Chelsea rounded off their pre-season tour of Asia
with a 2-0 victory over a strong Malaysian XI on Tuesday
afternoon.
Nicolas Anelka continued his impressive warm-up for the
new campaign as he opened the scoring in the first half and
substitute Ashley Cole doubled the advantage after the
interval.
Chelsea - who had Joe Cole starting his first game of
pre-season, while Michael Essien began the match at right-back -
had opened the encounter in a nervous fashion.
And Malaysia's lively forward Amirulhadi Zainal should have done
better when he broke clear in the opening five minutes, only to
drag wide of the far post with Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech
stranded.
The Blues, though, then took charge as summer signing Deco
dominated the midfield, and the Portuguese playmaker almost scored
in spectacular fashion as he went close with a long-range volley
after a clever Frank Lampard free-kick.
With Didier Drogba absent from Chelsea's pre-season
preparations, Anelka was revelling in his lone striking role and he
deservedly opened the scoring on 26 minutes.
Joe Cole carried the ball over the half-way line before
threading a pass through to Anelka who beat the offside trap to
smash in with his left foot.
Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari introduced Ashley Cole among a
number of substitutes at the interval and the defender was on the
scoresheet eight minutes later.
Lampard deftly feinted to shoot only to carve apart Malaysia's
back four with a neat ball to Cole, who turned before firing into
the roof of the net from eight yards.
Malaysia continued to pose occasional attacking danger and the
eye-catching Zainal again threatened on the hour mark when he fired
wide from the edge of the box.
However, that was to be as close as Malaysia came to netting a
consolation as Chelsea, who face Lokomotiv Moscow in Russia on
Friday, continued their 100 per cent pre-season record.
