Match Report: Chelsea 7 – Ipswich Town 0
We finally turned the corner today with a 7-0 goal spree against Ipswich in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.
Doubles from Daniel Sturridge and Frank Lampard, as well as Salomon Kalou and Nicolas Anelka who all scored, with Ipswich midfielder Carlos Edwards putting into his own net, made it a hapless day for the Portman Road side as they were effectively swept aside.
We showed we were in the mood to get a victory in order to gain confidence after our recent struggles, with Daniel Sturridge, coming off of a five goal reserve team performance against Tottenham during the week, coming close early on.
Next up for an attempt on goal was Nicolas Anelka, who received the ball from Salomon Kalou, but he found Ipswich keeper Martin Fulop in form as the goalkeeper saved well to keep the sides level.
With a quarter of an hour gone we were given a bit of a scare when David Norris found Connor Wickham, but the teenager’s strike was cleared from danger by Patrick van Aanholt.
Ipswich then had a further chance when Jason Scotland had a strike on goal, but the Trinidad and Tobago hit man could not get his shot by Petr Cech.
Shortly after another chance for us when Frank Lampard passed towards Sturridge, who dummied the ball into the path of Anelka, but his strike was saved by Fulop and eventually cleared off the line by full back Troy Brown.
Just after the half hour we made the breakthrough when Anelka struck towards goal, his shot was parried by Fulop into the path of Kalou, who finished comfortably.
Things went from bad to worse for Ipswich two minutes later as Jose Bosingwa drilled a cross into the box where Sturridge back heeled the ball past Fulop into the net to further extend our lead.
With the half-time whistle approaching, we pretty much wrapped up the tie as Frank Lampard swung in a free-kick which was put into his own net by the unfortunate Edwards to give us a commanding three goal advantage going into the break.
The second half started the same as the first had finished, with Anelka getting on the score sheet as he ran on to the ball from both Josh McEachran and Sturridge finding the striker who rifled it past Fulop and into the back of the Ipswich goal to secure our FA Cup fourth round passage.
During the 52nd minute Sturridge received a ball from Lampard some eighteen yards out. He then went on to bend a delightful shot into the top corner to give us our fifth.
We kept the pressure on as Ancelotti decided to bring on Gael Kakuta for Kalou in order to give the youngster more experience in a game which was already dead and buried in our favour.
Ipswich, who looked really low on confidence, especially after the dismissal of their manager Roy Keane on Friday, finally got a shot on target in the second half, as Norris had a strike from way out which was comfortably saved by Petr Cech.
We were forced into making a change when van Aanholt went off with an injury. Ancelotti replaced him with Jeffrey Bruma
Just before the match got into its final few minutes; it was time for the Frank Lampard show.
Two goals in a span of two minutes gave us our sixth and seventh of the game. The midfielder scored his first goal from twenty yards out and then a minute later rushed into the Ipswich area to find the back of the net, after receiving a cross from Ivanovic.
We continued to dominate for the rest of the tie as Ipswich supporters began to console themselves by chanting “Bring on the Arsenal!” (their opponents next Wednesday in the semi final of the League Cup).
We can now look forward to a fourth round clash against Everton at Goodison Park.
Gill Reeves CSG disabled rep
Game stats from the BBC website:
Chelsea 7-0 Ipswich
(HT 3-0)
Kalou 33
Sturridge 33
Edwards (og) 41
Anelka 49
Sturridge 52
Lampard 78
Lampard 79
Chelsea
01 Cech
02 Ivanovic
17 Bosingwa
26 Terry
38 Van Aanholt (Bruma 70)
07 Ramires
08 Lampard
46 McEachran
21 Kalou (Kakuta 55)
23 Sturridge
39 Anelka
Substitutes
40 Hilario, 19 Ferreira, 43 Bruma, 05 Essien, 15 Malouda, 11 Drogba, 44 Kakuta
Ipswich
21 Fulop
02 Peters
04 McAuley
22 Brown
48 O’Dea
07 Edwards
08 Norris – yellow card
24 Healy
39 Kennedy
09 Wickham (Priskin 63)
10 Scotland (Murray 49)
Substitutes
12 Lee-Barrett, 05 Delaney, 20 Smith, 23 Eastman, 26 Civelli, 16 Priskin, 28 Murray
Ref: D’Urso
Att: 41,654