Hours after Chelsea fire blanks against Man City, Didier Drogba scores for Montreal Impact

Didier Drogba scored his first goal of the MLS season as Montreal Impact beat Chicago Fire 2-1. Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press

Didier Drogba scored his first goal of the Major League Soccer season with a clever backheel shot as the Montreal Impact snapped the Fire’s four-game unbeaten streak with a 2-1 win in Chicago on Saturday.

The former Chelsea striker, and all-time leading scorer of the Ivory Coast national team, was standing in the centre of the box with his back to the goal when he redirected the ball into the bottom left corner.

Drogba’s 56th-minute strike levelled the score at 1-1. The 38-year-old forward’s goal came hours after Chelsea, for whom he scored 104 goals in 254 Premier League matches, failed to find the back of the net in a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.

Ignacio Piatti then grabbed the game-winner in the first minute of stoppage time, giving Montreal their second straight victory.

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“It was a difficult game for us in the first half, but the second half was much better,” Impact coach Mauro Biello said. “We were able to unbalance them. We grew as a team, and we were patient enough to move the ball and find those openings. This was a character win.”

Making just his second appearance of the season, Drogba came on in the 50th minute for Costa Rica’s Johan Venegas.

“In the second half, we played with more rhythm and created more chances,” said Drogba, a two-time African Footblaler of the Year. “We wanted to pull off a great result here. We wanted to win.

“We’re top of the conference, and we have to show more ambition on the road. This win does us a lot of good.”

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