Chelsea escape ‘dodgy’ Sydney pitch with wild 10-goal win
Updated . First published at
Xabi Alonso maintained his cool, and João Pedro saved Chelsea’s blushes in a wild 6-4 win over the Western Sydney Wanderers at Accor Stadium on Tuesday night.
A monumental upset appeared possible at times in a preseason friendly between the club world champions and the A-League wooden spooners - who were paying $14 to win before kickoff.
Joao Pedro of Chelsea celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal. Getty
Spanish great Alonso had taken a risk in his first game as Chelsea manager by fielding an incredibly youthful starting XI that included just four players who had featured in the last Premier League season.
The lead changed five times in a chaotic encounter and Alonso needed his big guns to avoid an embarrassing start to his tenure.
Alonso made nine changes in the 63rd minute and Pedro was the trump card.
The superstar striker was a controversial omission from Brazil’s World Cup squad, and he took out his frustrations on the outmatched Wanderers with a hat-trick and an assist in a dazzling half-hour cameo that thrilled the crowd.
Not so thrilled were the touring British media with the state of the pitch.
Multiple visiting journalists noted that the surface was not quite as slick as what Chelsea are used to at Stamford Bridge.
“No injuries on a dodgy pitch is probably the biggest victory for the new manager,” Sam Dean of The Telegraph wrote.
There were two NRL games and one NRLW match played at the stadium over the weekend.
“Great stadium, not a great pitch,” BBC journalist Nizaar Kinsella said while The Sun’s Jack Rosser described the surface as “interesting.”
Pedro and other players inspected the surface closely before kickoff.
Alonso wasn’t asked about the clearly patchy pitch in his post-match chat with Paramount+ but he hinted at some issues.
Joao Pedro of Chelsea inspects the pitch prior to the Sydney Super Cup match. Getty
“The conditions, it was tough to get this control,” the 44-year-old said.
“Sometimes you need to deal with the games, it’s not easy to get the control, so we’ll learn from that... it was a pretty exciting game.
“For us, a very useful friendly. The Sydney Wanderers, they had a real go. They played really intense, so we’ll get very good things from this friendly.
“We didn’t know really what were they going to do, if they were going to sit deep, or they were going to go aggressive. We had to try and find solutions in halftime.”
Sydney-born 16-year-old Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli made his senior debut in midfield for Chelsea, playing the whole second half.
“Really good. He understood very well, what the team needed,” Alonso said.
“He’s a very complete player, so for sure it’s a great prospect of player that we have for the future. We need to help him.”
Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli of Chelsea FC and Miguel Di Pizio of Western Sydney Wanderers contest for the ball. Getty
Debutant Dastan Satpayev, Dário Essugo and Jamie Gittens were Chelsea’s other goalscorers.
Anthony Pantazopoulos, Aydan Hammond, Dylan Scicluna and Awan Lual got on the scoresheet for Western Sydney.
Chelsea will play Tottenham Hotspur at the same venue on Saturday, with Spurs taking on Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium on Wednesday.
The Premier League season kicks off on August 22 (AEST) with defending champions Arsenal hosting Frank Lampard’s promoted Coventry City.
Chelsea 6 (Dastan Satpayev 6′, Dário Essugo 38′, Jamie Gittens 66′, João Pedro 80′, 85′, 89′), Wanderers 4 (Anthony Pantazopoulos 14′, Aydan Hammond 32′, Dylan Scicluna 61′, Awan Lual 78′)
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