Chelsea vs. Valencia Live Commentary (20:50)

Chelsea 2 - 1 Valencia

Here we go! I have the line-ups for tonights fixture.
Valencia
Canizares, Ayala, Del Horno, Miguel, Moretti, Albeta, Albiol, Joaquin, Silva, Morientes, Villa
Chelsea
Cech, Carvalho, Cole, Terry, Ballack, Diarra, Essien, Lampard, Mikel, Drogba, Shevchenko

Very nice line-ups in my mind. Music and crowd rowidiness to come in a few minutes...

The boys are antsy in the hallway about to walk out with the kids. The Mestalla is quite loud tonight. I think they know what is on the line. They also know their formidable opponents.

It seems Albeda and Ayala are both on yellows as well as Essien and Diarra for Chelsea. If any of them get another, they will be spectators for the following match.

1min: Chelsea in all blue from left to right and Valencia White, black, white attacking right to left.
2min: Mikel caught in his corner and gives it up to future Liverpool player, David Villa, but it amounts to nothing.
4min: Essien fouls a Valencia player. The ball comes in, off the resulting free kick, to the top of the box, Chelsea clears.
7min: Mikel takes out Villa as if Nigeria were under attack from Spain, resulting in a free kick!
10min: Valencia corner results in nothing. The chance was there, but so was Cech.
11min: Chelsea corner. Ayala got a nice piece of Didier Drogba. Now he's sorting his head out. It seems he's fine and going to be inserted back into the line-up after he walked off the pitch of his own will.
15min: Free kick to Chelsea amounts to....nothing. This seems like a set-piece re-occuring nightmare. The same thing happened to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a week ago. JoMo better work on that on the training pitch.
20min: Chelsea corner to Ballack who heads it directly into Blondie's open arms. Good chance for Ballack. He should have done better with that one.
23min: Another Chelsea corner...nothing. The referee is sorting out some defensive differences.
29min: Ooooooohhhhh, David Villa brought the ball down the right flank and flicked it to Morientes, in the middle, who in turn took one touch to set it up and cracked it directly off of Petr Cech's right side post! Wow that was a dinger!
31min: GOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLL! Fernando Morientes flicked a loveley cross from Joaquin past a lonely Petr Cech!
34min: Ooooooohhhhh, Valencia almost struck again from Morientes.
37min: Valencia with a one/two from Joaquin and Silva amounts to nothing inside the Chelsea box.
39min: Ooooooohhhhhh, Didier Drobgba put a header from waaaayyy out almost past Canizares. In fact it did pass him but it his the cross bar and he retrieved the rebound. On second look, it hit the keepers hand and not the bar. Nice save Santiago!
42min: Frank Lampard tries to lead Ashley Cole into the Valencia corner, only to send it way too long. Frank isn't on tonight.
44min: Alot of kick about in the middle of the park. Some nice quick passing from Chelsea until Del Horno takes out Sheva from behind and gets himself a yellow card in the meantime.
46min: Oooooooohhhhh, Sheva takes a shot just wide of the Valencia goal.
Half-Time: Chelsea do not look good tonight. Lampard is useless and there is no real build up for the Premiership Champs. Perhaps Manchester United will win this year. Valencia on the other hand are attacking well and Morientes should have bagged two already tonight.

I see Manchester United/Christiano Ronaldo is treating Roma like the useless step-children with fake passports that they are. Good. Four - Nill in case you are wondering. Send them back to Italy to deal with their real problems, like wankers who fancy themselves kung-fu artists!

46min: Joe Cole is on the pitch...look for some fancy work on the left side. Diarra came off to make space for Joe Cole.
47min: One touch training ground passing from Chelsea now. Until a Valencia foul. Chelsea must have touched it about 10 times without Valencia grabbing it.
48min: It seems our JoMo lit a fire under his players arses during the halftime talk. They are a different team at the moment. They are actually playing for a Champions League spot now.
50min: Albeda foul on Drogba...free kick Chelsea
51min: GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLL...Chelsea 1 - 1 Valencia. Cross in from the right into Drogba, who hit it first time. It deflected off two Valencia defenders right onto a surging Ukranian! Shevchenko didn't waste that one!
54min: It would appear that 'next goal wins' this tie. The way Chelsea are attacking at the moment, I would guess them. Although football tends to be a bit uneasy that way.
57min: I see JoMo is up off the bench! Something is rocking his boat.
60min: Ayala challenges for a header with Drogba and earns himself a yellow card. If I'm not mistaken, he's out of the next match for Valencia, if they were to make it through.
64min: Valencia Substitution, Angulo, on; Goal scorer, Morientes, off
66min: I have no clue why Morientes was taken off the pitch. He was playing very well. Perhaps Valencia want some fresh toes up top.
67min: Oooooohhhhhhh, the ball fell to Drogba at the top of the box. He too the shot between two defenders right into Canizares' hands.
68min: Ooooooohhhhh, Joe Cole had one defender to beat and launched it high and extremely wide. He should have done better although he hasn't played for quite a spell.
70min: I think John Terry took out David Villa...I'll give you details in a second though. Hugo Viana, the Tottenham reject is on!
74min: Oooooohhhh, Joe Cole just offside (actually alot offside), but he puts the ball in the net anyhow. That is reassuring for Chelsea.
76min: Chelsea attacking like they should right now. Corner kick comes to nothing. It wasn't David Villa who Terry took out as he has the ball at the moment. Not too sure who that was now. He had dark hair though!
78min: Cashley Dole gives Valencia an important corner and complains. It amounts to nothing...kind of fitting, don't you think. Oooooooooohhhhhhhh!, Angulo found himself free on the left side of the Chelsea box and proceeded to kick it into row G. How disappointing that must me. Morientes would have bagged it.
82min: Kalou is getting ready on the touchline. Not sure what that is going to do but he is.
84min: Free kick for Chelsea....Oooooooohhhhh Lampard put an inswinger into Ballack who redirected it on goal only for Santiago to put el mano to it again! Brilliant save, yet again from the old blondie! Is he old? He seems like he's been around for a while. He's 'wise', I know that!
87min: A bit of knock about at the moment. Nothing really threatening either way.
91min: Ooooooohhhh, GOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL, Essien blasts a shot past Canizares from the right side, middle of the box to the left of the goalkeeper! He took that as if he were a seasoned striker, not a right back/holding midfielder! Well taken goal son!
92min: Substitution Chelsea; Shevchenko, out, Kalou, on
94min: Toot, toot, toot! Essien grabbed the match for Chelsea at the brink of extra time. None of that for the Londoners tonight as the Starchild hooks up a match winner again!

As of now there are two English teams in the final and the other has one foot inside the door. The Champions League trophy will be making its way to England this year. I believe that is a safe bet.

Nobody really stood out this match, but I have to give the Man of the Match to Michael Essien for his superb strike and the death!