Abraham Passes Test Against Strong Barcelona Team With Five World Cup Winners In Starting XI

Published: July 23, 2019

Nigeria-eligible striker Tammy Abraham was on target as Chelsea claimed a 2-1 win over Barcelona in a high profile pre-season friendly staged at Saitama Stadium 2002 on Tuesday afternoon.

The England U21 star missed a glorious chance to give the Premier League side the lead in the 23rd minute after he failed to direct the bouncing ball on target and ten minutes later he rounded Marc-André ter Stegen to open the scoring.

Second half substitute Ross Barkley doubled Chelsea's lead in the final ten minutes when his shot from 20 yards beat the Barcelona goalkeeper before Ivan Rakitic halved the deficit in injury time.

While Abraham played for an hour, central defender Fikayo Tomori replaced Andreas Christensen three minutes after the restart.

Having missed the friendly against Kawasaki Frontale due to illness, Abraham has now featured in two pre-season games for Chelsea and passed today's test against a strong Barcelona team with five World Cup winners in the shape of Pique, Sergio Busquets, Samuel Umtiti, Ousmane Dembélé and Antoine Griezmann in their starting line-up.

Chelsea will face Reading, Salzburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach in their next three friendlies ahead of their first competitive game of the new season vs Manchester United on August 11.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : chelseafc.com