Blues beat United on penalties
Chelsea have won the first silverware of the new season, claiming the FA Community Shield by defeating league champions Manchester United on penalties. The game went to spot kicks because United's Wayne Rooney tied the score deep into stoppage time. Michael Ballack started on the bench but came on for John Obi Mikel on 65 minutes, when it was 1-1. He converted Chelsea's second penalty in the shoot-out to make it 2-0.
Some 86,000 at Wembley saw United take an early lead when Luis Nani struck home from outisde the box on nine minutes. However, the Blues should have been a goal up at that point because first Didier Drogba forced a great save from Ben Foster (2'), then a Branislav Ivanovic effort from close range was blocked and hit the crossbar (5'). Yet Nani's goal seemed to knock the air out of the Blues, as Petr Cech had to make a few fine saves to prevent another goal, denying Dimitar Berbatov (18') or Darren Fletcher (42').
But Chelsea came back after the break. Ricardo Carvalho made it 1-1 with a header after United's keeper, under pressure, failed to clear a Florent Malouda cross far enough (52'). A few minutes later, though, Foster did very well to deny Nicolas Anelka (56'). On 71 minutes, the Blues went ahead under slightly controversial circumstances. There was nothing wrong with Frank Lampard's finishing from Drogba's pass, but United felt the Blues should have played the ball into touch during the build-up, as Antonio Valencia was lying on the ground following a collision with Ballack. In the end, this scene did not prove to be the deciding moment, because Rooney scored from a Ryan Giggs pass with almost 92 minutes on the clock.
Under the rules of the tradition-laden curtain raiser, the Community Shield was now decided on penalties, no extra time was played. Lampard, Ballack, Drogba and Salomon Kalou found the target, while Petr Cech saved from Giggs and Patrice Evra. Thus only Michael Carrick scored for United and the Blues won, 4-1.
