MATCH REPORT: BNI INDONESIA ALL-STARS 1 CHELSEA 8

Summary
An enormous and vociferous crowd of Chelsea fans came to see the team on our Indonesian debut and they were rewarded with goals galore, including some quality strikes, as the Asia tour ended in style.

The Chelsea goals were split equally between the halves – Eden Hazard, Ramires, Demba Ba and John Terry the scorers before half-time, with Ramires again finding the net after the interval and Romelu Lukaku scoring two as well. Bertrand Traore added to his goal in Malaysia shortly after coming on at half-time.

The sole goal from the Indonesian All-Stars was an own-goal, conceded when we were already 8-0 up. Gary Cahill was the one Chelseaman to play 90 minutes.

Team news
After two games using a 4-2-3-1 formation, a 4-3-3 shape was selected with Nathaniel Chalobah given a midfield role after two games in defence and Marco van Ginkel asked to play further forward.

Demba Ba started at centre-forward with Victor Moses on the right wing and Eden Hazard on the left. Jamal Blackman was in goal.

There were seven changes made at half-time, but the formation remained the same.

First half
There was plenty of support for both sides from the large crowd and the Indonesian All-Stars showed some composure on the ball in the early stages. They survived a couple of good Chelsea chances too but from the moment Jose Mourinho’s men took the lead, the belief appeared to drain from a side which was a selection of the best players, Indonesian and overseas footballers, from the national league.

The first fluid move of note by Chelsea ended with Hazard firing over the bar from the edge of the area, Chalobah, Van Ginkel and Terry having played a sequence of first-time passes to open the space for the Belgian to turn and run.

The next opportunity, 12 minutes in, was down to Van Ginkel stealing the ball from the dozing Sinaga on halfway. Hazard found Ba in the area but the striker’s shot on the turn lost power as it deflected off a defender. Two minutes later Ramires probably should have opened the scoring with a far-post header from Bertrand’s cross, but he gave the keeper a chance to save which was duly taken.

Moses then drilled a shot straight at Meiga which was not held, but Hazard lost the race to the loose ball which was cleared.

From the corner that followed, Chelsea were handed a penalty. Terry, inside the six-yard box was shooting when he was cut down by Hamsah and from the spot, Hazard wrong-footed Meiga and slotted the ball low to the right. The opener had come midway through the half.

An early chance to double the lead was scuffed by Ba, Van Ginkel having done well in the move, and the Blues hit the post twice in two minutes. Chalobah, who gave an accomplished performance, was the first denied, his a shot from 25 yards after Terry, Bertrand and Moses had all shown good vision to open up the home team. Then Wallace smashed a shot across goal and onto the far upright after Hazard had carried the ball forward from inside the Chelsea half.

The next attack hit the target. Hazard’s dribbling ability was again important and his scooped cross was nodded down by Bertrand to Ramires. The Brazilian spun and scored from 10 yards out.

The floodgates opened and Ba was in the right place two minutes later to strike the ball home after another Ramires shot was parried, Meiga only able to push it back out into the danger zone. We had already bettered Liverpool’s result here a few days ago with just over half an hour played.

Blackman had been largely untroubled and that continued for the rest of his part in this game. At the other end Van Ginkel had an effort saved and Hazard took too long to get his shot in when played clean through by Terry, so it was the skipper himself who gave the Blues a 4-0 half-time lead.

The Indonesian side were generally short in stature and especially in defence by European standards. That was always likely to be exposed and when a free-kick was floated in, first Cahill then Terry won headers, the latter hitting the net.

Second half
Chelsea were on the front foot from the whistle, Lukaku much involved, but it was Moses’s replacement Bertrand Traore who struck the fifth goal 50 minutes in, with a sumptuous strike into the top corner. Lukaku nodded the sixth from close range 90 seconds later from a Hazard cross from near the left corner flag. Again the lack of inches at the back told for the locals. They were powerless to stop the big Belgian from that near to goal.

A free-kick in a dangerous spot, given away by Kalas, brought a loud chant of encouragement for the home team, but Schwarzer tipped a good attempt over and it wasn’t long before Lukaku was bursting forward. His pass to Ramires was sweetly finished to make it 7-0. That now matched Arsenal’s result here this summer.

Another three subs on the hour knocked Chelsea out of our determined stride for a few minutes and the home team enjoyed some flashes of attack. Cahill had to nod one cross over the Chelsea bar.

But then the All-Stars defence played the offside all wrong and Lukaku was left in a huge space to score goal no. 8 from a pass from Piazon who would go to show some more good footwork out on the right.

Two minutes later the home side scored, or more accurately Tomas Kalas did for them, the ball diverted in by his shins as Greg Nwokolo fired it across the face of goal. The young Czech was clearly annoyed to have been caught out.

Before the end Lukaku was denied a rapid hat-trick by the stretching keeper but he will be pleased to have made the scoresheet in all three games.

Next stop, after a few days of rest back in the UK, is the United States for four more games, and then it’s home once more, for the Premier League to begin.

Chelsea (4-3-3): Blackman (Schwarzer h-t); Wallace (Ivanovic h-t), Cahill, Terry (c) (Kalas h-t), Bertrand (Cole h-t); Ramires (Feruz 59), Chalobah (Essien h-t), Van Ginkel (McEachran 59); Moses (Traore h-t), Ba (Lukaku h-t), Hazard (Piazon 59).
Scorers Hazard 21 pen, Ramires 29, 56, Ba 31, Terry 45, Traore 50, Lukaku 51, 66.

BNI Indonesia All-Stars Kurnia Meiga (Aji Saka 85), Muhamad Roby (c) (Hasim Kipuw h-t), Hamka Hamzah, Victor Nwokolo, Raphael Maitimo (Seftia Hadi 80); Rizky Pellu (Rasyid Assari Bakri 70), Ahmad Bustomi (Hendra Adi Bayauw 79); Andik Vermansyah (Bayu Gatra h-t), Syamsir Alam Egi Melgiansyah 59), Ferdinand Sinaga (Titus Bonray h-t); Greg Nwokolo (Agung Supriyanto 85).
Scorer Kalas o.g. 68.
Booked Bayu Gatra.

Referee Mahapab Chaiya.

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