ian2494
28-07-2007, 10:16 PM
Chelsea suffered their first defeat of pre-season as they went down 2-0 at ibrox against rangers. Both walter smith and jose mourinho used most of their first-team squads, but it was the home side who claimed success. chelsea were solid but far from spectacular throughout the 90 minutes although they could have easily been ahead before rangers scored. Substitutes john obi mikel and claudio pizarro had efforts well saved by the gers back-line with roy carroll and carlos cuellar both making goal-line stops. Rangers went ahead with just five minutes left as they caught chelsea on the break, chris burke fed nacho novo on the edge of the box and his shot left hilario with no chance as the ball nestled into the corner. Filip sebo, who had earlier missed a gilt-edged chance to put rangers ahead, made amends as he picked up the ball from damarcus beasley and fired home into the corner, albeit with a slight deflection off ricardo carvalho. One real bright note for chelsea was the earlier than expected return of england's ashley cole - who came on to play for the last half hour.