With Vinicius Jr. very incisive and effervescent in every play, Real Madrid beat Chelsea 2-1 in Charlotte on Tuesday to close their preseason tour of the United States with a victory.
Lucas Vazquez and Brahim scored the goals for the Merengues, who return home after this tour with one win and two losses (1-0 against Milan and 2-1 against Barcelona).
In just eight days’ time, and with all of its stars already in place (including Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham), Madrid will play for the first title of the campaign with the European Super Cup against Atalanta.
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Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium (home of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers) was not filled with 62,167 spectators out of a majority-white capacity of 75,037.
It probably had a lot to do with the fact that North Carolina is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Tropical Storm Debby, which has left widespread damage in the southeastern United States.
The weather was unpleasant during the afternoon, with cloudy skies and some wind, but it did not rain and the friendly match was played normally.
Vinicius Jr. and Brahim were the best, and Rodrygo completed the attack, playing his first minutes of the preseason. Endrick and Arda Guler did not participate in the match.
Noni Madueke was the star of the start. The British winger’s forays down the right ignited Chelsea’s attack and one of his adventures down the flank produced the first chance with a Raheem Sterling header.
The response for the whites – today in orange – came courtesy of Vinicius.
The Brazilian was already the best in the classic, despite only playing for a little over half an hour, and tonight he once again showed spark, audacity, and freshness in every action.
Little by little, Madrid gained speed and soon discovered that Chelsea had countless cracks in defense.
The first goal came in the 19th minute. Rodrygo created a wonderful through ball for Brahim and the play ended up at the feet of Lucas Vázquez, whose left-footed shot bounced off the Chelsea defense and flew into the net.
The good image that Chelsea had left at the start evaporated in the blink of an eye. However, Madrid came close to scoring the second with a great shot from Dani Ceballos that went in by centimeters.
Carlo Ancelotti did not have to wait much longer to enjoy another goal from his team. Vinicius provided a delightful assist with the outside of the foot for Brahim, who cut beautifully past goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen and scored from a near-angle in the 27th minute.
Madrid danced to the tune of Vinicius – cheered on by the crowd – and Brahim and it seemed that the third was just around the corner.
But Chelsea responded. First, they wasted a clear chance from Christopher Nkunku after a pass from Sterling, but in the 39th minute, they did reduce the deficit with a header from Madueke in the six-yard box that neither Fran Garcia nor Courtois were able to intercept.
With the score at 2-1 and Madrid feeling good, Ancelotti brought Andriy Lunin into the goal at half-time.
The Vinicius-Brahim connection was once again close to scoring and Militao was also close to scoring with a header.
The usual carousel of changes in summer tests, in which Vinicius among others went to the bench, cooled the game down in the last half hour and Madrid did not suffer in sealing the victory.
