Valencia 1-1 Chelsea: As It Happened

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FULL TIME: Valencia 1-1 Chelsea 

Salomon Kalou cost Chelsea the game when he decided to just stick his arm in the air hoping referee Nicola Rizzoli wasn't brave enough to make the call. 

Well the Italian was and it was such a daft penalty to give away. As the late Sir Bobby Robson once said, "daft as a brush."

For all the good attacking football Valencia played, Chelsea were great on the counter, and if not for Diego Alves who made at least three 1 on 1 saves, Valencia would have lost by at least a two goal margin. 

Man of the match: Diego Alves. Brilliant today. Just brilliant. 

Liability of the match: José Bosingwa. Really just lost at sea when it comes to defending. The right flank was so vacant and look... when Sofiane Feghouli gets past you, surely you need to up your game. 

Fernando Torres grading: D | Early in the game,  David Albelda cuts his own defence open with a pass to Torres who as he's through on goal miscontrols the ball. He also really couldn't get anything out of Adil Rami, who was fortunate to escape a booking when he took out Torres in an off the ball incident. Referee Nicola Rizzoli is a disciplinarian so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn't see it. 

What's unfortunate is that Torres could have scored if not for Alves pulling off a wonder save. Then he was substituted when Chelsea were playing their best bit of football. 

A lot for the Spaniard to mull over because he'll be sitting out of the Premier League for a good month or so. 

I disagreed with Ramires coming off. If anything, he should have stayed on. Why take him off? He's the Blue Kenyan so fitness isn't an issue. You can't say he wasn't playing well because he was running box-to-box and only earlier had dissected the Valencia defence and shot straight at Alves in a 1 on 1 situation. 

As Fernando Torres warned coming into the game, playing Valencia at Estadio Mestalla is hard. 

A point is good but the missed opportunities really are a worry. Hopefully it's just a one off and can be attributed to Alves having a wonderful game. 

Also I hope Opta do a statistic on how many 1 on 1s Ramires has missed this season. I think it's at least three, maybe even four. It's amazing all his chances are created by him just bursting through the box demonstrating how remarkably fit he is. It's a great sight to see him running box-to-box. To think, people doubted his talent when he first started playing (to be fair to the critics, the Brazilian was awful). 

90+3'- Well, I did say referee Nicola Rizzoli likes to control the game with yellow cards. When you hurl verbal abuse at him. You're going to get yellow carded. What stupid bookings from Juan Mata and Ashley Cole. Especially when the game is finished. 

90+2'- YELLOW! Florent Malouda takes down Jordi Alba. Víctor Ruiz clatters Malouda in the box and in frustration, Malouda takes down Alba. 

90+1'- Horrible touch, the type of touch Fernando Torres had earlier in the game when he was put through on goal, by Roberto Soldado. If he had taken that perfectly, maybe Valencia are 2-1 up. 

90'- Three additional minutes to be played. 

90'- Eight saves from Diego Alves today. Some freakish ones too. 

89'- DAMMIT. Not again. Nicolas Anelka 1 on 1 and Diego Alves makes a great save with his feet. 

88'- Valencia have all the momentum. Chelsea just have to hope they can sucker punch Los Che on the counter. 

86'- GOAL!!! Roberto Soldado converts his penalty. 

Well if there's a scapegoat today, it will be Salomon Kalou. What was he thinking in raising his arm? It was cheeky but referee Nicola Rizzoli  was brave and stuck to his guns. Just astounded that he spotted that. 

85'- YELLOW CARD! PENALTY!!! What happened here? How did referee Nicola Rizzoli see that? Seemingly an innocuous raised arm from Salomon Kalou to deflect the trajectory of the ball. 

Can Roberto Soldado score? 

84'- That's one for the highlight reels. Pretty looking save from Petr Čech to deny Jonas. 

83'- Jordi Alba showing a lot of pace to again track back. Perhaps the fastest on the pitch right now. 

82'- Chelsea substitution

• OFF: Frank Lampard
• ON: Salomon Kalou

81'- Sofiane Feghouli gets past José Bosingwa and surprisingly John Obi Mikel comes in for the vital deflection. Second vital block from the Nigerian. 

80'- The last 10 or so minutes will be Valencia raiding Chelsea's goal. Chelsea need to be resilient in defence and counter efficiently. 

79'- José Bosingwa steps on Jordi Alba's foot... surely he knew referee Nicola Rizzoli would see that?

77'- Another misplaced cross from Miguel. Has he put in a decent cross this game? 

76'- A odd decision from Adil Rami who takes a shot out from way way out. 

75'- Pablo Piatti just flashes his shot wide of Petr Čech's far post. Piatti has been lively so far. 

74'- Good one touch pass from John Obi Mikel to release José Bosingwa. If only Mikel could do this more often than not. 

72'- 

Chelsea substitution

• OFF: Fernando Torres
• ON: Nicolas Anelka

Valencia substitution

• OFF: Éver Banega
• ON: Jonas

Valencia substitution

• OFF: Pablo 
• ON: Sofiane Feghouli

70'- What vision from Éver Banega as he dinks the ball over the Chelsea defence for Pablo Piatti to shoot 1 on 1. Petr Čech makes a good save high to his right. 

69'- Juan Mata throws himself onto the floor looking for a penalty. Never going to be given. Get up Mata. 

67'- Nicolas Anelka looks set to come on. For Fernando Torres? 

66'- I would have taken off John Obi Mikel who has been a passenger so far but oh well.