Premier League: Fulham vs. Chelsea – Full time report
Fulham played host to Chelsea at the Craven Cottage, with both teams looking to pick up the win on the night.
A win for Fulham would have ensured the team a spot in the top half of the league, while on the other hand a win for Chelsea on the night would have seen the team cut down the point deficit with league leaders Manchester United, to just ten points.
The most notable aspect prior to the game, was the fact that http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Fernando-Torres-c13707 starting in his position. At the same time, David Luiz was handed his first start as a Chelsea Blue
The match kicked off in a rather surprising manner, as Fulham were actually looking to control the reigning Champions of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749 and were making life difficult for them at Craven Cottage.
In the 24th minute, it was Fulham, who mustered the first chance of the game as Damien Duff struck a fierce shot from nearly twenty-five yards out and had http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Petr-Cech-c29837 scrambling his lines to fist the ball away.
However, after early pressure from the home-side, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Branislav-Ivanovic-c7994 crosses.
Nonetheless, despite both the team’s best efforts to get something out of the first half, it ended in a goalless stalemate.
The second half kicked off, with Fernando Torres, Chelsea’s record singing, trying to show that he was also part of the match, as in the 50th minute he struck a shot towards the Fulham goal only to see his shot fly well over the bar.
What was noticeable about the second half was the fact that despite only being in the opening few minutes of the half, Torres was already looking sharper then he did in the first forty-five minutes.
As the second half progressed, Chelsea slowly started to build on their early pressure and took the game to their London rivals. The Blues were almost certain that they needed to be awarded a penalty in the 68th minute, as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Florent-Malouda-c13838 was
taken down by Hangeland.
However, the referee was buying none of it and he signalled the match to carry on as it was.
As the game went into the last ten minutes of regulation time, Fulham started to once again cause the Blues some serious problems. The team then went on to continue their pressure deep into stoppage time and in the 93rd minute, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Luiz-c10542, on
his debut went on to trip Clint Dempsey in the box and as a result a penalty was awarded to the home-side.
Dempsey stepped up to take the resulting spot-kick, but Cech went on to pull off a great save after diving low to his right in a high pressure situation and as a result of that brilliant save, the keeper also rescued one point for his team.
The match eventually came to a close with both sides level at nil and with an even share of the spoils.
The line-ups on the night were as follows:
Fulham: Schwarzer, Baird, Hughes, Hangeland, Salcido, Duff, Sidwell, Murphy, Dempsey, Johnson, Dembele.
Subs: Stockdale, Kelly, Pantsil, Gera, Gudjohnsen, Greening, Davies
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, David Luiz, Terry, Cole, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ramires-c30523, Essien, Lampard, Anelka, Torres, Malouda.
Subs: Turnbull, Drogba, Mikel, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ferreira-c13712, Kalou, McEachran, Sala
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