Chelsea 1-1 Borussia Dortmund, Friendly: Post-match reaction

Preseason has been a largely positive affair, but this last game has put a bit of a damper on things.

Bad pitch, bad refereeing, bad finishing, less energetic play, and even a major injury concern.

Not great!

Chelsea coud’ve, should’ve scored twice in the opening ten minutes, with Christopher Nkunku at the heart of it all, showing off his skills, creativity, and interplay. But Jackson hit a shot right at the goalkeeper and then Levi Colwill missed the open net on a corner. Jackson missed another decent chance later in the half, though he also got unlucky with a bad bounce off the terribly patchy ... “turf”.

More concerningly, Nkunku was forced off on 20 minutes, favoring his left knee. He suffered a strong challenge from Mats Hummels on Jackson’s big chance, played on for another 10 minutes, then seemed to step a bit awkwardly to force the substitution (for Mudryk).

Chelsea’s play was far less enterprising and cohesive afterwards, a trend that continued on early in the second half as well.

We did show some signs of life as the half wore on, especially on the counter, but wasted several opportunities once again. Familiar story that...

And then Dortmund got lucky on a corner.

But young Mason Burstow nodded in a lovely header a minute from time, and we preserved our unbeaten preseason record.

And more importantly, we managed to survive without any further injuries.

Carefree.

• First 70min: Kepa | Chilwell, Colwill, Silva, James (c) | Gallagher, Enzo | Nkunku (Mudryk on 20), Chukwuemeka, Sterling | Jackson
• Gusto (for James), Cucurella (for Chilwell), Maatsen (for Chukwuemeka) on for the final 20.
• Burstow on for Jackson for the final 10. Hall for the final few minutes.
• KTBFFH