Portsmouth versus Chelsea – Preseason Friendly: Match Review
Andres Villas Boas’ took charge of Chelsea for the first time as Blues took on Portsmouth at Fratton Park. Villas Boas went with a 4-3-3 formation as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786’s front
three men. In the midfield region, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Paulo-Ferreira-c29445 started the match as Chelsea’s
right back. Turnbull was entrusted by Villas Boas to start as Chelsea’s first choice goalkeeper in absence of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Petr-Cech-c29837.
In the 3rd minute of the encounter, Kitson was in a superb position to score for Portsmouth as the striker found himself in space inside the Chelsea penalty area after a mistake by Clifford. However the young striker
was quickly dispossessed by Ivanovic. In the 4th minute, Malouda tried his luck on goal after the midfielder was played in by Ashley Cole. Nonetheless, the Frenchman dragged his shot wide as the score line remained at nil all.
In the 7th minute disaster struck for Portsmouth as the former Chelsea defender http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Tal-Ben-Haim-c34555 headed into his own net to score an own goal following a cross from Fernando Torres. Ben Haim misjudged the flight of the ball
as the away side took the lead at Fratton Park. In the 19th minute, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-c10409 Norris tried his luck on goal for Portsmouth but Turnbull dove down to his left hand side to deny the Englishman from pulling a goal back for the home team.
In the 24th minute, Fernando Torres failed to add to his team’s lead as he met Zhirkov’s cross on the far post inside the Portsmouth penalty area. The Spanish striker’s header sailed wide of the mark as the score line
remained at one nil. The first half soon came to an end and Chelsea came out for the second half with a different looking line up as Drogba, Anelka and Lampard were thrown into the fray by Villas Boas along with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/John-Terry-c18895 and Hilario.
In the 62nd minute, Hilario gave away a penalty kick as he brought down Varney inside the Chelsea penalty area but he managed to save the follow up penalty kick as well as Chelsea retained their one goal advantage over
Portsmouth. Regardless, the match eventually came to an end with a win for Chelsea at Fratton Park. It was a solid performance by Chelsea who weren’t posed a great deal of threat by Portsmouth in their pre-season friendly encounter.
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