Chelsea book Champions League semi-final spot with 2-0 win
Lampard secures semi-final spot for Chelsea
Also In The News
|
Crystal Palace have moved into a playoff position while also denting the promotion ambitions of one of their rivals following a 2-1 win at Stoke City. |  |
Tuesday, 08, Apr 2008 10:07
Chelsea will meet Liverpool in the semi-finals of the Champions League after goals from Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard gave them victory over Fenerbache at home.
The hosts were given a shock last week in Turkey, where they surrendered a lead to lose 2-1.
However, this clearly had not affected their confidence and Ballack gave them a dream start, latching on to Joe Cole's free-kick to head past Volkan Demirel in the Fenerbache goal.
Avran Grant's team continued to press and almost doubled their lead on the night just minutes later as Cole flicked the ball onto the post after Salomon Kalou had broken down the right and pulled the ball back.
After a long, hard season, it seemed inevitable that Chelsea would be unable to keep up this high tempo and the nerves around Stamford Bridge only increased after stand-in goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini had to be taken off with a hamstring injury.
Lugano almost immediately beat the third-choice keeper Hilario, wasting a great opportunity to head in an Alex free-kick, while at the other end the otherwise in-form Didier Drogba had to resort to long-range efforts.
As the Turks went for broke in the closing stages, Hilario was forced to scramble Ugur's deflected volley off the line and then parry a volley from former Sheffield united man Colin Kazim-Richards.
But with just three minutes left Michael Essien managed to get to the opposition byeline and centre the ball for Frank Lampard to tap in from close range and send the Blues through 3-2 on aggregate.