Stamford Bridge: Chelsea 5-2 Leicester City

Tuesday, 20 March 2012

Chelsea 5-2 Leicester City

Aerial shot of Stamford Bridge (Bing Maps)

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 9/10

Ease of getting there : 9/10

Atmosphere : 9/10

Programme : 8/10
View of Action : 9/10
Quality of the game : 7/10
The "football" feeling : 7/10
Chances of coming here for a random game : 3/10
Legroom : 9/10
Surrounding area : 7/10

Overall : 77/100

Programme - £3.00

West Stand

Matthew Harding Stand

East Stand

Shed End

The Pride of London

Matthew Harding Stand

Shed End housing the Foxes Faithful

East Stand

West Stand

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Matthew Harding Stand

West Stand

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Chelsea 4-2 Leicester City

My (Adrian’s) last visit to Stamford Bridge was exactly 12 years ago, ironically the same competition, same round and the same teams. A lot has changed since my very first visit to this ground back in 1982. Back in the day you had to have your wits about you as you got off the tube at Fulham Broadway, nowadays the station is a very pleasant array of coffee shops and a supermarket. The days of Chelsea hooligans seem long gone. Not sure they would be impressed by Leicester City fans taking over the whole of the infamous Shed End. These days Chelsea’s support is made up of all creeds and cultures from all over the world, and the odd one from Surrey. The cost of the privilege of being associated with the club rules the ordinary man out. As you walk towards the ground from the tube station, you are actually unaware there is a football stadium there behind the buildings which include the Copthorne Hotel. The Fulham Road awash with international camera crews and football tourists, to say they are all here to see the a second tier team from the East Midlands may be stretching a point. Nevertheless, City were backed by over 6,000 fans, mostly travelling down the M1 by coach and in good voice. The game itself saw Chelsea deservedly win to go through to the semi-finals but in the second half particularly they were certainly rattled for a time. Leicester City were never really in the game in the First Half as Chelsea eased into a 2-0 lead and it should have been three had Sterling not seen his poor penalty saved by Stolarcyzk. The goals scored saw City’s defence exposed easily. Nicolas Jackson may not have had a great start to life in the Premier League but he certainly looked decent. He comfortably outpaced Vestergaard before his low centre was tapped home by Marc Cucurella completely unmarked. Cole Palmer made it two just before Half Time with a good near post finish after quick thinking by Sterling on the left. In the Second Half, the game was meandering along. Chelsea appeared comfortable until an inexplicable piece of madness from the Chelsea defender Disasi. His crazy own goal from 25 yards breathed life into the tie, Chelsea clearly rattled and Leicester suddenly showed greater belief. Astonishingly they drew level midway through the half, Stephy Mavididi cutting in from the left and brilliantly curling a right foot shot past Sanchez and from nowhere it was suddenly 2-2. There were murmurings of discontent from the home supporters, frustrated at the teams continued inconsistency. Chelsea Head Coach, Mauricio Pochettino, under pressure made two substitutions bringing on Chukwemeka and Modueke, it was clearly inspired and assisted by a red card to City’s Callum Doyle changed the game. Doyle fouled Jackson on the edge of the box, at first the referee gave a penalty and a yellow card but after VAR intervention the decision was changed to a free kick as the trip happened outside the box but Doyle then saw the colour of card changed from yellow to red, leaving City down to 10 men. The momentum of the game changed and that extra class told as the Premier League side capitalised on tiring opponents. A superb one-two between Carny Chukwemeka and Cole Palmer made it 3-2, the sub finishing superbly and if that wasn’t to your taste a spectacular fourth from the left foot of Madeuke, 25 yards out with just about the last touch of the game made it 4-2. A game not without incident, Leicester grew into the game following the own goal but at times they were carved open too easily by Chelsea’s quicker thinking. Leicester City’s cup run is over, the players gave their best, however if they are to be promoted back to the top flight this type of quality will be the norm week in week out.

Chelsea 5-2 Leicester City

Adrian and I set off at 8am and
got on the M1 Southbound and got off at Lutterworth to pick a friend up. We
then continued towards the capital.

We reached Toddington Services at 9:30am for a toilet stop before continuing
towards Kingsbury.

When we arrived at Kingsbury, we went for a coffee while we waited for the
ticket kiosk to open at Kingsbury Station. We then got on the Jubilee Line to
Bond Street where we got on the Central Line towards Notting Hill Gate before
our final change onto the District Line towards Fulham Broadway.

When we arrived, we took a short walk to the ground where we ate our sandwiches
and greeted the team bus before going into the stadium.

The oldest stand, the East Stand
is located along the east side of the pitch and was built in 1973. Originally the East Stand was intended as
the start of a comprehensive redevelopment of the stadium which was abandoned
when the football club ran into financial difficulties. The next oldest stand
is the Matthew Harding Stand which is named after former Chelsea director,
whose investment helped transform the club in the early 1990s before his death
in a helicopter accident on 22 October 1996. His investment in the club enabled
construction of the stand which was completed in time for the 1996–97 season.The Shed End was next being opened in time for the 1997/98 season and along
with the Matthew Harding Stand is an area of the ground in which many vocal
fans congregate today. The West Stand was completed in 2001. The lower tier was
built on time and opened in 1998; however problems with planning permission
meant that it was not fully completed until 2001. The construction of the stand
was almost responsible for Chelsea's financial crisis, which would've seen the
club fall into administration but for the intervention of Roman Abramovich.

The game saw Chelsea hunt
down the Foxes winning 5-2 and going through to the Semi Finals. Chelsea’s goals
were scored by Fernando Torres (twice), a header by Gary Cahill, Salomon Kalou and
finished off by Raul Meireles . City’s two goals came from a rebound off the
post for Jermaine Beckford to open Leicester’s scoring and a final stunner of a
goal rose into the net by Ben Marshall.

We left the ground in a mass crowd towards the Tube. We got on the Eastbound
Train on the District Line towards Westminster where we changed onto the
Jubilee Line towards Stanmore and we eventually got off at Kingsbury at 5:15pm
and walked back to the car.

Chelsea 4-3 Leicester City

Stamford Bridge is home of Chelsea (The Blues). This was another trip Adrian and I were looking forward too. We parked on a road called Brockleyside and walk down to Stanmore tube station eventually getting off at Fulham Broadway Tube Station. The game ended Chelsea wining 4-3 in a close contest between both teams. Chelsea's goals scored by Lampard (3) and Shevchenko. Leicester's goals were scored by Gareth McAuley, DJ Campbell and Carl Cort. On our way back after being told Fulham Broadway tube station is closed, we had to walk to Earls Court tube station to our return to Stanmore tube station and also to find out that two junctions on the M1 were closed. Brilliant!
Stamford Bridge's oldest stand is their three tiered East Stand opened in 1973. The three other stands, Shed End, West stand and the Matthew Harding Stand have all been re-developed between 1990 and 2001. Stamford Bridge was the biggest club stadium in London until Arsenal taken that record away from them with their new Emirates Stadium housing 60,000 supporters.