Football for a good cause! In a "Legends of Europe" charity match, the Chelsea and FC Bayern veterans met on Saturday evening in front of 35,000 spectators at Stamford Bridge in west London. With their commitment on the pitch, the Blues and the Reds not only revived the great duels of the past in the hosts' 4-0 win, but also supported a good cause at the same time. All proceeds from the match went to charity, with equal shares going to the Chelsea Foundation and The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.
Élber, Terry and Co - big names on both sides
The squad for the German record champions’ Legends, coached by Stefan Effenberg and Raimond Aumann, comprised Tom Starke, Hans-Jörg Butt, Maximilian Riedmüller, Vladimir Rankovic, Diego Contento, Giovane Élber, Claudio Pizarro, Thomas Linke, Roy Makaay, Harald Cerny, Owen Hargraves, Paulo Sérgio, Michael Tarnat, Piotr Trochowski, Daniel van Buyten, Marcel Witeczek, Michael Sternkopf, Thomas Helmer and Lúcio.
The Chelsea Legends squad, supervised by Roberto di Matteo, featured Frank Lebœuf, Hillario, Tiago Mendes, Gianfranco Zola, Michael Essien, Tore André Flo, Sam Hutchinson, Salomon Kalou, Carlo Cudicini, Danny Granville, John Harley, Pierluigi Casiraghi, John Terry, William Gallas, Claude Makelele, Ryan Bertrand, Florent Malouda, Jody Morris, Frank Sinclair, Eiður Guðjohnsen, Petr Čech, Gary Cahill, John Obi Mikel and Ramires.
Chelsea dominate first period
In an entertaining match over two 30-minute periods, the hosts got off to the better start in front of their home crowd. After 23 minutes, the Blues were rewarded with the opening goal through Michael Essien, who headed home Ramires' cross from the right. Just three minutes later, the London team struck a second time through John Terry. Former Framce star Florent Malouda delivered the ball accurately into the box from the left, where Chelsea captain was in the right place and netted the second goal of the evening.
Evenly-matched second half
The opening phase of the second half belonged to Bayern. Central defender Daniel van Buyten made his presence felt twice on the attack after the restart, but his finish from distance sailed wide. The biggest opportunity of the second half also fell to Munich. Marcel Witeczek loosed off a shot from just under 18 metres on 52 minutes, but his finish only rattled the crossbar. Shortly before the end, Gary Cahill put away a Gianfranco Zola assist to make it 3-0, with Tiago Mendes rounding off the scoring in stoppage time.
At the Allianz FC Bayern Team Presentation, the FC Bayern Legends celebrated their success in the Wembley 2013 re-match against BVB:
