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Chelsea 4-0 Bayern Munich: Mikel Obi involved as legends pay homage to Gianluca Vialli

2013 AFCON Winner, John Mikel Obi, featured for Chelsea Legends last night at the Stamford Bridge as they defeated Bayern Legends.

 

Many famous faces were greeted warmly as a sold-out Stamford Bridge welcomed their idols back onto the pitch as Chelsea Legends trounced Bayern Munich Legends 4-0 yesterday night, Soccernet.ng reports.

The clash was in tribute to the late Gianluca Vialli, with the Blues side posing with a picture alongside his iconic number nine shirt before kick-off.

The Italian striker passed away at the start of the year, and the proceeds of the game raised funds for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and the Chelsea Foundation on Saturday.

The Chelsea Legends team featured a lot of their fan favourites, with John Terry, Petr Cech, Michael Essien, former Super Eagles captain – John Mikel Obi, Gary Cahill, Salomon Kalou, Florent Malouda and Gianfranco Zola.

Bayern’s Legends team included the likes of Giovane Elber, Claudio Pizarro, Roy Makaay, Owen Hargreaves, Lucio, Thomas Helmer and Hans-Jörg Butt.

Ghanian legend, Michael Essien got the blues off to a flying start as he headed home from another Chelsea legend, Ramires’s cross to open the scoring, and in the twenty-sixth minute, either by fate or coincidence, Chelsea’s legendary centre-back, and the famous number twenty-six doubled the lead.

Captain on the night, John Terry dribbled past Bayern players before linking up with Malouda, who returned the ball for Terry to score, and he paid homage to Vialli, as he pointed to the sky.

Terry and Cahill partnered together for Chelsea in defence for a total of a hundred and thirty-four games during their playing days, and the duo made sure the team kept a clean sheet, but this time, Cahill would be on the scoresheet, like he so often was in front of the 5th stand.

Claude Makelele came off the bench to win the ball in typical fashion before finding his fellow substitute, Gianfranco Zola out wide, and played a one-two with Cahill, who made a darting run into the box, and the ball found Tiago, who squared the ball to Cahill to send the Blues three up on the hour mark.

Tiago would then get his goal, as Essien played a through ball to the Portuguese, and he delicately chipped the goalkeeper to score the Blues’s fourth goal of the game, as they put a smile on the faces of a sold-out Stamford Bridge.

The game brought joy to the faces of Chelsea fans and they will be hoping the charity game will bring a turn of fortune to the club, after disappointing losses to Nottingham Forest and West Ham.

Adefolahan Guerreiro

Adefolahan is a multilingual journalist and writer at Soccernet Nigeria. With a Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and a track record of involvement in College sports, Adefolahan is focused on crafting engaging football content and utilising his language skills and extensive sports knowledge to enhance content accessibility for a global audience. He has interviewed Nigerian stars like Finidi George, Junior Lokosa, and Abraham Onahi Ogbu.

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