Chelsea International Roundup

Plenty of Chelsea players all around the world have been involved in international action over the past few days, and it looks like they all made it through their matches safe and sound. Let's see what's been going on when the Blues, well, aren't in blue...

Denmark 1-2 England. Frank Lampard put on the England armband for the first time in his career and had goal disallowed as he led his country to a 2-1 victory over Denmark, with Aston Villa's Ashley Young and Darren Bent notching in reply to Daniel Agger's opener. While Lampard only played for the first half (presumably a testament to his rather dubious fitness), the other Chelsea players were involved for somewhat longer - John Terry played the full 90 minutes and Ashley Cole was substituted very late for Everton left-back Leighton Baines. Lampard, Terry, and Cole all played pretty well, although they didn't blow anyone away with their performances.

Spain 1-0 Colombia. Striker Fernando Torres came on as a second-half substitute for Barcelona's David Villa. David Silva scored a very late winner for the world champions in the 86th minute. Torres did little of note except receive an elbow to the face courtesy of Udinese's Pablo Armero.

France 1-0 Brazil. France beat ten-man Brazil thanks to a second-half goal by Karim Benzema for which new Chelsea signing David Luiz was at least partially at fault. Florent Malouda was lively (and looked excellent in the new France kits, I have to say) but not exceptional for the home side, and Luiz, who started out the game in magnificent form, visibly tired towards the end of the match as France took full advantage of the visitors being down a man. Luiz may have been unsettled by a nasty scissor takle from Roma's Jeremy Menez in the middle of the second half that left defender in some pain - he recovered to play out the rest of the match, however.

Argentina 2-1 Portugal. A late penalty kick goal by from Leo Messi settle this match. Chelsea right-back Jose Bosingwa was an unused substitute.

Ivory Coast 1-0 Mali. Both Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou featured for the Elephants as they narrowly defeated Mali on Tuesday. Hannover's Didier Ya Konan grabbed the goal for the Ivory Coast, but neither Chelsea striker gave Mali much to worry about over the course of the match.

Croatia 4-2 Czech Republic. Although he wasn't helped at all be his defenders, Petr Cech had a pick of a shocker against Croatia, letting in two soft goals to begin the game and then conceding the fourth after losing possession forty yards from his goal. I'm at a loss to explain that last one, actually.