Chelsea Held by Twente
After going through the Netherlands "Big Three" nearly unscathed except for a draw with Feynoord the Blues have been held to a 0-0 draw by FC Twente. Luis Felipe Scolari chose Bosingwa and Petr Cech for the starting lineup with the two players making their first appearance under new head coach. Petr Cech went untested as Twente managed only 3 shots and 1 on target. Big Phil chose the same formation that he used againt Feyenoord but with several different faces.
GK: P. Cech
RB: Bosingwa
RCB: B. Ivanovic
LCB: Alex
LB: A.Cole
CM: J. Obi Mikel
RWM: J.Cole
RAM: F. Lampard
LAM: M. Stoch
LWM: S. Sinclair
ST: D. Drogba
The first chance Chelsea had was when a corner came about in the 12th minute although nothing came of the set piece. The first half was very boring as Chelsea patiently passed the ball around the field looking for a way to break past Twente's defenses.
At halftime Scolari chose to go with a new formation going into the 2nd half with a 4-2-2-2 the formation Big Phil used against PSV in the 1st preseason match. You could easily tell the difference in Chelsea's style of play in the second half.
5 minutes into the second half Scolari brought off Miroslav Stoch for Franco Di Santo. Also Michael Ballack came in replacing Sinclair who because of the change in formation had been moved to the center midfield area.
This change really opened up the game now that Chelsea had 2 real strikers on the field with Joe Cole and Lampard behind them as outside attacking midfielders. Corners came Chelsea's way and near misses by the minute it seemed as the crowd were getting into this newly exciting match.
Eleven minutes from time Scolari made his final change bringing on Gael Kakuta the 17 year old having scored a goal against Feyenoord to tie the match would have the chance to win it for the Blues. Kakuta replaced Joe Cole.
The change in players proved fruitless as time wound down.
Chelsea's final real good chance came in the 82nd minute as Frank Lampard crossed the ball into the middle. Franco di Santo connected with a miraculous header having 3 defenders around him. The header was directed low at the keeper as the keeper deflected the ball onto the crossbar the crowd held its breath as the ball bounced in front of the line and Twente's keeper dived over to grab it.
At the end of the match statistics showed Chelsea had 71% possession of the ball, 2 fouls, and 80% passing completion. Twente has 29% possession, only 3 shots (1 on target), 0 fouls, and 70% passing completion.
After the match Scolari said he was very pleased with Joe Cole's, di Santo's, and Ashley Cole's performance. He also stated some other players needed to work on things but would only tell them prvately and refused to mention names.