New Delhi: John Terry put in a captain's performance at Stamford Bridge, heading home the only goal of the game as Chelsea beat Roma 1-0 in a dull and lifeless Champions League Group A clash.
Chelsea 1-0 Roma
Build up and team news
Chelsea came into this game in buoyant mood, as they were top of the Premier League and had just thrashed Middlesbrough 5-0 at the Riverside on Saturday. However, despite their fine form, Blues manager Luiz Felipe Solari had a whole set of injuries to deal with as he was without Michael Essien, Ricardo Carvalho, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack, Ashley Cole and Joe Cole. Petr Cech and Ricardo Carvalho returned to the starting XI though, while Nicolas Anelka led the attack, supported by Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou.
Roma arrived in West London in the middle of a crisis, as they were languishing in 14th place in Serie A, nine points behind leaders Inter, who they humiliatingly were pounded by at home 4-0 on Sunday night. The side's selection problems were improving though. Ex-Chelsea man Christian Panucci, and Philippe Mexes returned to the centre of defence, while Francesco Totti started as the lone frontman after proving his fitness against Inter. However, Marco Cassetti, Julio Baptista and David Pizarro were all still out. Mirko Vucinic was preferred to Simone Perrotta, with the Italy international only on the bench.
First Half
Roma had the first attempt of the game as Daniele De Rossi let fly from fully 40 yards, but he dragged his shot well wide. Then an error by Mexes gifted the ball to Frank Lampard just outside the area, and his first-time volley forced Doni into a theatrical save for the cameras.
Totti was dropping deep to find space, and he did this in the tenth minute, but his swerving shot from distance had too much slice on it. Lampard had a similar effort down the other end, which ended with the same result.
The early stages of this match was characterised by long-range shots, and De Rossi lined up a free kick from close to the centre circle, but unsurprisingly nothing came of it.
On 22 minutes Chelsea had the first real chance of the game as Lampard unleashed a beautifully struck free kick from just outside the area that beat Doni but clipped the top of the crossbar on its way over.
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Five minutes later Kalou bamboozled John Arne Riise with a mazy run before cutting inside and forcing Doni into a save low down to his left.
Ten minutes before half time Roma created their best chance of the game so far following a piece of magic from Francesco Totti, who nutmegged a man before slotting the ball through to Matteo Brighi. However, John Terry came to the rescue with a crucial sliding tackle.
Roma were looking a bit more dangerous now. Totti fired over the bar with another long range shot, before teeing up Alberto Aquilani, who saw his effort deflected wide. Vucinic also hashed over from 30 yards as the Giallorossi ended a tedious half positively.
Second Half
Chelsea made one change at half time as Juliano Belletti was introduced in place of Malouda. The Brazilian immediately got in on the action by firing over the bar from 30 yards.
The home side visibly tried to up the tempo, and a neat triangle between Mikel, Deco and Anelka ended with the Frenchman screwing his shot past the post.
Roma were still comfortably holding Chelsea, but just shy of the hour mark they received a big injury blow as Aquilani, who had been excellent, pulled up with a muscular problem, and had to be replaced with Perrotta.
Chelsea almost took immediate advantage of this loss, as Doni dived down low to push out a header from Kalou following a right wing free kick. The Ivorian then went down in the box asking for a penalty, but the referee barely gave the incident a second look before waving play on.
The Blues were now having their best spell of possession in the game, and they were starting to threaten a touch more. Mikel's 25-yarder was deflected off Anelka, before spinning a couple of yards wide.
However, this spell did not last too long and Chelsea appeared to be running out of ideas when they did indeed make the breakthrough on 77 minutes. Terry was the scorer, darting in front of his man at the near post to head the ball into the far corner.
Roma now knew they had to come out of their shell to try and salvage the game. Coach Luciano Spalletti summoned young French starlet Jeremy Menez, who replaced Rodrigo Taddei, while Max Tonetto came in for Riise.
Chelsea were not sitting back on their lead though, and on 83 minutes Lampard got his rocket launcher out with a 25-yard free kick, and Doni had to be alert to tip the ball over. Deco also then unsuccessfully tried his luck from distance.
Despite trailing by a goal, Roma made little attempt to throw men forward, and Chelsea comfortably played out the remaining minutes to win 1-0. The Blues are now looking strong to qualify for the knockouts as they top the group on seven points. Roma are level in third with Bordeaux on three points.
Teams
Chelsea: Cech; Bosingwa, Terry, Alex, Bridge; Deco, Mikel, Lampard, Kalou (Di Santo 76); Malouda (Belletti 46), Anelka (Ferreira 92)
Roma: Doni; Panucci, Juan, Mexes, Riise (Tonetto 80); De Rossi, Brighi; Taddei (Menez 80), Aquilani (Perrotta 60), Vucinic; Totti
Goals
Terry 77 (C)
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