Champions League final as the Blues thrashed Maribor 6-0 at
Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
The veteran striker, who netted with both a late equaliser and
the deciding penalty versus Bayern Munich in Germany two-
and-a-half years ago, obliged from the spot again in a welcome
easy win.
Chelsea had begun their European campaign with a lacklustre
draw against Schalke and a hard-fought victory at Sporting
Lisbon, but they are now firmly on course to top their group for
the ninth time in 12 seasons.
The one negative on a comfortable night for Jose Mourinho's
side was a groin injury suffered by opening scorer Loic Remy.
With Diego Costa nursing a hamstring problem, the Premier
League leaders could now be short of attacking options for
Sunday's domestic trip to Manchester United.
Maribor were unbeaten in eight Champions League games this
term prior to this, including a win at Celtic and two draws in
Group G, but they were outclassed by Chelsea's slick passing an
movement on this occasion.
Captain John Terry also netted for the hosts and Eden Hazard
scored a late double, while the visitors' misery was compounde
by an own goal from Mitja Viler and a missed spot-kick by Agim
Ibraimi.
Petr Cech enjoyed his second start of the season, with Thibaut
Courtois rested on the bench alongside Gary Cahill, as Kurt
Zouma also came in.
Filipe Luis featured at left-back in front Cesar Azpilicueta – sent
off against Crystal Palace on Saturday - with Remy up front as
Costa and Andre Schurrle missed out through injury and illness.
Chelsea survived an early scare when Damjan Bohar headed
over from a Viler cross, but they were in front after 13 minutes
when Remy latched onto a through ball from Terry, cut inside
and clinically found the bottom-right corner of the net.
However, the France forward suffered a groin injury in making
that shot and had to be replaced by Drogba, who doubled
Chelsea's advantage when sending the goalkeeper the wrong
way with a 23rd minute spot-kick after Ales Mertelj was
somewhat harshly penalised for handball.
It was three on the half-hour mark as Chelsea broke away from
defending a corner and a superb move involving Hazard and
Cesc Fabregas was rather surprisingly finished off by Terry at
the far post.
The fourth came nine minutes into the second period when
Filipe caused havoc by surging down the left and his cross was
cut back by Hazard, before deflecting into the net off Viler for
an own goal.
Maribor were offered a chance to hit back when Nemanja Matic
bundled over Ibraimi in the box, but the striker then hit the post
with his penalty.
England youth international Dominic Solanke was given his
Chelsea debut shortly after his 17th birthday when replacing
Oscar.
Willian hit the crossbar with a thunderous long-range strike
before Branislav Ivanovic went down in the area and this time
Hazard coolly slotted home from the spot.
The Belgium international then put the icing on the cake in the
90th minute when racing onto a long throughball from Nathan
Ake before firing in his second and Chelsea's sixth.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
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