Torres nets winner for Chelsea at Cardiff

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Cardiff City 1 Chelsea 2

Fernando Torres scored the winner as Chelsea came from behind to end their season with a victory.

Substitute Andre Schurrle netted on the rebound on 72 minutes to cancel out Craig Bellamy’s deflected opener.

And three minutes later Schurrle headed the ball to Torres, who had plenty of time to finish low in to the net from close range.

Chelsea started promisingly and should have been ahead inside five minutes when calamitous defending saw Torres left with an open goal.

However, the Spaniard never looked comfortable on his left foot and Steven Caulker did brilliantly to race back and clear as the ball headed towards goal.

Eden Hazard then shot over before the hosts went ahead when Bellamy’s speculative strike from the edge of the box took a massive deflection off Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta and wrong-footed keeper Mark Schwarzer.

Mo Salah should have levelled seconds later only to shoot woefully over from 15 yards after fine work by Hazard.

And Oscar brilliantly beat the offside trap but was also denied by some fine recovery defending when City defender Ben Turner lunged in to divert the ball for a corner.

In an increasingly open half, Salah missed a hat-trick of chances. The misfiring Egyptian was way off target with two strikes but unlucky with a fizzing effort that went narrowly past the post.

In between Salah’s series of chances, Frazier Campbell blazed wildly over at the other end after a mazy run.

Salah’s personal crusade continued after the interval, the midfielder firing another shot wide and having another couple of unconvincing shots blocked.

Torres curled a decent attempt just beyond the far upright and Hazard smashed a shot in to the side netting after some neat build-up play on the left involving Ashley Cole.

Finally Chelsea’s persistence was rewarded.

Schurrle saw his miscued attempt bounce down and into the roof of the net after Azpilicueta’s header had been superbly saved by David Marshall and the full-back’s follow-up hit the bar.

After Torres’ goal, Hazard almost added a third but could not stretch to meet Schurrle’s cross, while Schurrle had a good curled strike saved and youngster John Swift came on for his Blues debut late on.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Schwarzer; Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Kalas, Cole; Mikel (Schurrle 66) Matic; Salah (Ake 78) Oscar, Hazard (Swift 89); Torres.
Subs not used: Hilario, Luiz, Ba, Cahill.

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