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The Sun
3 minutes ago
- The Sun
Chelsea 2 Bayer Leverkusen 0: Joao Pedro and Estevao bring Brazilian brilliance to Stamford Bridge
CHELSEA hardly needed to play like world-beaters to see off lacklustre Leverkusen. But there was plenty for the Blues to feel positive about from their first game as world champions. 4 4 4 4 Play Dream Team now! Estevao's goal and all-round first-half performance on his debut was the undoubted highlight, before Club World Cup hero Joao Pedro made it two late on. And although boss Enzo Maresca regularly showed frustration with his team, this was a decent showing from a group of players with less than a week of training under their belt. Maresca gave 10 outfield substitutes a run out without losing control of a game that at times had a bit more needle than he would have liked. The way Cole Palmer linked up with Estevao will have pleased the Chelsea head coach. The challenge which former Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah put in on Palmer will have had him wincing. Especially after losing defender Levi Colwill to ACL surgery after a knock picked up in the very first training session since the CWC victory. Palmer was incensed, and his team-mates backed him up in a brief outbreak of handbags. Yet it was Chelsea who looked the fresher team. Former Bundesliga champions Leverkusen had been working together for a full pre-season under new boss Erik ten Hag. But they felt like one of Ten Hag's old Manchester United teams: flat and toothless up front, having lost playmaker Florian Wirtz and wing-back Jeremie Frimpong to Liverpool. Chelsea star Levi Colwill to miss almost entire season as he undergoes emergency ACL surgery in huge blow to Maresca Blues goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen made only a couple of routine saves and the visitors were unable to capitalise on the odd defensive error. Otherwise it was all Chelsea. Marc Cucurella and Estevao had shots blocked before the Brazilian started and finished the key move of the match. After retrieving the ball near the halfway line, the right winger played in Cucurella, whose pass inside fell for Palmer. The No10s lob came back off the bar but Estevao volleyed it home. Chelsea's new No9, Liam Delap, had two decent sights of goal but was denied each time by former Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken. Delap might have done better, particularly with the first opportunity from Cucurella's cross. Estevao saw a shot blocked by Piero Hincapie's head just before the break. Palmer went off at half time, presumably as a precaution rather than because of any lasting damage from Quansah's foul. Estevao took his place in the No10 position, leaving Pedro Neto to 'follow that' on the right wing. The young Brazilian had been less impressive in the second half yet had a chance to make the night even more special. But he pulled a good chance wide before being replaced with 15 minutes to go to a loud ovation from the crowd. Neto forced a decent save from Flekken and Chelsea were on the verge of settling for a scoreline that did not reflect their superiority. But Joao Pedro put some extra shine on a night lit up by his fellow Brazilian Estevao with a last-gasp second.
Daily Mail
3 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Wonderkid was well worth the wait, new boy offers glimpse into life without Nicolas Jackson while Mad Marc is team's No 1 scrapper: Things We Learned from Chelsea's 2-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen
Chelsea finally played their first pre-season friendly as they beat Erik ten Hag 's Bayer Leverkusen with their brand new wonderkid Estevao Willian starting and scoring. Their first Premier League opponents will be Crystal Palace, for example, and Oliver Glasner 's side played their first behind-closed-doors friendly against Millwall on July 12. That was a day before Chelsea played Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup in the United States on July 13 followed by a three-week break. Here, Daily Mail Sport's Chelsea correspondent Kieran Gill reveals five things he learned from this Friday night fixture at Stamford Bridge. ESTE-WOW IS WORTH THE WAIT Chelsea's supporters had to wait a long while for Estevao Willian. Fourteen months to be exact, as it was in May 2024 when the club confirmed they had signed a Brazilian wonderkid who would arrive from Palmeiras once 18 years old. In that time, they had seen so many clips of his mercurial brilliance, including at the Club World Cup when he scored against Chelsea from what looked like an impossible angle. Here, he took 17 minutes to score for them. He spent the first half on the right wing, the second half at No 10, and for all the mocking of Chelsea's transfer strategy, this boy from Brazil seems that special type of talent for whom you would happily pay the admission fee to watch. MAD MARC IS A SCRAPPER Brighton chief executive Paul Barber held a fan Q&A session this week and when asked on Chelsea, he jokingly described them as 'my best customer' after so many sales. Marc Cucurella is no longer the £63million waste of money he was once considered, however. He is Chelsea's cult hero who does not appear to know the meaning of the word 'friendly'. Cucurella was getting stuck into Leverkusen here and when Jarell Quansah left a naughty tackle in on Palmer, who was there to give the former Liverpool defender a piece of his mind? Cucurella, of course. Rumour has it Chelsea may reward him with an updated contract soon. NO NICO, BUT CHELSEA HAVE STRIKER OPTIONS Liam Delap started as Chelsea's striker while Joao Pedro scored after coming on as a substitute. Nicolas Jackson was nowhere to be seen after Daily Mail Sport revealed he had been excluded from the squad for this friendly while the club work on selling him. If Jackson does leave as expected, Chelsea may not need to search for a emergency third-choice striker, even if Marc Guiu has been loaned to Sunderland. Maresca believes Estevao could be used as a false nine along with Palmer and Pedro Neto if need be. COVER FOR COLWILL Levi Colwill's ACL injury suffered in their first training session back in pre-season was devastating news for Chelsea given how crucial he was to their last campaign. They are considering whether they need to make a move for a central defender this month, but Josh Acheampong was used as the left-sided centre back here. It is an important position under Maresca as that player is expected to shuffle across when the left back inverts into midfield. Acheampong, 19, performed well, with Aaron Anselmino, 20, replacing him late on. Jorrel Hato can also be used as a left-sided centre back as well as a left back, which is where the £37m signing from Ajax played here after replacing Cucurella at half-time. MIDFIELD MEN HERE TO HELP There was no Romeo Lavia in the Chelsea squad after he picked up yet another injury during the Club World Cup and last season saw a heavy reliance on Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez in midfield. They needed help for the next campaign and they now have that in Dario Essugo and Andrey Santos, the 21-year-old Brazilian who last season enjoyed an excellent loan with their sister club Strasbourg in France. Santos' return for the forthcoming season is a big reason why Chelsea allowed Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to leave for Everton in a £25million permanent move this week. Chelsea marked their return to action following last month's Club World Cup triumph with a 2-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in their penultimate pre-season outing. In a lop-sided match at Stamford Bridge, the Blues made an early breakthrough in the first half when Estevao found the net on 18 minutes.
The Guardian
21 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Emma Raducanu: ‘I hope Francisco Roig can help me beat the top players'
Emma Raducanu believes her new coaching partnership with Francisco Roig can help to take her game to the next level as she tries to continue her recent rise up the rankings. 'First impressions are it's going really well,' Raducanu said, speaking for the first time about the move in an interview with the Guardian. 'We did a few days after Wimbledon together and I was really happy with how it went. I'm just so excited to have him on board, so much experience. I'm really looking forward to continuing.' With her hiring of Roig, Raducanu has indeed added a wealth of experience to her team. A former player with a career-high singles ranking of No 60 in 1992, Roig came to prominence as a longtime member of Rafael Nadal's coaching team, working alongside Toni Nadal, Rafael's uncle and coach, as the Spaniard built one of the greatest careers in the history of professional tennis. Roig himself decided to end his 18-year partnership with Nadal in 2022 and he later briefly coached the injury-prone Italian Matteo Berrettini. Although Raducanu's numerous coaching changes have been a big narrative in her career, this new appointment comes at a different point in her development. Raducanu has put together a consistent run of quality tennis over the past few months; she is clearly playing with confidence on the court and is in a far more positive place away from the court. The Briton had been working on an ad hoc basis with Mark Petchey since March but Petchey, who is also a broadcaster, could not fully commit to work with her on a day-to-day basis. The pair remain in close contact. Now at No 33 in the WTA rankings and 26 in the WTA race, a good showing in Cincinnati would lead to her being seeded at a grand slam tournament for the first time since her US Open points fell off. Raducanu, seeded 30th here, has received a first-round bye and will play her opening match on Saturday. After a brief trial period following her run to the third round at Wimbledon this year, Raducanu opted to work with Roig and they have agreed a contract until the end of the year. She is hopeful that he can help her to take another step forward: 'I think I can definitely improve on a lot of my shots, just the quality of them,' Raducanu said. 'I think I've been good at being creative, scrapping, playing the big points well, but I think the overall quality of my game needs to be better. And I see that when I play the really top players where I can't run and scrap, wait on them to miss. I think that's where I need to improve. And yeah, I'm hoping he can help me with that.' Raducanu and Roig began their partnership with a long day of training on Tuesday, following up her morning sparring session with Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia with an evening training session on a remote court with only Roig. There was plenty of laughter alongside their high-intensity work. Raducanu then pushed back her media duties by an hour on Wednesday to spend extra time on the practice court and she finished her day with another session. Such is the nature of professional tennis, where players and their team members spend a significant period of time together while travelling on the tour, another challenge for Raducanu and Roig will be to connect on a personal level. The vast Ohio roads may prove to be an icebreaker between them. At Cincinnati, the seeded players are given cars to drive to and from the tournament venue. 'I actually drove from the airport,' the 22-year-old said. 'I didn't know I had a car, so I landed, and they were like: 'Oh, you have a car,' and it's this massive Cadillac Escalade. So I'm like: 'This is like a bus'. Obviously in England, we're used to driving small cars, small roads, so I was a bit tight. Wrong side of the road as well. But it's OK. I managed to get to the hotel.' Since then, Raducanu has handed over driving responsibilities to Roig. As with his coaching capabilities, her first impressions of his driving skills are positive: 'So far so good,' she said, smiling. 'It's been tested too, in the dark, in the rain, in the sun. It's fine.'
