Chelsea FC: The International Round-Up
With the international break now over, players around the world are returning to their the clubs for what is, at least in England, an uninterrupted final push to the end of the season. With that being said, let’s round-up what Chelsea FC players have been up to this past week.
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Gary Cahill played a full part in England’s 4-0 drubbing of Lithuania on Friday. A quiet evening at the back (the visitors took only three shots) made for a fairly unremarkable performance from Cahill, who had little to do. As expected, he spent Tuesday’s 1-1 draw against Italy on the bench as Roy Hodgson took the friendly opportunity to afford other defenders some playing time.
After getting no minutes in the EURO qualifier against Ukraine (a 1-0 win), Cesc Fabregas was handed the armband for the friendly against Holland. The fixture was unmistakably dull with the Dutch running out 2-0 victors while the managers used their right to substitute liberally. Diego Costa was forced to pull out of the squad due to injury.
Belgium, meanwhile, got their qualifying campaign back on track with two wins over the break. A dominant five goal victory over Cyprus was followed by a tight 1-0 defeat of Israel to move them tied at the top of their group with Wales. Thibaut Courtois played 90 minutes in both games securing two clean sheets in vital meetings for Marc Wilmot’s men, the latter of which they played the last half hour with ten men. Eden Hazard started both as well, getting over 60 minutes in each in addition to a goal against Cyprus.
Branislav Ivanovic captained a Serbian team that included Nemanja Matic in their sole fixture against Portugal. With Serbia desperately needing three points, they came up short in a 2-1 loss. This leaves them well off the pace and struggling in their group but on a more relevant note, Matic scored a brilliant goal. Petr Cech and the Czech Republic did not fare too well either dropping the first points of their campaign at home to Latvia in a 1-1 draw. Cech did not then feature in the Slovakia friendly.
Kurt Zouma made his international debut when he came on as a late substitute in France’s 2-0 win over Denmark. He was not involved in the Brazil match that saw Filipe Luis, Willian and Oscar all play over 80 minutes with the latter grabbing a goal in an impressive 3-1 victory. All three were subsequently rested for the Chile game although Willian and Filipe did appear as the match reached its climax.
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Lastly, Juan Cuadrado played close to a full game against Bahrain but he failed to net any one of the six goals scored by Colombia. He then also played the first half of the Monday’s meeting with Kuwait.
Hopefully that should enlighten you as to how Chelsea players have been keeping busy over the last week. Unfortunately, there is not much one can take away from this given that competitive games were largely contested against lesser opposition while friendlies are just that. More importantly, however, is the fact that there seems to be no injuries reported (yet). On to Saturday!
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