They were almost given a shock as Chelsea came within a whisker of going behind with only two minutes on the clock.
Maybe the pitch, which was patchy and cutting up, played a part but a retreating Bridge, watching a crossfield pass as the ball bounced up, missed his header and was left trailing as Amirulhadi raced away and shot strongly, only to see it skim past outside of the post.
The Malaysian side were clearly a set-up from the Chinese teams, especially down the right where the pace of Hairuddin, a scorer against Chelsea five years ago, was capable of stretching the defence.(www.chelseafc.com)
REUTERS: The hosts created a handful of chances and forward Amiral Hadi Zainal almost opened the scoring inside three minutes when he broke free in the area and fired inches wide of the far post.
He also blew a perfect opportunity to equalise before halftime when he popped up unmarked in the box but fired a weak effort past the post with Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech beaten.
Portugal midfielder Deco then came close to a memorable first goal in a Chelsea shirt when his spectacular volley from 22 metres was tipped over the bar by the Malaysian keeper. (Reporting by Martin Petty, editing by Ken Ferris)
