Real Madrid are in Shanghai. After a flight of more than two hours, the Whites touched down soon after 1.30pm (7.30pm local time). The team then went to The Twelve at Hengshan hotel where they were welcomed by fans.
Following the thrashing against Inter Milan, on Thursday, Real Madrid will take on AC Milan in a game that will decide the winner of the International Champions Cup China (2pm CEST, 8pm local time).
A perfect quartet of shoot-out penalties brought our 2015 tour of North America to a winning close in Washington DC.
The Blues were unerring from the spot while Barcelona struck woodwork with one and were kept out by Thibaut Courtois from another, as our keeper followed up his two penalty saves on Saturday night. This was only the third shoot-out of his professional career.
Jose Mourinho billed the game itself, which was played in front of nearly 80,000 fans in the United States capital, as a step-up in training for the season ahead, and it was a step-up in Chelsea performance level too.
Eden Hazard added another eye-catching goal to his increasingly impressive collection. That came early and with the Blues playing some of our best football of the fortnight, the lead was maintained until half-time.
Barcelona were back level through Luis Suarez 12 minutes after the restart and then took the lead with a shot from Sandro Ramirez good enough to beat Courtois, who had already made a string of stops.
However the Blues pulled the game level close to the end thanks to a well-timed spring and header from Gary Cahill who took a smack in the face in the process. It was Chelsea who packed the right punches when our third game in this International Champions Cup tournament was decided from the penalty spot.
It was a largely familiar starting line-up selected by Mourinho. Kurt Zouma partnered Cahill in central defence with recently appointed vice-captain Branislav Ivanovic assumed the armband.
While Cesar Azpilicueta continued as the one ever-present in this pre-season programme of matches, with Hazard ahead of him, there was a new face on the opposite flank. Kenedy was in the team having trained with the squad during this tour. Fluminese gave permission for the 19-year-old attacker to take part in this game.
Showing good pace, he was bundled to the floor in the opening minutes to give Fabregas the chance to send a free-kick into his former club’s penalty area. Zouma towered to meet it and it needed a good save from Marc-Andre ter Stegen to prevent us taking a rapid lead.
Kenedy soon made his presence felt at the other end of the big and full arena by getting ahead of Luis Suarez to shepherd the ball back to Thibaut Courtois.
Matic headed a free-kick over before Diego Costa pulled a hole in the Barcelona defence which lead to an Oscar shot which was saved.
Chelsea, sporting the new adidas away kit for the first time, soon made the early domination pay through Hazard’s brilliance. Riding a challenge from Ivan Rakitic in trademark style, he then changed direction and went for goal, evading two other defenders before slotting the ball home low and true before a saving tackle could be made. This is what the American fans had come to see. There were just nine minutes played.
Courtois saved from Rakitic and then punched away the Croatian’s corner as Barcelona responded with their best period of the game.
Midway through the half, Diego Costa was fouled 20 yards from goal as he accepted a Hazard pass. Fabregas ran over the ball and left it for Oscar who watched his sweetly struck shot rebound off the crossbar with the keeper well beaten. Diego Costa got to the rebound but couldn’t battle through for a shot.
Matic was commanding the central area in this opening half, but he left the space clear for Hazard to give the Catalans the runaround on 28 minutes until he was hacked down. Treatment was required but no card shown.
Barcelona were next to test the opposition keeper however and Courtois needed to be sharp to keep out Suarez. He had to save again soon after from Sandro Ramirez.
On 33 minutes, all of the sizeable percentage of the crowd who were supporting Chelsea were ready to celebrate a Diego Costa goal. Fabregas spotted the simple pass to send his Spain team-mate away but having steadied himself, the striker shot wide.
Courtois saved from Suarez again in what was developing into a bit of personal duel and although Chelsea were playing well, it was inevitable Barca would create chances. Gary Cahill importantly threw himself in the path of Rakitic and the midfielder blasted over from five yards out.
Jeremy Mathieu was the latest to foul Hazard just before half-time and the referee had seen the Belgian take enough punishment. This time he waved his yellow card at the centre-back.
There were only two changes for the second period as Brazilians switched. Willian and Ramires came on for Kenedy and Oscar, with Fabregas moving more forward.
Diego Costa shot over in the opening seconds after approach play that had the crowd gasping. Munir El Haddadi then headed against the foot of the Chelsea post but only he had fouled.
The equaliser did come after 51 minutes, Suarez succeeding in scooping the ball over Courtois from inside the area and watching as Zouma failed in a valiant effort to clear the ball off the line.
Both sides made a collection of changes on the hour, with Zouma moving to left-back as Azpilicueta was given some well-earned rest. Diego Costa’s withdrawal at that point was preceded by him needing to sit down on the turf but he was able to walk down the tunnel.
It was one of the two Barcelona players who had remained on from the start who put the Spaniards ahead. Sandro Ramirez, one of their front three, stepped outside of Moses on the left of the area and clipped a shot beyond Courtois and into the far side of the net. It was a quality strike.
Falcao was introduced not long after, with recent substitute Loic Remy dropping back behind the Colombian. Jordi Alba was booked for going through the back of Moses.
There was hope of a Chelsea leveller as the final 10 minutes approached but Ramires fired wide from Moses’s square pass. The Nigerian winger then sent another ball across the face of goal but to no avail. He was causing problems but Willian couldn’t reach another low cross after good work from Moses down the right. His time to make a difference was approaching.
There were just over five minutes left on the clock when Cahill bravely nodded the Blues level. Willian had floated a testing free-kick into a crowd box and Barca dealt with it poorly. Our England international defender was first to the dropping ball thanks to a prodigious leap. He headed it in at the expense of a blooded nose from the keeper’s fist and the end to his participation.
Willian or Remy might have headed in a late winner from a Moses cross but rather got in each other’s way, and Rafinha could have grabbed it at the death for the Spaniards but half-volleyed wide.
Instead Chelsea faced a second shoot-out decider in four days.
Andres Inesta was first up and scored. Falcao, as he did against PSG, took Chelsea’s first and sent it high to the keeper’s left. Alan Halilovic went for the chip but hit the bar so when Moses netted calmly, Chelsea were 2-1 ahead.
Gerard Pique shimmied twice but there was no fooling Courtois who saved on the turf. Ramires found the bottom corner to make it 3-1 to the Blues.
Sandro Ramirez kept Barcelona in it but the stay of execution was short. Remy kept up the 100 per cent success rate and victory was ours.
On an extremely hot and humid night, Washington DC had been served up with some great entertainment.
Jose Mourinho has reported that the Copa America players, including new arrival Falcao, are likely to be given more minutes of action when the Blues take on Barcelona in Washington on Tuesday night.
Speaking to Chelsea TV as attention turns towards the third and final game of the tour in the United States, our manager also explained the reason why Falcao, Juan Cuadrado and Willian were introduced 70 minutes into the game against Paris St-Germain, having had just two days of training.
‘I discussed it a lot with [assistant coach] Rui Faria and we thought that 20 minutes of football is more rich, has more ingredients than training in a small group of three,’ Mourinho said.
‘So we decided to give Falcao, Willlian and Juan Cuadrado this 20 to 25 minutes which was very good for them.
‘Now they are not ready to start but against Barcelona, I think they can go from 20 to 30 minutes. I will give them that.’
Mourinho also shared with the club’s channel some further thoughts on the PSG game, ultimately won on a penalty shoot-out, and why the opening goal conceded, when a rebound was turned in after a shot hit the post, was a natural part of pre-season, especially playing against a side who are further down the line with their preparations.
‘Paris St-Germain’s intensity was obviously much higher than ours but as a training session and a complement for what we are doing, it was very good for us.
‘Step by step the players have some more happiness in their legs. We still feel some of them have accumulation of fatigue with slow movement and slow thinking and that goal was typical – too slow to think to take the ball out of the pressure zone, but step by step we are coming.’
For any goalkeeper, making the saves required to help your team win a penalty shoot-out is a special feeling. Having such a direct impact on the outcome of a game is rare for those whose best work is done between the posts.
But what is even rarer for the man with the gloves is to score the winning goal in a game, either during normal time or from 12 yards. Against Paris Saint-Germain last night, Thibaut Courtois experienced all these emotions and more during what was only the second-ever penalty shoot-out he has contested as a professional football player.
‘Of course I enjoyed it,’ a visibly excited Courtois told the official Chelsea website after the game.
‘There were 60,000 people in the stadium, and even if it wasn’t the Champions League final there was still a little bit of pressure. It’s important to feel that and I felt confident to shoot.
‘I practice taking very strong shots in training sometimes with Jamal Blackman. We play some games after training and penalty kicks are part of it. I just thought I would shoot strong and even if the goalkeeper went to the correct side he would not get it.
‘The manager and Christophe [Lollichon, the goalkeeping coach] asked me to shoot one in the first five and I said if there’s a space open I would do it. Five people stepped up so it was no problem but I said if we needed one more to win I would take it. So I think I would have taken the sixth penalty if we had a chance to win it then.’
Courtois’ penalty was the first goal he has ever scored as a professional, and his first of any kind since he was 15. His spot-kick was about as emphatic as they come; it would certainly be no exaggeration to say it whizzed past PSG’s Salvatore Sirigu before he could move.
He is still yet to compete in a competitive shoot-out but yesterday’s experience will do him no harm as and when that time comes, as he explained.
‘I have done one penalty shoot-out before as a professional, for Atletico also in a pre-season game. There were just five penalties and we lost, so it’s nice to win one now.
‘It’s good to practice doing one in a game as well. In front of nearly a full stadium in a game is quite different to doing it in training.
‘Normally we prepare very well for the opposition takers but because there were a lot of young kids on the pitch I tried to read them.’
And what was going through his mind when the seven PSG players prepared to try and beat our Belgian?
‘To concentrate, be on my feet, not move too soon and just try to get them.’
Two he got, two he was very close to, and one he scored. Not a bad few minutes’ work!
Super Eagles star, John Mikel Obi, has stated that he is willing to remain at Chelsea till the end of his contract in 2017.
The Nigerian is now the second-longest serving player at Stamford Bridge, after captain John Terry.
It is something Jose Mourinho has noted on this pre-season trip, pointing out the pair are now the only players who bridge the gap between his trophy-laden first and second spells as Chelsea manager. He knows having a serial winner like Mikel around the group can only be beneficial.
Mourinho knows too what the 28-year-old can offer on the pitch, another reason why any rumours linking Mikel with a move away from west London can be dismissed.
‘I want to stay and the manager wants me to stay,’ said Mikel in an interview with the club’s official website. ‘I’ve got two years [on my contract] here and I’m happy.
‘I like to be somewhere where I have developed friends and family. It’s like my family here and every day I come to work it is like coming in to see my family. I know all the players and all the staff so it’s going to be a hard place to leave when my contract runs out but let’s see what happens. I want to see out my two years.’
Mikel played the first half of Chelsea match with New York Red Bulls on Wednesday, leaving the pitch at the break with the Blues 1-0 ahead. He created an excellent chance for a second with a fine long pass which was latched on to by his compatriot Victor Moses. The winger was mighty unlucky not to score with a dink that hit the post and not the net.
‘Overall it was a pretty good warm-up game but not the result we hoped for,’ was Mikel’s assessment afterwards.
‘We knew we needed to start the game well. I was in the dressing room having a shower at the beginning of the second half so I don’t know how we started but we obviously didn’t end the game well.
‘We are here to work hard, and we are here to train hard leading to the Community Shield and to the league. I think we’re on the right course. That game was just a one-off game and we know we need to go back to training, buckle up and know the season is starting soon.’
This is Mikel’s 10th pre-season at Chelsea, since he joined the club in 2006.
Five Chelsea fans have been banned from all football matches for up to five years over an incident of racism in Paris in February, in court proceedings that concluded Wednesday. The men, including former police officer Richard Barklie, were involved in an incident in which a black Frenchman was repeatedly shoved off a metro train carriage ahead of Chelsea’s Champions League match against Paris Saint Germain.
“This was an abhorrent, nasty, offensive, arrogant and utterly unacceptable behaviour and cannot be allowed in modern, civilised society,” district judge Gareth Branston said at Stratford Magistrates Court in east London. “It must be stamped out,” he said.
Branston said the 50-year-old Barklie and 20-year-old former finance worker Josh Parsons had played a leading role in the racist abuse and in pushing Souleymane Sylla off the train. He accused them of “aggressive, disorderly conduct”.
Barklie had defended himself in court, saying there was no racist motive in pushing Sylla and accusing the Frenchman of “aggression” for trying to board a crowded train. Barklie, Parsons and William Simpson, 26, received court orders banning them from all football matches for five years.
A fourth fan, 20-year-old Jordan Munday, was accused of joining in racist chanting and banned for three years. A fifth fan in the same case, Dean Callis, 32, has already received a five-year banning order for his role.
The incident, captured on the mobile phone of a British expatriate, sparked widespread condemnation and has already prompted Chelsea to ban the five supporters from Stamford Bridge.
Lionel Messi received the sum of £2.4million in cash, to officially lay the foundation stones for a new stadium in Port-Gentil.
Gabon will be hosting the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and President Ali Bongo invited the Barcelona superstar to the event.
He, however, insisted that Messi was not paid, but was fulfilling a promise by attending the event. French media, however, insist the 28-year-old was paid for the trip.
Messi, who is facing trial for tax fraud in Spain, was also present at the opening of a new restaurant that belongs to the Bongo family.
“People are outraged about this,” an opposition source in the country said.
“Messi should do a bit of research into what Bongo represents.” Bongo holds a reputation as one of the most corrupt dictators in Africa.
FC Barcelona 2-1 Los Angeles galaxy
Chelsea midfielder Mikel Obi will be recalled by new Nigeria coach Sunday Oliseh for next month’s AFCON qualifier in Tanzania and played as a defensive midfielder.
Mikel last played for the Super Eagles in November 2014 when Nigeria drew 2-2 with South Africa in a 2015 AFCON qualifier in Uyo.
“Mikel still remains one of Nigeria’s top stars in Europe even he is no longer playing regularly for Chelsea these days and that is why he will be part of Oliseh’s immediate plans, beginning with the AFCON qualifier in Tanzania next month,” a top official informed AfricanFootball.com
“But instead of giving him a free role as he has been given in the Eagles in the past, he will play as a defensive midfielder, like he does for his club.
Olayiwola Info24Seven 