Chelsea became the latest victim of Celtic’s fine pre-season form as the clinical Scottish side ran out 4-1 winners at the Notre Dame Stadium in their fifth friendly.
The Brendan Rodegers-led side had defeated Manchester City 4-3 on Tuesday and Chelsea were not spared on Saturday as goals Matt O’Reily, Kyogo Furuhashi, Luis Palma and Mikey Johnston helped Celtic to a win with Christopher Nkunku’s late penalty goal only serving as a consolation.
Enzo Maresca’s made two changes to the starting line-up; Wesley Fofana making his first start in more than a year in place of Tosin Adarabioyo and Mykhailo Mudryk replacing academy graduate Tyrique George.
Chelsea could have taken the lead very early on as Marc Guiu turn his defender midway through the half and slipped the ball through to Carney Chukwuemeka, but his touch was a little heavy and the defender was able to slide in and make a last-ditch tackle.
Kasper Schmeichel had to be alert, first to deny Nkunku from ten yards and then a double-save followed from both Nkunku and Chukwuemeka and this was enough to keep the game level till the Scots took the lead.
Celtic took the lead in the 19th minute when a short corner from the right resulted in O’Riley slotting the ball into the far bottom corner from 12 yards out. Chelsea almost responded immediately when Guiu turned in the box and forced Schmeichel into another save from close range.
Celtic were looking to play the ball in-behind the Chelsea defence and would have had a second when Maeda was released on the left flank and then crossed for Kyogo but for Sanchez leaping across goal to dive and expertly save the forward’s shot from point-blank range.
The second goal did arrive just after the half an hour mark though when O’Reily got in behind the defence and slid the ball across to Kyogo to tap in from inside the six-yard box.
The second half began in a similar fashion to the first, as Chelsea almost scored immediately. Guiu outmuscled his defender before forcing Schmeichel into a good save. Substitute Raheem Sterling then hit the far post with the follow-up shot.
However, the result was effectively guaranteed when Celtic scored twice in the space of three minutes. A mistake from Benoit Badiashile presented Luis Palma with Celtic’s third goal and then a ball over the top released Johnston and he made it 4-0.
Chelsea did score a consolation goal in the final minutes when Sterling was brought down in the penalty box by Colby Donovan and Nkunku sent substitute Viljami Sinisalo the wrong way from the spot.
Additional Reports: Chelsea.com
