Chelsea 0 – 0 Manchester City
54 mins: Oh dear…
James Trafford received the ball and had a lapse in concentration and let the ball run out of play – gifting Chelsea a corner.
They could not capitalise on the free chance.
Chelsea 0 – 0 Manchester City
England manager Thomas Tuchel is in attendance no doubt with a very keen on the English players out on the pitch ahead of this summer’s World Cup.
Chelsea 0 – 0 Manchester City
47 mins: Cherki almost made an instant impact, finding Nico O’Reilly with a lovely pass and O’Reilly hangs up a wonderful ball for Semenyo at the back post.
Semenyo ascends above Cucurella but can only put the header just over the bar.
Second Half underway: Chelsea 0 – 0 Manchester City
46 mins: Guardiola makes a singular change at half time, bringing off Marmoush who had looked a bit at sea in the first half. He makes way for the mercurial Rayan Cherki.
Chelsea remain the same.
HT: Chelsea 0 – 0 Manchester City
Some action shots from the first half
The case for Cherki
The most incisive pass of the match by a City player has come from centre-back Marc Guehi when he released Erling Haaland a couple of minutes ago. That may underline the case to bring on Cherki.”
Half time: Chelsea 0 – 0 Manchester City
HT: A slow first half characterised by a lack of clear cut chances, if you had to pick one, you would say that City were probably the team on top.
Changes might be on for City during the break.
Chelsea were hanging on in the first stanzas of that half, but showed a bit more impetus in the final 15 minutes to match City’s intensity and create a chance or two.
Chelsea 0 – 0 Manchester City
45 + 1 mins: A penalty shout as Joao Pedro is played through but Khusanov uses his exceptional physicality to push Pedro off the ball, who goes down.
It is almost immediately checked and cleared by VAR
Chelsea 0 – 0 Manchester City
40 mins: A period of about five minutes of sustained pressure from Chelsea including multiple trips into the City box has been rewarded with a corner.
Its brought to an end as they concede a free kick, but Chelsea are looking for a stronger finish to the half.
A poor game of football
10 minutes from half-time and this has been a poor game of football. Very few chances, Chelsea digging in.
“It was maybe summed up by a moment when Cole Palmer seemed to be striding through well… only to lose the ball.
“At the other end, Erling Haaland had an opening on the left and was bearing down on goal, but then bizarrely opted to hammer the ball across the box.”
