BRADFORD CITY  V  CHELSEA

KICK OFF

3pm

Saturday 8th January 2000

DATE

Valley Parade

FIXTURE

FA Carling Premiership

AT

ATTENDENCE

SCORE

MAN OF THE MATCH

18,276

1-1

Didier Deschamps

SCORERS

CHELSEA

Petrescu 58

BRADFORD CITY

Mills 1

REFS PERFORMANCE

5/10

REFEREE

A.Willey

TEAMS

CHELSEA

Ed De Goey, Dan Petrescu, Celestine Babayaro, Didier Deschamps, Gustavo Poyet, Chris Sutton, Dennis Wise, Albert Ferrer, Tore Andre Flo, John Terry, Emerson Thome

SUBSTITUTES

Di Matteo 57 (Wise) Zola 68 (Sutton) Morris 84 (Poyet) Cudicini, Lambourde

BOOKED

BRADFORD CITY

Clarke, Myers, McCall, Wetherall, Blake, Mills, O'Brien, Windass, Halle, Redfern, Saunders

SUBSTITUTES

Beagrie 62 (Windass)Davison, Westwood, Lawrence,Rankin 

BOOKED

MATCH REPORT

One of two games in hand, a game we had to win, with the rest of the country enjoying the excitement of the FA.Cup it was Chelsea's chance to catch up with the leading pack.

The game was only a minute gone when Mills headed home a cross and Chelsea knew they had their work cut out for them.

The rest of the match saw Chelsea completly dictate the match squandering chance of after chance with Flo and Poyet being the main culprits.

How we never equalised in the first half I will never know, but the game from the radio commentary sounded a very exciting .

To be fair Bradford had their chances too and even had a goal dissallowed but Chelsea were in full control and moved the ball around majesticaly all to no avail infront of goal.

The second half was no different with chances being continually being wasted and you knew that Chelsea would eventualy score, and on 58 mins Dan Petrescu who came on for the injured Dennis Wise saved our blushes with a well taken goal following a great defence splitting ball by Di Matteo.

You dont need to be a mathmetician to work out that a Champions League spot in the Premiership is looking unlikely for Chelsea this season as we needed 3 points from this game.

With Tottenham on Wednesday night as our 2nd game in hand, which may well be a draw, it looks like yet again we will be empty handed this season.

What happens to Chelsea if we dont qualify for the Champions League I dont know, with the Clubs huge wage bill we could see a mass exodus at the end of the season, if we do qualify its going to be dependent on the results of the leading pack.


Viva Vialli