Soccer
Chelsea set up Villa final
2011-07-27 17:23
Hong Kong - Chelsea used their greater physical presence to push past Hong Kong champions Kitchee on Wednesday, moving into the final of the Barclays Asia Trophy.
They cruised to a comfortable 4-0 win thanks to a penalty and an own goal, with Didier Drogba and Daniel Sturridge also on the scoresheet.
The victory puts Chelsea through to the final of the Barclays Asia Trophy on Saturday, where they will face Premier League rivals Aston Villa, who saw off Blackburn Rovers 1-0 earlier on Wednesday evening.
The third leg of Chelsea's Asian tour proved a decent workout for the London club after a spluttering performance in Kuala Lumpur and a more convincing 4-0 win in Bangkok.
Midfielder Yossi Benayoun created the first goal of the game in the 36th minute, winning a penalty when he was tripped on the edge of the box after a clever change of direction.
His skill brought cheers from the Hong Kong crowd, days after he was booed in Malaysia as the first Israeli to play in the Muslim-majority nation.
Hong Kong proved a welcoming ground for the visitors, with thousands of the near-capacity 34 000 crowd dressed in royal blue, and many waving Chelsea flags.
England midfielder Frank Lampard took a risk with the spot-kick, driving it low and down the middle, but Kitchee goalkeeper Wang Zhenpeng was already committed left and missed what should have been an easy save.
With limited substitutions allowed, new Chelsea coach Andre Villas-Boas fielded almost a full first-team squad.
Chelsea's Serbian right-back Slobadan Ragkovic, who made his debut in Malaysia, was given a run-out and made a couple of timely interventions to snuff out Kitchee attacks.
Salomon Kalou offered the first serious danger of the match, hitting the woodwork in the 15th minute when he headed a Drogba cross into the ground only to see it bounce up and off the crossbar.
Benayoun went from the sublime to the ridiculous with the rebound, attempting a bicycle kick that hit him in the face.
The match was put to bed in the second half when Kitchee captain Ubay Luzardo Santana turned a cross into his own net under pressure from Drogba, who added the third 10 minutes later.
Villas-Boas substituted Drogba immediately, replacing him with Fernando Torres, but there was no second goal in Chelsea blue for the record signing.
Instead, Sturridge rounded off the scoring halfway through the second half. He left Kitchee substitute Lo Kwan-yi for dead with a turn inside the box and rifled the ball into the roof of the net.