' best chance came when a long diagonal ball reached half-time substitute Nicolas Anelka at the back post but instead of striking first time, he opted for a touch and his final effort was well wide as he tried to readjust his feet.

Frank Lampard, who had a close range effort blocked by Cadu just after half-time, scuffed a shot from the edge of the penalty area wide of the post in injury-time as the Premier League club were held in north-western Transylvania.

There was little of note in the opening 45 minutes although the home fans were excited when Trica found himself in space in the penalty area on two occasions but he failed to test Cech with volleys while only a vital header from Alex prevented Tony's deep cross finding the striker.

The Blues were ineffective going forward with Drogba failing to make any contact with an attempted volley when well placed and also putting a shot high and wide from the edge of the penalty area.

John Obi Mikel tried his luck from long range but his 30-yard shot trickled into the arms of Stanciou while Salomon Kalou could not control a bouncing through ball from Drogba when well placed as Cluj, who shocked Roma with a 2-1 win at the Stadio Olimpico in their Champions League debut, continued to show they are not to be taken lightly.

Bordeaux 1-3 Roma

In the other game, two goals by substitute Julio Baptista helped Roma recover from a goal down to win 3-1 at 10-man Bordeaux.

Playmaker Yoann Gourcuff opened the scoring for the hosts with a fine angled shot from the edge of the box on 18 minutes.

Bordeaux, thrashed 4-0 by Chelsea in their opening game, then had Brazilian defender Henrique sent-off for elbowing Simone Perrotta on 36.

Roma levelled with a header by Montenegro striker Mirko Vucinic after 64 minutes and Baptista netted from a free-kick seven minutes later before sealing victory from close range seven minutes from time.

The visitors, missing captain Francesco Totti because of a knee problem, hardly created a first-half chance in a game played on a soggy pitch that also saw six yellow cards.

But Bordeaux looked increasingly nervous in the second period and Roma turned the match around with those two quickfire goals.

Lee Walker and Reuters / Eurosport

Comment 19 - 38 of 58

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  1. Well CFR cluj is a team wich 6 years ago played in 3 rd­ divizion ... no history in europe ... people invested­ as much they could for an east european team ... they­ played well and have oportunities to score and­ anihilate chelsea game. Mayby is a small team but is­ an organizated team wich continue to dream .

    From darius22_bmd, on Thu 2 Oct 7:51AM

  2. Bravo CFR.....Hai Romania

    From Andone, on Thu 2 Oct 7:44AM

  3. it is funny assnal funs can comment now! Premier league­ typical downstream remember last season? atleast this­ year you have started going down early such that you­ can leave real boys to contend for the trophy wha do­ you think. chealse man united get going assnal are­ pretenders!!
    YAWA!

    From stvnyagaka, on Thu 2 Oct 7:32AM
  4. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Well done boyz ,eveen if u failed to win against the so­ called small team ,at least u learnt something !!! Let­ us hope that Drogba is not seriously injured ! Lt us­ hope he dosent join the long list of injured players at­ Chelsea , learn from this game boys ,coz we still have­ HULL City ,the tricky customer ,STILL TO COME!!!WE NEVA­ LOST ke AS ROMA !!!! Let us get the good out of this­ game and move on , a draw against an unkwon team is not­ the end of the road we shall win everything on offer­ this season ,GOD willing and GOD BLESS us , goodluck­ against VILLA OVA THE WEEKEND !!!!!1

    From Leo, on Thu 2 Oct 6:56AM

  5. Well done boyz ,eveen if u failed to win against the so­ called small team ,at least u learnt something !!! Let­ us hope that Drogba is not seriously injured ! Lt us­ hope he dosent join the long list of injured players at­ Chelsea , learn from this game boys ,coz we still have­ HULL City ,the tricky customer ,STILL TO COME!!!WE NEVA­ LOST ke AS ROMA !!!! Let us get the good out of this­ game and move on , a draw against an unkwon team is not­ the end of the road we shall win everything on offer­ this season ,GOD willing and GOD BLESS us , goodluck­ against VILLA OVA THE WEEKEND !!!!!1

    From Leo, on Thu 2 Oct 6:56AM

  6. Seems like Arsenal got the best Champion' s League­ result of the week then!

    From slivatree, on Thu 2 Oct 5:28AM

  7. blue is the colour...

    From D Pensioner, on Thu 2 Oct 4:34AM

  8. Way to go Cluj !!! Congratulations from USA !!!

    From Vlad, on Thu 2 Oct 12:34AM

  9. Is this unknown team the one that won at Roma? urm yes­ it is so perhaps thay are also capable of Beating Hull­ City or evn FC Copenhagen and Standard liege(without­ ET) we all have an off night you red numpties.

    From SOTERIS G, on Wed 1 Oct 11:57PM

  10. Hi everybody!

    From Damiano, on Wed 1 Oct 11:47PM

  11. learn from a small team how to play with the heart not­ with the mind on money.i m romanian,end i m happy fot­ theat.forzza cfr

    From marianvieru, on Wed 1 Oct 11:31PM

  12. how can comment 18 say they deserved all 3 points and­ claim to be a liverpool fan. what game did you watch?­ if chelsea game then you aint pool fan and if pool game­ then ur comment means nothing.

    typical liverpool fan­ @#$%. hate them

    From yip, on Wed 1 Oct 11:09PM

  13. cluj werent good at all but chelsea didnt look­ bothered. of course their team arent valued anywhere­ near any chelsea player cause this will be the 1st time­ most of europe have seen them play. they dont look a­ good side, almost everytime they kicked the ball it­ went the wrong direction, their technical ability was­ poor.

    as for chelsea. im not disappointed they played­ bad, just disappointed they didnt try

    From yip, on Wed 1 Oct 11:06PM

  14. ARSENAL ALL THE WAY. ONE GUN TO GUN THEM ALL DOWN, ONE­ GUN TO RULE THEM ALL, ARSENAL ALL THE WAY.

    From Wilson-M, on Wed 1 Oct 11:03PM

  15. ** the entire cluj team is valued at less than t but­ close to terry.
    now, think about what that says about­ football

    From jeffsey, on Wed 1 Oct 10:50PM
  16. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    FOREVER RED ! 10 PREMIER LEAGUE TITLES....NUMBER 11­ THIS SEASON AS WELL ! NOT SURE ABOUT CHAMPIONS LEAGUE­ THOUGH ? EQUAL LIVERPOOLS 18 TITLES ! THERES AN ELEMENT­ OF LUCK INVOLVED IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AND NO ONES­ EVER RETAINED THAT CUP.THAT SULKING £$&* NEEDS TO­ DO MORE.MANCHESTER UNITED - CURRENT ,ENGLISH PREMIER­ LEAGUE CHAMPIONS AND EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS !!!M.U.F.C.

    From suzanne, on Wed 1 Oct 10:50PM

  17. the lesson from this game is -- don't let anyone­ intimidate you. no matter how good they think they are.­ all games start at 0-0, what happens from there is in­ the hands of 22 people.

    From jeffsey, on Wed 1 Oct 10:47PM

  18. to chronic.
    transylvania is in romania. "a team no­ one's heard of outside of transylvania" is­ like me calling manchester city a team no one's­ heard of liverpool outside of the east midlands or­ norther england or whatever you want to call it.­ obviously people have because cfr are the champions of­ romania-- winning both the cup and the championship.­ they beat out steaua bucharest, who won the champions­ league in 86 .
    just because you haven't heard of­ them and you just support chelsea bc you don't like­ to lose....

    From jeffsey, on Wed 1 Oct 10:45PM

  19. Does anyone even realize that the ENTIRE TEAM CFR Cluj­ fielded tonight is valued a less then half of what­ Chelsea payed for Drogba ?
    This is a huge result,it­ just goes to show that money is nothing compared to­ determination and heart !

    From Nae A, on Wed 1 Oct 10:42PM

  20. Great Game. Perfect result!! Just shows u what a small­ team with guts can achieve and that money can't buy­ you everything!! Way to go cluj!!

    From chrisnorman31, on Wed 1 Oct 10:30PM
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