Ancelotti rues mistakes as Chelsea slip to third defeat
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Your support makes all the difference.Carlo Ancelotti said his players needed to improve their concentration after Chelsea lost 2-1 in a pre-season friendly at Hamburg last night, their third consecutive defeat in their warm-up programme.
Frank Lampard had put Chelsea ahead in the first half but the German side scored twice in the last 20 minutes to earn victory.
"We are making a lot of mistakes in this moment," Ancelotti said. "We know we made a mistake, now we have to show more character and more concentration. Usually this team is more focused but these are friendly games. For this reason we are losing some concentration."
The English champions had begun brightly last night, with Lampard putting them ahead in the 24th minute, tapping Michael Essien's square pass into an empty net, but Mladen Petric capitalised on a mistake by Yuri Zhirkov, on as left-back for Ashley Cole, to beat Ross Turnbull with 18 minutes remaining.
Worse was to come for the visitors as Heung-Min Son won it for Hamburg with three minutes to go, inflicting Chelsea's third successive defeat following losses against Ajax and Eintracht Frankfurt.
Ancelotti named a strong side, with John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, John Obi Mikel, Nicolas Anelka, Salomon Kalou and Florent Malouda all starting, while Didier Drogba played the second half, his first pre-season outing after hernia surgery.
Ancelotti acknowledged that many of his side were not yet fully match-fit. "There are some players in good condition; there are some players who need more time to be fit," he said. "After eight days of training it is impossible to be fit. The players who came back on 26 July need another two weeks to work."
Manchester City also lost to German opposition, going down 3-1 to Borussia Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion last night.
The Paraguay striker Lucas Barrios put Dortmund ahead with a ninth-minute penalty but Jo, who spent time on loan at Everton and Galatasaray last season, equalised two minutes later.
Joe Hart ensured City went into half-time on level terms by diving to his right to keep out a casual Barrios penalty. But Hamburg restored their lead five minutes after the break through Shinji Kagawa and Robert Lewandowski wrapped up the win in the 81st minute.
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