Drogba stars in Chelsea win
Drogba scored the vital second goal
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Wednesday, 24, Oct 2007 10:57
Chelsea continued their strong start to this year's Champions League after a 2-0 win over Schalke 04 at Stamford Bridge.
Florent Malouda and Didier Drogba were the heroes for Avram Grant's side, scoring at the start of each half as the Blues cruised past their German opponents.
Malouda gave Chelsea a dream start four minutes into the match when he forced the ball through the legs of Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer from an acute angle on the left-hand side of the box.
After the goal the Blues continued to pressurise the Shalke goal but could not find a way to breach their defence. Michael Essien came closest to adding to their lead when he narrowly headed over from a corner.
Midway thorough the half Chelsea were relieved to see the linesman's flag raised as Carlos Grossmuller turned and fired into the net.
Just before half time Fabian Ernst came close with a lob for the visitors before Joe Cole forced a good save from Neuer.
Drogba doubled the Blues' advantage at the start of the second period. Ricardo Carvalho broke from right-back and put in a pin point cross which the striker met at the front post with a diving, glancing header.
Schalke's best chance of the match came when Soren Larson placed a header past Petr Cech which left the Czech keeper stranded.
However Larson was left disappointed when the ball hit the inside of the post and bounced back into the grateful arms of Cech.
Late in the game both teams were denied strong penalty claims. First Larson was deliberately held back by Alex following a sloppy back-pass from the centre-back and soon after that incident Drogba was hacked down by Marcelo Bordon, but referee Peter Frojdfeldt waved away any appeals.