Chelsea suffered a first leg defeat at San Siro

Chelsea was defeated by their former manger Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in their Champions league last 16 tie. Match was ended at the score 2-1.

Chelsea was shocked in the early minutes when Milito scored the opening goal in the 3^rd minute. John Terry’s poor defending gave Milito the opportunity to have a go at the goal. Chelsea soon started to dominate the game. But they were unlucky as Drogba’s free kick hit the cross bar in the 15^th minute. Chelsea was denied a penalty claim at the closing minutes of first half when Salomon Kalou was brought down in the penalty box.

In the 53^rd minute Chelsea equalised through Kalou but the party ended when Cambiasso put Milan ahead within 4 minutes. He drilled a volley in to the net as Chelsea goal keeper stood as a spectator. Chelsea was ahead in all departments but could not deliver what was needed. Inter Milan was very determined and organised in their defence. Chelsea’s Anelka was clearly struggling as he could not do anything significant.

Chelsea’s Peter Cech was injured and substituted during the game. Coach Carlo Ancelotti has only the away goal as a relief as the second leg will be at Stamford Bridge.

Sachin led India to victory in style

It was a day where all other things meant nothing except the record set by Tendulkar, the one record we were all waiting to be broken by our little master. India defeated South Africa by 153 runs in the second ODI, thanks to the record breaking batting of Sachin Tendulkar who became the first batsman in the history to score a double century in ODIs.

Although India lost Virender Sehwag early, Sachin and Karthik took the match away from South Africa with their record 194 run partnership. India maintained a good run rate throughout the innings. Later Yousuf Pathan and Dhoni provided the acceleration to help India reach their total of 401 for 3 wickets. But it was all Sachin throughout the innings. His innings was not about power or aggression it was just elegance. He made 200 not out from 147 balls. Karthik made 79 runs and Dhoni added a whirlwind 68 off just 35 balls. Everyone was on their edge of their seats when Tendulkar was batting on 199 with just 4 balls remaining. But he was destined to write history.

South Africans could not repeat the run chase they made against Australians when they chased down 438. Wickets fell regularly and only de Villiers provided some resistance with 114 runs. Sreesanth took 3 wickets. Eventually they were all out for 238 runs.

With this win India gained an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the three match series. The last match has no significance as India’s no.2 ranking will not be affected by its result.

India won a thriller by just 1 run

South African tail-enders almost pulled a victory out of India’s hands in the first ODI. The ninth wicket partnership of 65 runs between Wayne Parnell (49 runs off 47 balls) and Dale Steyn (35 off 19 balls) nearly did the trick for the proteas. They were all out for 297 in reply for India’s 298.

Jacques Kallis who was captaining their side shone both with bat and ball. He top scored with 89 runs and also claimed 3 wickets for 29 runs from 7 overs. Indian batting was led by Suresh Raina (58), Virender Sehwag (46) and Dinesh Karthik (44).  It was Ravindra Jadeja’s spell of 2 for 29 from 10 overs that brought the match in the control of India.

Although India is 1-0 up in the three match series, India will have some concerns about their bowling department. The match could have finished much earlier had it not been Indians wayward bowling at the end. There is also some doubt regarding Sehwag’s fitness.

Wolverhampton 0 - 2 Chelsea

Chelsea increased their lead into 4 points at the top of Barclay’s Premier League by winning their match against Wolverhampton. Chelsea was without their star midfielder Frank Lampard.

The match was not easy for Chelsea but was important as the defeat of Manchester United paved a way for them to increase their lead. But it was wolves who hit the target first. But two saves by Peter Cech denied them goal. But the 40^th minute saw the beautiful football that Chelsea plays under Carlo Ancelotti.  Ballack, Zhirkov and Drogba combined to produce the opening goal. Zhirkov and Ballack did a 1-2 pass and the cross from Zhirkov was finished by Drogba from point blank range.

Chelsea got their second goal in second half. This time Drogba was in his trademark style. The goal kick by Cech was controlled by Drogba who beat his defender with his strength and got past the goal keeper before finishing into the empty net.

Although Chelsea managed to win they have worries about their defence. Also Anelka and Joe Cole are not yet comfortable with their positions. Anelka is neither getting past his defenders nor passing the ball well.

Blow for Manchester United

Everton defeated Manchester United in a wonderful match of football. This will be a shock for United fans as they are trailing behind Chelsea in the title race.

Both teams produced attacking football and had shots on goal before Louis Saha produced a save from United goal keeper van Der Sar. But United was first to break the dead lock. Valencia’s cross was finished superbly by Berbatov , the ball hit under the crossbar before crossing the goal line. Everton replied within 3 minutes. Diniyer Bilyalerdinov was the scorer. He drilled the ball with his left foot and van Der Sar could not do anything about it.

Everton substituted the goal scorer and the substitute Gosling scored their second goal. Piennar who was superb in the left wing crossed the ball to the penalty box and Gosling placed it into the far post corner. They increased their lead when Jack Rodwell scored in the 90^th minute.

Celtics defeated the champions

The game started with news of Celtics acquiring Nate Robinson and Marcus Landry from the New York Knicks in exchange for Eddie House, J R Giddens, Bill Walker and a future conditional second round pick.

Champions were playing their fifth game without Kobe Bryant and they struggled in their perimeter game. On the other hand Boston shot very well. Allen was in rhythm from the start, making all his 4 field goals in the first quarter. He had game high 24 points.

Boston struggled when there was no Allen on court as his replacement Daniels was not a great shooter. They will miss House for this very reason.

Lakers came back to the game with a strong fourth quarter. With a 13-0 run they managed to take the lead. But they were not able to score in the dying seconds as they lost 87-86.

Rondo had 14 points, 11 assists and 5 steals and Perkins added 13 points and 14 rebounds. Pau Gasol led Lakers with 22 points. Odom had 13 points and 14 rebounds from bench. This was Lakers’ first loss without Kobe.

Relief for Liverpool in Europa league

Liverpool won the home match against Unirea Urziceni in the first leg of round 32. Thanks to David Ngog’s goal with 9 minutes to spare.

Liverpool dominated the match from the first minute which saw Gerrard failing to score. Dirk Kuyt’s effort on goal was saved by Urziceni’s goal keeper 10 minutes later. Later minutes saw Liverpool players competing to shoot the ball wide. Aurelio, Gerrard, Ngog and Skrtel all joined the party.

Gerrard is beginning to find his form but is not yet near his form when it comes to scoring. His 74^th minute shot was saved by goalkeeper.

Liverpool became livelier when Riera was replaced by Ryan Babel. His runs in the left flank always created problems for the Romanian defence. It was him who combined with another substitute Pacheco to create the goal opportunity. The cross from Babel was nodded into the path of Ngog by Pacheco. The French man made no mistake with his head.

Liverpool will be desperately trying to win Europa league as there is nothing for the fans to cheer. They have a disappointing premier league and silverwares have deserted the merseysiders for some time.