FRANKFURT: Nicolas Anelka played for the first time since being kicked-out of France`s World Cup squad on Sunday but was unable to prevent Chelsea slipping to a 2-1 defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Anelka was one of six World Cup players featuring for the Premier League champions along with John Terry, Ashley Cole, Paulo Ferreira, Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou.
Individual errors cost Chelsea with goalkeeper Hilario making a hash of a clearance to give the German side the lead while a shirt pull by Branislav Ivanovic late in the game allowed the hosts to score from a penalty.
In between, Frank Lampard had levelled for the London side.
Eintracht were ahead after 24 minutes when Hilario lost the ball and allowed Patrick Ochs to score into an empty net.
Anelka, booted out of the French World Cup squad for a foul-mouthed rant at coach Raymond Domenech, was a low-profile figure in the first half with an early cross through the penalty area his lone contribution before being replaced at the interval.
Chelsea equalised just after the hour mark courtesy of Lampard, who had only flown into Frankfurt on Sunday morning after illness.
Patrick van Aanholt ran down the left for Lampard to beat goakeeper Ralf Fahrmann.
Eight minutes from time, the home side claimed victory when Ivanovic was penalised for a tug on the shirt of a German player and Turkish star Halil Altintop converted the penalty.
Despite the defeat Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti insisted there were positives ahead of Wednesday`s friendly with Hamburg and next weekend`s Community Shield against Manchester United at Wembley.
Against Hamburg, Ancelotti is expected to put out the same side he hopes to field against United.
"We want to give more minutes to our players to prepare them for the game on Sunday. So I don`t want to change the team, I want to use the team that will play on Sunday against Manchester United," the coach told www.chelseafc.com.
Wednesday`s game may also see Didier Drogba return to action after undergoing groin surgery.
"We will have a look Drogba during training tomorrow and on Wednesday he could play against Hamburg. He is healing very quickly," said Ancelotti.
BDST: 1108 HRS, AUGUST 02, 2010
