A brace for Christian Pulisic and a quite extraordinary Pedro goal were the highlights as Chelsea produced an exhilerating pre-season performance in Austria..
Pedro’s extraordinary back-heeled, mid-air, facing-away flick was one of five goals scored by Chelsea against RB Salzburg last night, but is the one that will remain in the memory the longest. Not only was it a finish of rare aptitude, the ball up to the skilful Spaniard from Ross Barkley was a classy one too.
Pedro’s agile strike certainly impressed his new manager Frank Lampard, who has since spoken about it and heaped on the praise.
‘It was an incredible goal,’ Lampard declared.
‘I know Pedro is a fantastic player and this skill with the left foot was incredible but also the timing of the run. Pedro is so clever and his movement for that goal is excellent.’
Pedro himself was asked to talk through what happened when he made the score 4-1 in the second half of what eventually turned out to be a 5-3 victory in Austria. He responded on Chelsea’s official Twitter feed.
‘Ross’s was a great ball to me and it was a special touch and a beautiful goal and I am very happy to do this,’ said the 32-year-old.
Christian Pulisic also made the headlines yesterday with his first two goals in a Chelsea shirt. You can read Lampard’s verdict on those and the American’s overall performance here.
Next up for Pedro, Pulisic and their Chelsea colleagues is our final pre-season game in Germany on Saturday afternoon against Borussia Moenchengladbach, before we take on Manchester United at Old Trafford in our Premier League opener, that match taking place on Sunday 11 August.
- Match stats:
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Kepa; Azpilicueta (c) (Zappacosta 82), Zouma, David Luiz (Tomori 75), Emerson (Alonso 75); Jorginho (Kenedy 75), Kovacic (Christensen 81); Pedro, Barkley, Pulisic (Mount 75); Abraham (Batshuayi 75).
Unused subs Caballero, Cumming, Giroud.
Scorers Pulisic 20, 28, Barkley (pen) 23, Pedro 57, Batshuayi 88.
Booked Zouma 41
RB Salzburg (first half): Stankovic, Ashimeru, Samassekou, Hwang, Szoboszlai, Ulmer, Camara, Haaland, Pongracic, Kristensen, Mwepu.
RB Salzburg (second half): Kohn, Farkas, Van der Werff, Onguene, Mensah, Junozovic, Bernede, Diarra, Okugawa (Minamino 75), Daka, Koita.
Scorers Onguene 50, Minamino (pen) 86, 90+1
Referee Christopher Jager
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