FOOTBALL Live

Saturday October 20, 2007 Finished Riverside Stadium

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Middlesbrough

Chelsea

  • Drogba 8’
  • Alex 57’
  1. Drogba on target as Blues cruise

    Drogba on target as Blues cruise

    Didier Drogba ended a controversial week in the perfect style, scoring a superb goal after just eight minutes as Chelsea beat Middlesbrough 2-0. More

  • Live Commentary

    Time:90'
    • Middlesbrough
    • Chelsea
    • 90+2' All over. A cruise for Chelsea and they will be very happy with that - particularly with Didier Drogba's goal.
    • 90' Two minutes of added time to be played.
    • 87' Good chance for O'Neil on the right side of the Chelsea box but he blazes that one into orbit. Poor attempt.
    • 85' A cracking reception as Didier Drogba makes way for Andriy Shevchenko. The Chelsea faithful still love Drog, even if he does hate the club.
    • 81' Off comes Michael Essien for Steve Sidwell. Easy, like-for-like swap there.
    • 80' Exhibition stuff from Chelsea, and not really in a good way. Just knocking it around sideways really.
    • 76' Malouda sees his shot blocked after a neat move down the Chelsea right, and is then hauled off to be replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips with Chelsea cruising.
    • 72' A high foot from Florent Malouda earns him the secodn booking of the game.
    • 69' Snapshot from a tight angle on the right by Malouda and Schwarzer touches it behind. The corner comes to nothing.
    • 67' Great cross from the right by O'Neil for Tuncay, but the Turk gets absolutely nothing on his header. Cattermole replaces Boateng for Boro.
    • 63' A little bit of needle between Drogba and Rochemback. Those two have been winding each other up most of the afternoon.
    • 60' Drogba delivers a dangerous cross from the Chelsea left that falls to Cole but he cannot get a shot away. The visitors on cruise control now.
    • 57' GOAL!!!! Sensational strike from Alex!! A Chelsea free-kick 30 yards out is touched to the central defender by Lampard, and he hits a stunning shot that swerves away from Schwarzer into the top-right corner. Amazing.
    • 52' Mido wins a corner on the Middlesbrough left. Swung in by Downing and headed away by Carvalho.
    • 48' First booking of the game to George Boateng. A decent chance for Chelsea from the free-kick but Lampard's attempt is closed down.
    • 46' Second half under way at the Riverside.
    • 45+3' Half-time and Chelsea look fairly comfortable. Elsewhere in the Premier League, Tugay has scored an absolute stunner for Blackburn as they lead Reading 3-0, while Arsenal are being held 0-0 by Bolton. More in a few minutes.
    • 45' Tuncay appears to be blocked by Belletti as he chases his own flick through, but the referee says play on.
    • 42' Middlesbrough games often seem strangely passionless affairs and this is no exception. Fairly close to a full house at the Riverside but not much of an atmosphere.
    • 37' Mido bundles Belletti over and the full-back stays on the ground. He gets treatment and plenty of magic spray on the midriff but will be able to play on.
    • 35' Chris Riggott gets forward to meet a Rochemback free-kick, but heads it over.
    • 33' Drogba steps and strikes... into the side netting! Some of the away fans thought it was in...
    • 32' Chelsea free-kick on the edge of the Boro area. They wanted a card to be shown to Jonathan Woodgate for his foul on Joe Cole.
    • 29' Some nervy defending from Chelsea here, with the ball being allowed to bobble around the visitors' box.
    • 26' Sensational long pass from Lampard to find Belletti on the right. The cross is not up to the same standard however.
    • 24' Ambitious effort from Tuncay, who tries an overhead kick and sees it blocked by Alex.
    • 21' Excellent punch by Schwarzer to clear a Malouda corner. Boro are playing alright here. Not brilliant, but alright.
    • 17' Good save Petr Cech!! He makes an agile stop from a Mido header after Gary O'Neil finds the Egyptian with a decent cross.
    • 15' Chelsea have slowed the pace right down after that early Drogba goal. Boro will fancy their chances against a defence missing John Terry and Ashley Cole this afternoon.
    • 12' The man said he didn't want to play for the club, he said he was leaving, but Didier Drogba is still scoring goals...
    • 8' GOAL!!! What a start for Chelsea! Didier Drogba!! He outstrips the Boro back line to race on to a through ball, and slots the ball neatly into the far corner with his left foot.
    • 4' A cagey start, neither side showing much attacking intent. Gareth Southgate has come under increasing pressure following Boro's miserable start to the season, and his side could really do with claiming a major scalp like Chelsea.
    • 1' Welcome to LIVE coverage of Middlesbrough versus Chelsea! We're under way and the big news is that Didier Drogba starts having apologised for his anti-Chelsea rant earlier this week.

  • Team Stats

    Middlesbrough Stats Chelsea
    38% Possession 61%
    9 Shots 13
    2 Shots on target 5
    0 Saves 0
    6 Corners 6
    9 Fouls 9
    1 Offsides 3
    1 Yellow cards 1
    0 Red cards 0
    25 Tackles 26
    248 Accurate passes 403
    33 Bad passes 61

  • Player Stats

    G =
    Goals
    S =
    Shots
    SoT =
    Shot on Target
    F =
    Fouls
    FW =
    Fouls Won
    O =
    Offsides
    A =
    Assists
    AP =
    Accurate Passes
    BP =
    Bad Passes
    T =
    Tackles
    • Middlesbrough
      G S SoT F FW O A AP BP T
      1 Mark Schwarzer 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 15 2 0
      8 Jonathan Woodgate 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 24 2 0
      33 Andrew Taylor 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 22 7 1
      2 Luke Young 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 20 1 6
      5 Chris Riggott 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 17 0 3
      10 Fábio Rochemback 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 49 6 6
      7 George Boateng 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 20 2 5
      4 Gary O'Neil 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 23 2 2
      19 Stewart Downing 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 24 4 1
      17 Tuncay Sanli 0 1 0 1 2 0 0 11 3 0
      9 Ahmed Hossam Mido 0 3 2 1 0 0 0 10 2 0
      27 Lee Cattermole 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 11 1 1
      21 Ross Turnbull 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      18 Dong Gook Lee 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      42 Tom Craddock 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0
      31 David Wheater 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    • Chelsea
      G S SoT F FW O A AP BP T
      1 Petr Cech 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 3 0
      6 Ricardo Carvalho 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 63 8 2
      20 Paulo Ferreira 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 28 12 4
      35 Juliano Belletti 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 30 2 5
      33 Alex da Dias Costa 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 22 0 3
      10 Joe Cole 0 3 1 2 1 0 0 28 4 1
      12 John Obi Mikel 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 62 7 4
      8 Frank Lampard 0 4 1 1 0 0 2 69 11 3
      5 Michael Essien 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 48 4 2
      15 Florent Malouda 0 3 1 2 1 2 0 23 9 1
      11 Didier Drogba 1 2 1 0 1 1 0 15 1 0
      22 Tal Ben Haim 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      9 Steve Sidwell 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
      7 Andriy Shevchenko 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      24 Shaun Wright-Phillips 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 0
      23 Carlo Cudicini 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

  • Summary

    • 57' GOAL!!!! Sensational strike from Alex!! A Chelsea free-kick 30 yards out is touched to the central defender by Lampard, and he hits a stunning shot that swerves away from Schwarzer into the top-right corner. Amazing.
    • 33' Drogba steps and strikes... into the side netting! Some of the away fans thought it was in...
    • 17' Good save Petr Cech!! He makes an agile stop from a Mido header after Gary O'Neil finds the Egyptian with a decent cross.
    • 8' GOAL!!! What a start for Chelsea! Didier Drogba!! He outstrips the Boro back line to race on to a through ball, and slots the ball neatly into the far corner with his left foot.

Live Team Line-Up

  • Referee: Mark Halsey

  • Middlesbrough

    Manager: Gareth Southgate

    Captain: George Boateng

    On the Field

    • Schwarzer
    • Young
    • Riggott
    • Woodgate
    • Taylor
    • O'Neil
    • Rochemback
    • Boateng
    • Downing
    • Tuncay
    • Mido

    Subs

    • Turnbull
    • Dong Gook
    • Wheater
    • Cattermole
    • Craddock

    Injured

    • Arca
    • Pogatetz
    • Aliadière
    • Huth
    • Bates
    • Jones

    Suspended

    None

  • Chelsea

    Manager: Avram Grant

    Captain: Frank Lampard

    On the Field

    • Cech
    • Belletti
    • Carvalho
    • Alex
    • Ferreira
    • Mikel
    • Essien
    • Cole
    • Lampard
    • Malouda
    • Drogba

    Subs

    • Cudicini
    • Wright-Phillips
    • Shevchenko
    • Sidwell
    • Ben Haim

    Injured

    • Ballack
    • Terry
    • Cole

    Suspended

    • Bridge