UEFA Champions League – Half time report: Olympique Marseille versus Chelsea
It was the home side who kicked off the encounter in France brightly as Marseille surged forward in the 4th minute of the match. The home side almost broke Chelsea’s resolute offside trap as Brandao made an impressive
run down the middle. The striker was found by his teammates with a glorious through ball but Marseille’s hopes of getting the equalizer through Brandao were dashed as the linesman raised his flag for an offside as Chelsea regained possession of the ball.
For the first 10 minutes, Chelsea found it hard to get their free-flowing game going as the French side retained possession of the ball and seldom did any of Marseille’s midfielders commit any unforced errors. It was an impeccable
ten minutes by the host as Didier Drogba, who was making his return to one of his previous clubs, hardly had a touch in the beginning of the match.
In the 11th minute of the match, Chelsea were in trouble yet again as Valbuena unleashed a wonderful shot on goal from around 25 yards out. It was a very good effort by the Frenchman which unfortunately thudded against
the post. However, that wasn’t the end of it as Marseille gained confidence from this run of play and in the 13th minute, Remy tried his luck on goal but his shot from some way out missed Petr Cech’s goal by a few inches as the Blues breathed a
sigh of relief.
The 16th minute of the match saw immense drama as Florent Malouda was apparently brought down inside the Marseille penalty area. The referee spotted the alleged foul and pointed towards the spot for a penalty kick. However,
the assistant official placed behind the goal consulted the referee on his decision and thus the decision was changed as Chelsea were awarded a corner kick which was headed away comfortably by the home side.
It was an enticing couple of minutes as confusion ensued on the field for both the teams but the replays confirmed that the referee’s decision was the right one as the defender just got a bit of the ball before he collided with
Malouda. In the 32nd minute, Didier Drogba tried his luck on goal but the Ivory Coast striker was wide of the mark with his shot as the ball sailed over the cross bar.
Marseille continued to build on their fantastic start to the match as they maintained their superiority in the middle stages of the first half. Chelsea were second best in the midfield area as Marseille ran the show. The first
half thus ended with both the sides at level terms but the first 45 minutes were clearly dominated by the home side as they didn’t allow Chelsea to kick into gear.
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