Chelsea FC this afternoon failed to successfully defend the community shield trophy it won last years. The Blues were beaten 3-1 by the Reds to make sure the trophy went to Old Trafford this time around.
The Blues did the best they could to successfully defend the title but Manchester United simply had luck working in their favour. While Chelsea had higher number of shots, less fouls and more corner kicks, the Reds had more goals to show for the encounter and ended up stealing the victory.
The first major attempt by Chelsea came in the 17th minute when Ivanovic nodded Florent Malouda’s pull-out towards the goal, but his header was parried by the highly experienced Edwin Van Der Sar. Man.U fought back immediately in the 18th minute; but Wayne Rooney’s 18 yard box kick narrowly missed the net and rolled freely across the line for a goal kick.
In the 20th minute, Ji Sung Park’s shot hit John Terry on the arm in the 18 yard box; but the centre referee ignored the call for a penalty because it was clearly a ball-to-hand situation. The Reds got a corner kick in the 29th minute: it was taken by Valencia but the attackers could not convert it.
Chelsea got a corner kick in the 28th minute, which was taken by Frank Lampard but was nodded over the bar by Michael Essien.They got another corner kick in the 33rd minute; it was taken by Florent Malouda, unfortunately it was nodded wide by Ivanovic.
In the 41st minute however, Manchester United drew their first blood when Wayne Rooney’s cross from the right flank was neatly converted by Valencia into the yawning net. The defending champions thereafter tried all they could to equalize before half time but the Reds refused to yield to their pressure.
On resumption of the second half, Ji Sung Park was replaced with Nani. Berbatov lost a chance to increase the goal tally in the 53rd minute. Carlo Ancelotti’s boys got a corner kick in the 53rd minute but no anxious moment was produced.
Chris Smalling replaced Fabio in the 70th minute. In the 76th minute, Chicharito increased the goal tally to 2 after connecting Valencia’s right flank pull-out with his body into Chelsea’s net. The Blues fought back gallantly, missing several begging opportunities in the process.
Yossi Benayoun came in for Florent Malouda in the 73rd minute, while Ashley Cole was replaced with Yury Zhirkov in the 79th minute.
Daniel Sturridge’s 18 yard shot was pushed into safety by Edwin Van Der Sar in the 82nd minute. Sir Alex Ferguson’s boys yielded to pressure in the 83rd minute, allowing Salomon Kalou to pull one back.
The 85th minute saw Didier Drogba’s shot hitting the side of the net. However, Berbatov sealed victory for the Reds when he lobbied the ball over the onrushing Chelsea goal keeper in the 2nd minute of the three minutes added time.
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