We already knew that Real Madrid was much better than Chelsea from the pre-season match. But Real Madrid's 2-1 win in Charlotte on Tuesday showed how big that gap really was.
Madrid is ready for the season to begin, even though some of their best players are still on vacation after the season. Chelsea? Not even close.
Lucas Vazquez scored the first goal for Real Madrid, but Dani Ceballos said he actually scored it. Then Brahim Diaz made it 2-0 by beating the new Chelsea goalie, Filip Jorgensen.
It was the perfect ending to a great game by Diaz, who was named Man of the Match. Even though Noni Madueke scored a goal before halftime to keep up his good scoring run in preseason, it wasn't enough to win the game.
The real season for Real Madrid starts on August 14, when they play in Atlanta in the UEFA Super Cup. Chelsea's starts four days later in the Premier League against Manchester City. Based on this, one team is ready for its first competitive task, and the other is still far.
This past weekend, Vinicius Jr. came off the bench against Barcelona. This past weekend, he started his first pre-season game against Chelsea. From this, Vini is ready to play.
In the first half, the Brazilian star made it impossible for Chelsea's defense to stop him. He produced several chances independently and set Brahim's goal with a beautiful travel. When things went well for Real Madrid, Vini was usually in the middle of it.
Even though he's the favorite to win the Ballon d'Or, it's scary to think he won't have as much pressure this season. Since everyone is looking at Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius may have more room to move and more chances to make magic.
If he's this good without Mbappe, I wonder how good he would be with him. Warriors, be aware that this is not going to be simple.
That was really bad! Chelsea looked lost every time Madrid moved the ball forward. From the first whistle, there was chaos, and it seemed to get worse every time they had to defend.
Benoit Badiashile and Levi Colwill started for Chelsea at center back, and let's just say they were bad. Nobody tried, nobody talked, and no one was calm. Honestly, they were lucky to only give up two goals in the first half. It might have been worse, and it could have been.
Also, goalkeeper Jorgensen shouldn't get away with it. His inability to choose Brahim's goal was the worst part of a game that didn't have any good parts for Blues fans.
Chelsea is in a lot of trouble if this is what they're working with. Things need to get fixed quickly by Maresca in this defense.
Five games into Maresca's first pre-season as Chelsea manager, he has only won one, against Club America of Liga MX. He has also lost to Manchester City, Celtic, and now Madrid, and tied with Wrexham of League One.
Last season, Brahim made it official in the Madrid team after two seasons on loan at AC Milan.
He made many important contributions as a fill-in, starting and off the bench. But there is more competition for spots at Santiago Bernabeu than last summer.
That's why the Morocco international will have wanted to show Carlo Ancelotti how good he is this summer.
The young player who used to play for Manchester City got a great goal in the first half of Tuesday's game.
He went around Jorgensen and tucked a shot inside the far post. Brahim scored a goal that only a sure-of-himself player can do. He made it look easy.
Players like Mbappe, Vinicius, Jude Bellingham, Rodrygo, Arda Guler, and Endrick might have been better than Brahim. He needed a game like this one. He might be too good to ignore if he keeps having this kind of form.
In reality, Chelsea hasn't looked any better in preseason than they did for most of the 2023–24 season. If you could see the big picture in these losses, that would be one thing.
But so far, it's hard to even find big wins. The Blues are going backward right now.
There's more to it than just Maresca. The Chelsea job has become a poisoned chalice since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital took over.
However, the early signs don't look good for the former Leicester City manager because his team is still struggling.
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