It was yet another pre-season match action for Chelsea, as the pre-season campaign almost coming to a close. The pre-season has been going pretty well for most of the top premier league clubs, most especially for Chelsea who have been looking really good ender Frank Lampard’s first tenure as a Chelsea manager. The blues locked horn against RB Salzburg for the second to the last game of pre-season, a game that saw Chelsea’s new boy and American international Pulisic opening his Chelsea account with a double, as they breeze past RB Salzburg on their own ground.
Chelsea are making very good progress so far this pre-season, playing some really good attacking football and some players really showing their true qualities. This game saw Frank Lampard make use of players which will most likely be the main starting 11 team with Pulisic retaining his spot in the lineup and proving why Chelsea paid so much money for him.
RB Salzburg are one of the top teams in the Austrian Bundesliga, a very good team who gave the blues a very good match. They are looking very good at the moment and will be proud of their performance against one of the premier league giants.
Brief Post-Match Analyses
It was a fantastic atmosphere at the Red Bull Arena Salzburg, with a good number of fans present to support the teams.
Chelsea setup in a 4-2-3-1 formation while RB Salzburg on the other hand, setup in a 4-4-2 formation. The game began and Salzburg looked more the sharper team, retaining possession and trying to make thing happen in the opening minutes of the game. Chelsea, on the other hand, began to slowly show their qualities, pressing and making some good combination play in midfield. They finally got the deserved lead halfway into the first half before the game became goals galore. Nevertheless, the blues eventually came out on top by outscoring the home side.
Pulisic the new Chelsea player scored his first goal for Chelsea in the 20th minute, doing well to find shooting space in front of the 18-yard box, before firing the ball past the Salzburg goalkeeper.
Barkley was on the scoresheet yet again for the second match in a row, after scoring a world-class freekick in their previous game, doubling the lead for Chelsea 3 minutes later from the penalty spot.
Pulisic made it 3 and getting his double in the 28th minute, controlling a fabulous long-range pass from Barkley to dink the ball past the goalkeeper.
Onguene got one back for Salzburg 5 minutes into the second half, a fantastic header from a corner kick to make it 1-3 early in the second half.
Pedro increased the lead for Chelsea 7 minutes later, scoring what could go on to be the goal of the pre-season, timing his run perfectly to backheel a fantastic lofted through ball from Barkley to find the top right.
Minamino got another goal back for Salzburg in the 85th minute, scoring from the penalty spot to reduce the deficit to 2-4.
Batshuayi who came on for Tammy Abraham scored his craved goal for Chelsea 3 minutes later, doing well to keep his composure to rifle the ball into the roof of the net after initially missing the first attempt.
Minamino reduced the deficit even further few seconds before full time, capitalizing from a Chelsea defensive instability to reduce the scoreline to 3-5.
It was an entertaining game with lots of goals for the fans to enjoy. For Chelsea, this might be a thing of concern as they have been conceding quite a number of goals so far this pre-season. However, the good news is that they are scoring lots of goals at the moment which will be key for them when the season begins. For Salzburg, there is no much to complain about, they played a good game and will be happy about their overall performance.
What do you think of this match?
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