A late brace from Eden Hazard could not prevent Chelsea slumping to a 3-2 defeat to Real Madrid in their International Champions Cup clash in Ann Arbor.
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There was nothing fortuitous about the Brazilian’s second goal six minutes later.
Zinedine Zidane made a number of changes in the second period and a youthful Real nearly conceded victory as Chelsea piled on the pressure but time just ran out. Antonio Conte will be pleased with how his gameplan worked in that fixture and he’ll be hoping his players can pick up another confidence-boosting win.
Real Madrid: Casilla 4; Carvajal 6, Varane 6, Nacho 6, Marcelo 9; Casemiro 7, Kovacic 7; Vazquez 7, Asensio 8, Mariano 8; Morata 6. Subs: Diaz 5, Sacristan 5, Lienhart 5, Hakimi 5, Zidane 5, Perez 5, Llorente 5. Conte has gone with the 4-2-4 formation again, deploying Chelsea youngsters Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Bertrand Traore up front. It takes a deflection but it’s still a very decent goal.
The Belgium attacking midfielder did not play in Wednesday’s friendly against Liverpool, having been given extra recovery time following Euro 2016.
Unlike the major North American sports, there is no definitive best league in the world for club soccer.
Meanwhile, Karim Benzema is out for the International Champions Cup friendly against Chelsea on Saturday (30 July).
The Real forward had recently himself confirmed he was going to miss that match with Europa League winners Sevilla with Zidane also admitting he’s not anticipating the 31-year-old being back in time for the opening league match against Sociedad either.
Fresh on the back of finding a consolation goal against Paris Saint-Germain earlier this week – a match Los Blancos actually trailed 3-0 themselves at one point – Marcelo had his third in two outings when waltzing through the Blues’ backline. Chalobah, Cuadrado and Batshuayi all had chances to put the ball into the net, but the pressure was too big for them to handle, apparently.
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Both Chelsea and Madrid have been warned about the adverse weather forecast.
