Feyenoord 1 - 1 Chelsea

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Feyenoord 1 - 1 ChelseaFriendly - 25 July - De Kuip Stadion - 18:00 kick-offA brilliant performance by Carlo Cudicini denied Feyenoord a win, as Chelsea remain unbeaten in Pre-season thanks to both the Italian goalkeeper, and Frank Lampard's well-taken equaliser late in the second half. The goal is Lampard's first in Chelsea colours since scoring the first goal in a 2-1 win over Blackburn in the FA Cup Semi-final at Old Trafford, and will come as a huge morale-boost for the under-fire midfielder. Cudicini, a halftime substitute, performed fantastically and produced a handful of brilliant saves and an excellent double-save from Roy Makaay's penalty and the Dutchman's follow-up.Mourinho opted to rotate the team after the win against LA Galaxy. Glen Johnson was played at left-back with Tal Ben Haim and Ricardo Carvalho in the centre-half slots. Paulo Ferreira completed the backline which would defend Petr Cech's goal. Sidwell partnered Lampard once more, and Mikel started in the holding role, with an energetic Shaun Wright-Phillips on the right-flank for the FA Cup holders, Andrei Shevchenko down the centre and Joe Cole on the opposite side.The game began at a moderate pace that was an enjoyable spectacle. The much-speculated future of Royston Drenthe seemed to be on the quiet as the young Dutchman teased Paulo Ferreira for much of the opening exchanges, but for all his trickery and pace, his crosses were somewhat lacking.Shevchenko has the first chance of the game.Shevchenko had a chance after just four minutes after he was put through by a ball by the quietly-effective Mikel, and after beating his marker, sent a shot screamer over the crossbar by a couple of feet from a restricting angle.With the Cup Kings suffering from the jet-lag of flying from the American West Coast to London, then to Rotterdam, it was hardly surprising to see the home side have the better of the first 11 minutes, which was epitomized when Roy Makaay hit a stinging low volley to the left of Cech's near post after Ferreira failed to clear, but the shot was thankfully wide by several inches.Struggling to keep hold of the ball, let alone use possession to build up attacks, the Chelsea side were looking ragged. However, discarding Ferreira's mistake earlier the defence were looking as solid as ever, with the impressive Ben Haim making energetic runs forward to help spring attacks.All of a sudden, with ten minutes to go, Chelsea were presented with three excellent opportunities to open the scoring. After a brilliant run, Wright-Phillips bamboozled Drenthe with trickery of his own, before sending a cross to the far post. Instead of shooting, the oncoming Johnson laid the ball off to Lampard, who swung wildly with his left boot, sending the ball well over.The second and best chance came when an unmarked Shevchenko was played onside by the fullback, and after Mikel's brilliant lobbed pass, the Ukrainian looked certain to score. However, the striker took one too many touches, and Timmer, the Feyenoord goalkeeper came out to smother the shot as the ball left Shevchenko's boot.A penalty claim was then turned down by the poor performance of the referee - something which has been involved with Chelsea in all four of their pre-season matches thus far. Tim de Cler handled in the area after Wright-Phillips was put through by Sidwell, and despite the assistant-referee being feet away, no penalty was given.Ironically enough, the referee sponsors for the day, SpecSavers, might find themselves signing a new contract to supply spectacles to referees.Andwelé Slory was stealing the limelight from Drenthe, who had faded out of the game, despite launching a shot to the right of Cech's goal before the end of the half. However, as popular in Chelsea history, whenever the Blues seem to fail to score from several opportunities, the opposition gets one and steals a goal.Pizarro demonstrates his touch on his debut.This time, it was Jonathan de Guzman's freekick that was knocked into the goal by centre-back Kevin Hofland to put the home team 1-0, with Petr Cech caught in No Man's Land.For the second half, Chelsea made a handful of changes. Cech was substituted for Cudicini, and Florent Malouda replaced Joe Cole. Shevchenko, who picked up a slight knock in training, also sat out for the second half, the power Ivorian Didier Drogba taking his place.Slory had a brilliant chance to increase Feyenoord's lead after 49 minutes, but Cudicini made a strong parry at his near post. Immediately at the other end, Drogba and Malouda were causing all sorts of problems with their pace, tricks and power. Malouda squared to Lampard, who flicked the ball up for Drogba to volley with his left-foot, but Timmer did well to gather to ball.Lampard launched a brilliant cross-field pass for the run of Ferreira to chase. The Portuguese did everything right, but launched his shot straight at Timmer who parried. Unfortunately there was no-one to follow up and the ball was cleared.Cudicini made a magnificent save from Makaay's goal-bound header just three minutes later, jumping to his left to push the ball beyond the post for a Feyenoord corner, which was gathered by the Italian.Pizarro and Diarra came on after 65 minutes to replace Johnson and Steven Sidwell, and Sam Hutchinson replaced Mikel just two minutes later. Pizarro was immediately involved in the action, but Drogba's touch was too heavy for the tall Peruvian to knock towards goal.Pizarro had a difficult chance with thirteen minutes to go, as he volleyed over and wide after Wright-Phillips had found him unmarked in the Feyenoord area, however his lack of match fitness and form showed.Finally, with just 11 minutes to go, Chelsea found another late-goal-hero in Frank Lampard. It was the brilliant run of Scott Sinclair that produced the opportunity, taking-on and beating three players with a mazy run, before his pass took a fortuitous deflection off a defender's knee, and fell to Lampard. The midfielder sent Timmer the wrong way, scoring to make the game 1-1.Lampard celebrates with DrogbaRomeo Castelen was 'fouled' in the box, although Chelsea TV replays showed that the young defender got a touch on the ball before bringing down the player. How ironic, that at another away game, Chelsea were not awarded a cast-iron penalty whilst the home side immediately got one as soon as there was any contact in the box.However, Cudicini brilliantly saved, guessing the way which Makaay would go. Thought the spot-kick was a tame one, if Cudicini went the wrong way, Makaay would look very cool indeed - fortunately for Chelsea, Cudicini was the one who looked very cool when he punched the ball from off the ground. His initial save had been a parry, but reacted to scoop the ball away.Malouda clears after Cudicini's brilliant double save from a penalty and the follow up.Squads and RatingsChelsea (4-3-3): Cech (Cudicini 45); Ferreira (Sinclair 78), Carvalho, Ben-Haim, Johnson (Diarra 65); Sidwell (Pizarro 65), Mikel (Hutchinson 67), Lampard ©; Wright-Phillips, Shevchenko (Drogba 45), J Cole (Malouda 45).Goals Lampard 79Feyenoord (4-2-3-1): Timmer; Lucius, Vlaar, Hofland (Bahia 45), de Cler; Sahin (Buijs 69), Van Bronckhorst ©; Slory (Bruins 85), de Guzman (Hofs 78), Drenthe (Castelen 62); Makaay.Goals Hofland 45Chelsea RatingsCech - 6 - Caught in No Man's Land on two occasions, not entirely impressive.Cudicini - 9 - Brilliant performance by the Chelsea goalkeeper.Ferreira - 6 - Could not keep up with Drenthe's pace, but did well in the second half.Ben Haim - 8 - Brilliant in defence, and strong going forward.Carvalho - 7 - The usual, strong and impressive display from the Portuguese.Hutchinson - 5 - Not his best day, but was unlucky to concede the penalty.Johnson - 6 - Was strong going forward but had little to do.Lampard - 7 - Much more involved today, his goal will help his confidence.Sidwell - 6 - Would have benefited playing in the second half when Chelsea's midfield had more input.Wright-Phillips - 7 - Another great display, he is showing some consistency at last.Mikel - 7 - Very strong display, unlucky not to score.Diarra - 7 - Seemed to play in every position at some point, had bundles of energy.Sinclair - 7 - Involved, great run to set up Lampard.Shevchenko - 7 - Had a few chances, should have scored. Tried.Joe Cole - 6 - Quiet once again, but he seems near full-fitness.Malouda - 7 - Not as effective against the Dutch, but still did well.Drogba - 7 - Did everything but score, strong game once againPizarro - 6 - Had no time to make impact, average performance. Referee - 3/10 - Should have gone to SpecSaversChelsea - Stats - Feyenoord1 - Goals - 1 4 - Shots on Target - 56 - Shots off Target - 62 - Blocked Shots - 1 4 - Corners - 716 - Fouls - 182 - Offsides - 10 - Yellow Cards - 0 0 - Red Cards - 0 49% - Possession - 51% Star ManCarlo CudiciniViews of the Blues

Pizzaro was ok. Be interesting to see the penalty incident again. To me he got the ball first, but I've a feeling Hutchinson might only get a League Cup run out.

Glad it was only a friendly. We were toooooo friendly in front of goal.Found myself laughing -wasn't a penalty, then Carlo/Drogs complaining about the ball not on the spot, then Makaay missing. On the positive Feyenoord seemed to be treating it like a cup final, and Jose wasn't getting too involved, just observing.

To be honest it was a pretty poor game from our point of view. But we had a lot of players missing from this one and there would have been a lot of fatigue due to all the travelling.Our passing was shocking for the majority of the game, we were struggling to string 2 passes together and especially in the final third. Shevchenko was making some excellent runs but no-one could pick him out with a decent ball, and he missed the only one-on-one he had.Both goals were very sloppy, but I though Sinclair did really well when he came on and had a great run which led to our goal. Our best players were Mikel who was playing excellent and probably the only person who was passing perfectly, and Wright-Phillips who was making some good runs and getting into some good positions.Forget the result because in Pre Season it means nothing. But overall the performance was pretty poor, but I think there are good reasons for that.