Drogba hat-trick puts Blues on pole position
Drogba hits three in Chelsea romp
Also In The News
|
Manchester United went some way to avenging being dumped out of last year's competition at the same stadium with a 1-0 win at Benfica's Stadium of Light. |  |
Wednesday, 27, Sep 2006 10:22
A Didier Drogba hat-trick inspired Chelsea to an emphatic 3-1 win over Levski Sofia at the Georgi Asparuhov stadium in Bulgaria.
The Ivory Coast forward continued his prolific form and now has seven goals this season to give Jose Mourinho's side only their fourth win away in Europe in the last two seasons.
Skipper John Terry returned to the side following a back injury while youngster Jon Obi Mikel made his first start for the Premiership champions.
Chelsea made a positive start with Frank Lampard firing narrowly over from 35 yards in the seventh minute.
Sofia were fortunate to have 11 players on the field after Zivko Milanov appeared to elbow Andriy Shevchenko but the referee failed to show a card.
The Blues rattled the crossbar through Drogba, followed by a 30-yard pile driver from Michael Ballack as they continued to pile on the pressure.
Their dominance was rewarded seven minutes from the break after Mikel's close-range shot was well saved by goalkeeper Georgi Petkov with Drogba tapping in the rebound.
The home crowd booed the visitors at the start of the second half after Chelsea were late coming out of their dressing room.
Drogba netted his second on 51 minutes when he chested the ball and fired a shot that squirmed under Petkov to make it 2-0.
The 28-year-old completed his first hat-trick for the Blues on 67 minutes with a scrappy finish from close range before being substituted for Arjen Robben.
Sofia gave their fans something to cheer about two minutes from time after Mariyan Ognyanov's rasping effort flew past Petr Cech.
The win puts Chelsea top of Group A on six points with a rematch against bitter rivals Barcelona in three weeks.