Chelsea Reserves 4 AC Milan Reserves 0

[EskWeston 696]

The reserves' impressive season continues after a comfortable win against AC Milan's second string at Cobham on Saturday morning, with goals from four sources. Strikes from Fabio Borini, Miroslav Stoch, Fabio Ferreira and Morten Nielsen were more than enough to sweep the young Italians away, with two at either end of the game, Stoch and Borini in the first ten minutes and Ferreira and Nielsen in the final ten.

Brendan Rodgers was able to call on Gael Kakuta for a first start of the season after a groin tear, and the young Frenchman started on the right wing, on the opposite side to Portuguese Under 20 international Fabio Paim (pictured below).

Fabio Borini, a five-time goalscorer in his last two matches started in the centre-forward role, while Miroslav Stoch was deployed as a central attacking midfielder.

Rodgers was without regulars Rhys Taylor, Michael Mancienne, Scott Sinclair and Franco Di Santo, all of whom were involved with first team training on the adjacent Cobham pitches, and so Nick Heimann began in goal.

The Chelsea youngsters started brightly against their Italian opponents, and were awarded a penalty eight minutes in after Stoch was poleaxed by the Milan goalkeeper Antonio Donnarumma.

Despite a bang on the head and appearing to be in pain, the Slovakian stepped up himself and fired low to the keeper's right, an unstoppable drive.

Within three minutes it was 2-0, and Borini scored his sixth in a week after picking up a through pass from Sergio Tejera, chesting down and slotting home. It was a dream start for the youngster against his countrymen.

Milan hit back, hitting the base of the post with a header shortly afterwards, but Heimann appeared confident that the effort wouldn't be going in.

The pace then settled, with Chelsea still on top but caught offside a few times by a high Milan backline.

Borini nearly found his way in again, but was just beaten to the ball by Donnarumma when another penalty looked a distinct possibility.

Stoch worked his way into the area but saw his shot blocked and gathered, and then found himself one-on-one after Borini and Kakuta had combined.

His shot was saved, but the rebound fell to Tejera who miscontrolled into the path of the offside Paim, and so his confident finish was rightly etched out.

Kakuta had the same fate moments before half-time, this time wrongly adjudged offside when he raced through and rounded the goalkeeper.

Still, a two-goal lead at the break was the least the Blues deserved, with dominance achieved all over the pitch against their slightly younger opponents.

Fabio Ferreira replaced Paim for the second half, while the Milanese made three changes.

It made little difference to the flow of the game athough and it wasn't long before Stoch was testing the goalkeeper again, firing low from 25 yards.

Sam Hutchinson, still gaining match fitness after injury, almost added to the lead with a deft touch from a free-kick, Ferreira was then denied after the keeper had parried.

Dutchman Jeffrey Bruma was booked for a foul on Andrea De Vito a moment later, but Chelsea continued to attack, and when Tejera swung in a free-kick from the right, Carl Magnay thought he had found the net with an unmarked header, yet Donnarumma dived low to his left to palm the ball away.

A further goal was ruled out for offside as Stoch and Borini linked up, the diminutive playmaker stroking home, and then being booked for his reaction.

Hutchinson and Kakuta were replaced on the hour after gaining some valuable pitch time following injury, and Tom Taiwo and Ricardo Fernandes replaced them, with Liam Bridcutt dropping into centre-half.

Milan were then reduced to 10 men when Stoch was felled just outside the area by captain Nicola Pasini. The red card handed out looked harsh, but Stoch was in no charitable mood, stepping up to strike the free-kick himself.

It was a good effort, curled low towards the bottom corner but again the keeper was equal to the shot, pushing it around his post.

Borini was replaced with a quarter of an hour to go, Morten Nielsen coming on in his place. The Dane had an opportunity seven minutes before time when Ferreira crossed low, but he could not quite connect and failed to finish.

It was Ferreira who made it three with five minutes remaining, tapping home at the far post after Stoch had beaten the offside trap and squared across the goal. Nielsen made it four with an almost identical goal on 90 minutes, Stoch again the provider.

Those goals put the gloss on an impressive performance, and in truth it could have been more as Rodgers' men controlled the game from start to finish. The coach was understandably positive afterwards.

'I think when you play those sorts of games and have a scoreline like that against a club like that it is very pleasing,' he said.

'As we expected, walking off the pitch after winning a game is very pleasing and four goals and a clean sheet is very pleasing, especially against one of the biggest clubs in the world. Our form and performances continue,' he smiled, before adding some kind words for man of the match Stoch.

'Miroslav is technically very strong and go both sides, he can move and we saw that today, he ran forward, ran back and was outstanding,' Rodgers told Chelsea TV.

Chelsea team (4-3-3): Niclas Heimann; Nana Ofori-Twumasi, Sam Hutchinson (Tom Taiwo 61), Jeffrey Bruma, Carl Magnay; Liam Bridcutt ©, Miroslav Stoch, Sergio Tejera; Gael Kakuta (Ricardo Fernandes 61), Fabio Borini (Morten Nielsen 75), Fabio Paim (Fabio Ferreira h-t).

Unused sub: Stuart Searle.

Source: Chelsea FC

[EskWeston 696]

Highlights:

[riks12 3]

Stoch looked superb, I really hope LFS give's him a chance in first team.

[Frank's Just Big Boned 0]

Stoch is a gun!!!