Chelsea down Villa to win Asia Cup

Chelsea strolled into the final after brushing aside Hong Kong champions Kitchee 4-0 in their opening game, while Darren Bent’s second half goal against Blackburn Rovers earned Villa their spot.

And the 18-year-old McEachran poked home after a superb double save from Shay Given before second half substitute Fernando Torres scored with his first touch as Chelsea cruised to victory.

There was no separating the two sides in the Premier League last season – with a 0-0 deadlock at Villa Park in October followed by a 3-3 thriller at Stamford Bridge in January – but Chelsea soon charged into the lead in Hong Kong.

Shay Given, who signed from Manchester City in July, made a superb double save to deny Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda but McEachran was on hand to poke home the loose ball.

And Chelsea continued to dominate after their razor-sharp start, forcing Villa to chase shadows in the humid Far East conditions.

Andre Villas-Boas’ side had the ball in the back of the net twice more before half-time but both Anelka and John Obi Mikel were correctly adjudged to have strayed offside.

Gabriel Agbonlahor cut an isolated figure as Villa’s lone front man and Alex McLeish’s side were reduced to pot shots.

With Chelsea brimming with confidence, a series of quick one-touch passes gave Anelka sight of goal but the former Arsenal man shot at Given from the edge of the box.

McLeish brought on Emile Heskey at half-time in a bid to add a physical presence to the Villa attack and it nearly paid off when Chelsea could only half-clear a corner, leaving Stiliyan Petrov to drag his volley wide.

But Chelsea continued to control the tempo, with John Terry's header cleared off the line by Fabian Delph before Given produced another first-class save to keep out Frank Lampard’s close-range header.

Villas-Boas made a triple substitution after 58 minutes, bringing on Torres, Didier Drogba and Patrick van Aanholt, and Torres was on the scoresheet just two minutes later, adding a glancing touch to Malouda’s shot to take it past Given.

Torres almost grabbed his second 10 minutes later but the Spaniard’s low drive was kept out by the superb Given, while, at the other end, substitute Darren Bent fired over after latching on to Heskey’s flick-on.

But that was as close as Villa came as Chelsea, who start their Premier League campaign at Stoke City on August 14, went on to lift the trophy without conceding a goal.




P/S - Piala pertama musim ni ;)



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