Babayaro Hits The Bar, Newton Features As Chelsea Lose 9-Goal Thriller To Real Madrid Legends

Published: June 23, 2019

Two players of Nigerian descent Celestine Babayaro and Eddie Newton started for Chelsea Legends as they were beaten 5-4 by Real Madrid in a thrilling encounter at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday evening.

The Atlanta 1996 gold medalist was on the books of Chelsea for eight years and the current Blues loan manager Newton played for the Stamford Bridge outfit for nine years, 1990-1999.

It took just eleven minutes for the home team to open the scoring when Raul bundled home before a brace from Fernando Morientes made it 3-0 with 20 minutes played.

Despite trailing by a huge margin, the Blues did not throw in the towel and pulled a goal back from the spot through Andriy Shevchenko in the 23rd minute, then Gustavo Poyet headed home a cross from Malouda to further reduce the deficit six minutes before half-time.

Chelsea were unfortunate not to equalise when Babayaro hit the bar from a tight angle and they were left to rue the missed opportunity when Christian Karembeu scored for Real Madrid in the 36th minute.

Raul converted a penalty ten minutes after the restart to give Los Blancos a 5-3 lead before Malouda netted the final goal of the game on 66 minutes.

While Babayaro was in action for 33 minutes, Newton was replaced by Claude Makelele after 28 minutes.

About 60,000 fans watched the Legends game organized by the Real Madrid Foundation.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : chelseafc.com