English Premier League: Sunderland vs. Chelsea – 2nd Half Report
The start of the second half saw Chelsea pushing forward right from the kick-off as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Titus-Bramble-c35166 spotted the danger and cleared the ball away. Chelsea regained possession soon
after and then broke in attack yet again. This time, they had a prolonged period of possession as Kalou found Frank Lampard inside the Sunderland penalty area. The English midfielder then tried to finish the move off with a calm finish but Nadem Onouha was
on hand to save his team with a last ditch block on Lampard’s shot as the referee pointed towards a Chelsea corner kick.
Chelsea almost scored from the set piece as well, as Drogba flicked the ball onwards but Solomon Kalou’s weak header only forced a goal mouth scramble which Sunderland quickly cleared out as the ball went out of play for a Chelsea
throw in. In the 51st minute of the match, Chelsea were clinical in attack yet again as they ripped apart Sunderland’s defence with surgical accuracy. The move, however, did not result in a goal as Frank Lampard’s eventual shot was saved by Craig
Gordon in the Sunderland goal.
Sunderland were completely on the back-foot in the opening minutes of the second half as Chelsea maintained their numerical superiority in terms of possession. Chelsea hardly allowed the home side any time on the ball as they pressed
high up the pitch to fight for the ball. Nonetheless, Sunderland didn’t lose hope as they defended resolutely to deny Chelsea any straight forward openings. The Black Cats didn’t hesitate to fly into tackles, much to the dismay of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786’s players.
However, Sunderland’s resistance was finally broken in the 60th minute as Lampard’s shot was saved by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/John-Terry-c18895 as the Blues took a 2-3 lead
at the Stadium of Light. In the 67th minute, Chelsea almost doubled their lead as Nicolas Anelka surged forward and skipped past two Sunderland players before playing in Kalou. The Ivorian striker’s shot rebounded off both the posts before it was
cleared by Sunderland’s defence.
In the 77th minute, Chelsea made their first change of the match as Ancelotti brought off Obi Mikel in place of Ramirez from the Blues bench. In the 81st
minute, the ex-AC Milan manager opted to substitute Solomon Kalou. The striker was replaced by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Florent-Malouda-c13838. In the 82nd minute, Ivanovic and Richardson were both booked by the referee as they started a melee after the former had tackled
the ex-Manchester United man. This was soon followed up by Sunderland’s first change of the match as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jack-Colback-c17451.
In the 87th minute, Sunderland responded to the pressure from Chelsea with their second substitution of the match as Jordon Cook came on for Nadem Onouha. In the 90th minute of the encounter, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nicolas-Anelka-c27786
added insult to Sunderland’s injury as he pounced on Florent Malouda’s pass to make it four goals to two for the English champions. The match thus came to an end with the final score line at 2-4 in favour of Chelsea F.C. Sunderland gave the Champions a run
for their money, but in the end, the Blues came out on top.
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