Football story by Brian Watters, Mon, 06 Feb 2006 09:40:01 GMT


LONDON - It was a highly billed encounter at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Liverpool and it lived up to the billing at least in the war of the words. Rafael Benitez accused Dutchman Arjen Robben of play-acting when he went down after Jose Reina palmed his face. Subsequently, Reina was sent-off, something that did not go down well with the Reds boss. The fact that Chelsea were comprehensive 2-0 winners was reduced to almost academic significance.

It was an intensely contested game for most part of the 90 minutes and what must be worrying for Benitez and the rest is the fact that Chelsea appeared to be hungry for more despite almost having sealed the Premiership. They were superior in all departments of the game and it came as no surprise when defender William Gallas drove home Ricardo Carvalho's header on 35 minutes.

Liverpool did have their chances but Jamie Carragher could not connect to Steven Gerrard's corner. Sami Hyypia had another fantastic chance, but his header went just over. After the break Liverpool threw out an all attack strategy, but once again their finishing let them down. Peter Crouch had a couple of headers that went sailing over the bar. Hernán Crespo finished off the match with a classic finish on 68 minutes and Reina was then sent off for the Robben foul on 82 minutes.

This was Jose Mourinho's 50th Premiership win and he was proud of his players, "I thought Liverpool started well but they didn't cause us that much danger. But we defended well against a difficult style of play and, when we scored, the game was always going to open up and we took advantage," he said. Rafa Benitez was upset about the red card, "I know Reina made a mistake by touching Robben's face but when the player went down it looked as though he would spend a week in the hospital. It was crazy that we had to play with 10 men because of that," he said.

Match Details
Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).

Chelsea: Cech, Gallas, Ricardo Carvalho, Terry, Del Horno, Makelele (Diarra 84), Essien, Lampard, Joe Cole (Duff 74), Robben, Crespo, Duff (Gudjohnsen 79).
Goals: Gallas 35, Crespo 68.

Liverpool: Reina, Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Warnock, Alonso, Sissoko (Cisse 74), Riise (Luis Garcia 61), Kewell, Gerrard, Crouch, Luis Garcia (Dudek 83).

More Sporting Stuff