asia trophy 2011 pennant
asia trophy 2011 pennant
Before the Blues take on Juventus at the Kai Tak Stadium on Wednesday, we revisit our last game in Hong Kong, 15 years ago now, with the help of a piece of memorabilia in the Chelsea Museum.
It was the summer of 2011 and the Blues’ tour of the Far East was coming to an end. Under the fresh management of Andre Villas-Boas, Chelsea had defeated a Malaysian XI in Kuala Lumpur and a Thailand XI in Bangkok. The next stop was Hong Kong, to compete in the Barclays Asia Trophy.
Local side Kitchee awaited us in the semi-finals at the Hong Kong Stadium and were duly despatched 4-0, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba among those on the scoresheet. In the other semi-final, Aston Villa edged past fellow Premier League side Blackburn Rovers 1-0, Darren Bent the goalscorer.
Chelsea’s media conference on the eve of the final was carried out by Villas-Boas and promising 18-year-old midfielder Josh McEachran, who had made his senior debut a year earlier and caught the eye on pre-season.
McEachran told reporters how fortunate he considered himself to have been guided by the Chelsea Academy since the age of eight, with Blues coaches helping him make the most of his very obvious natural talent.
'With Chelsea, as you are growing up, they always work on your technique, so I have worked on my passing since I was a little kid and it is probably one of my best abilities,’ said McEachran. ‘Comfort on the ball is about getting into the right positions.
'My first ever training session with the first team was when a couple of young ones went over when [Luiz Felipe] Scolari was the manager and I was a bit taken back by it all. I was about 15 and they were all good to me, they all helped me out. I found it good, it was just a great experience.
'Now it has been really good coming out to Asia. I just hope to go on from here and I want to get more minutes this year, but obviously it is up to Andre. If he thinks I am good enough to play for Chelsea then I want to stay, but if he thinks it is better for me to go out on loan then I will go out on loan.'
Villas-Boas confirmed that McEachran would be involved in the final, when the Blues would be seeking a fifth consecutive shutout of pre-season. That statistic understandably pleased Petr Cech, back in the side after injury.
'It's great to start with clean sheets, we only needed one goal against Malaysia, against Portsmouth, and everything becomes easy if you are not conceding,’ said the keeper.
'We hope in this game it continues, we have very good Premier League opposition but I hope we can carry on playing well. This is the main target, but ideally we will win the game.'
The Blues lined up in a 4-3-3 shape at the sold-out Hong Kong Stadium, where just under 40,000 people were in attendance.
As promised, McEachran was deployed in an attacking midfield role, alongside Lampard, with John Mikel Obi holding. Nicolas Anelka, Daniel Sturridge and Florent Malouda led the Chelsea attack.
The Chelsea starting XI was: Cech; Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry (c), Zhirkov; Lampard, Mikel, McEachran; Sturridge, Anelka, Malouda
Before kick-off, the Blues’ delegation received the pennant that is pictured top and below, and now located in our Museum, a gift from the Premier League marking our presence in the showpiece occasion, which was last played in 2019.
On the pitch, we started perfectly. McEachran slammed home his first senior Chelsea goal inside the opening 60 seconds. Chelsea dominance followed, but it wasn’t until the hour mark that we doubled our lead, sub Fernando Torres cleverly redirecting Malouda’s ambitious long-range drive with his first touch of the game.
Captain John Terry lifted the same trophy he got his hands on eight years prior, in Kuala Lumpur, to the delight of the massed ranks of Blues inside the stadium. It is located around ten kilometres south of the new arena Xabi Alonso’s side will step out in against Juve.
Understandably McEachran grabbed the headlines after another impressive display, earning praise from his experienced midfield partner Lampard.
'Josh gives something in the middle of the park, a great elegance in the way he plays,’ said our former no.8.
‘He can see balls, play a pass and is stronger than what his frame looks like it would be. He'll be a top player. He's probably not going to play 50 games this season but you can see already he'll be involved a lot more and that's great for him.
‘We've trained with him for a couple of years now and from the moment he stepped in you could see he had that ability to receive it, and people respected him straight away.'
The squad flew home to England after the game where preparations for the 2011/12 campaign continued with a week of training at Cobham and a trip to play Rangers before the real stuff got underway.
And we all know how the campaign concluded…
Bothgeneral admission ticketsandClub Chelsea’s VIP passesare available for our big game against Juventus. Club Chelsea’s hospitality package is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go beyond the match with exclusive access.