{"id":58528,"date":"2014-10-22T09:31:35","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T09:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=58528"},"modified":"2014-10-22T09:31:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T09:31:35","slug":"drogba-scores-as-chelsea-earn-emphatic-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=58528","title":{"rendered":"Drogba scores as Chelsea earn emphatic win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Didier Drogba scored his first goal since rejoining Chelsea as they recorded their biggest Champions League win with a dominant victory against Maribor at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n

Loic Remy swept in the opener but was quickly replaced by Drogba after injuring himself when scoring.<\/p>\n

Drogba then converted a penalty before John Terry slid in a third.<\/p>\n

A Mitja Viler own goal put Chelsea in command before Eden Hazard scored a penalty and drove in a late sixth.<\/p>\n

Agim Ibraimi hit the post with a penalty for Maribor, but in truth the Slovenians were well beaten.<\/p>\n

Chelsea have seven points from three games to sit top of Group G, and will be confident of reaching the knockout stage.<\/p>\n

It was almost the perfect win for boss Jose Mourinho, although the injury to Remy was a cause for concern.<\/p>\n

With Diego Costa out with a hamstring injury, the Blues could face Sunday’s Premier League trip to Manchester United with Drogba as the club’s only fit first-team striker.<\/p>\n

For now, Mourinho will surely be satisfied with another impressive performance from his side which extends their run of wins to 10 from 12 games in all competitions.<\/p>\n

\"Chelsea<\/p>\n

Eden Hazard scored his third and fourth goals of the season against Maribor<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

They are still to be beaten, having drawn their other two games. One of those was in the Champions League, when Schalke took a point at Stamford Bridge, but there was never any danger of Maribor doing likewise.<\/p>\n

After Damjan Bohar planted a header on the roof of the net for the Slovenians, it was all Chelsea – and it did not take them long to go in front.<\/p>\n

Terry’s smart pass from halfway cut open the Maribor defence and Remy timed his run to perfection to beat the offside trap, cut inside Maribor’s Marko Suler and sweep a low shot into the far corner from the edge of the area.<\/p>\n

Remy had little time to celebrate, as he immediately pulled up in discomfort and had to be replaced by Drogba moments later.<\/p>\n

If Maribor harboured hope the change would disrupt Chelsea’s momentum, that was dispelled when Drogba scored his first goal for the club since the match-winning penalty against Bayern Munich in the 2012 Champions League final.<\/p>\n

Midfielder Ales Mertelj handled Willian’s pass inside the Maribor area and Drogba stepped up to thump in the resulting spot-kick.<\/p>\n

Maribor had started the game with attacking intent but became increasingly withdrawn, as Chelsea looked capable of scoring every time they went forward.<\/p>\n

That, though, only invited further Chelsea pressure, and the home side scored a deserved third when Terry burst into the box to slide in a Cesc Fabregas low cross.<\/p>\n

Petr Cech, starting in the Chelsea goal for only the second time this season, had little to do throughout the game, but he was alert to keep out a deflected Tavares strike early in the second half.<\/p>\n

Any hope Maribor had of fighting back was ended soon after when Viler diverted Hazard’s near-post shot into his own net, before Ibraimi swept a penalty against the post to sum up a miserable evening for the visitors.<\/p>\n

With Maribor looking deflated and the win safe, Mourinho handed 17-year-old England youth international striker Dominic Solanke his senior debut for final minutes of the game.<\/p>\n

There was still time, though, for Hazard to take centre stage as he rolled in a penalty after Branislav Ivanovic was fouled, before capping a fine overall display by expertly bringing Nathan Ake’s high ball under control and curling home.<\/p>\n

\"Chelsea<\/p>\n

Loic Remy scored in a Champions League game for the first time since December 2011, when he scored for Marseille against Dortmund<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Chelsea<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remy had to be substituted soon after scoring after suffering an injury when taking the shot<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Chelsea<\/strong><\/p>\n

Didier Drogba has scored in the Champions League for 12 consecutive seasons<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Chelsea<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Terry’s goal was his first of the season for Chelsea<\/strong><\/p>\n

–<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source: BBC Sport<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Didier Drogba scored his first goal since rejoining Chelsea as they recorded their biggest Champions League win with a dominant victory against Maribor at Stamford Bridge. Loic Remy swept in the opener but was quickly replaced by Drogba after injuring himself when scoring. Drogba then converted a penalty before John Terry slid in a third. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":58529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}