Goals from Tammy Abraham and Ross Barkley gave Frank Lampard's Chelsea an impressive 2-1 win against Barcelona in a pre-season friendly in Japan.

Abraham opened the scoring with a neat first-half finish after rounding the goalkeeper, and substitute Barkley curled in a second late on.

Ivan Rakitic struck in injury time for Barcelona with powerful drive.

The game saw £107m signing Antoine Griezmann make his debut for the Spanish giants.

The former Atletico Madrid striker showed some good touches and linked up well with Ousmane Dembele, who is reportedly set to leave Barcelona this summer, but never really troubled Kepa in the Chelsea goal.

Midfielder N'Golo Kante was absent from the Chelsea squad for the game and Lampard revealed afterwards that the 28-year-old France international had already returned home because of a knee injury.

"He is OK," Lampard said.

"It was a decision that I made because I felt that him being here, with the facilities and the moving and travel that we have been doing, it probably wasn't the most beneficial for him.

"Hopefully by the time we get back at the end of the week I will sit down with the doctor and hopefully he will be back with us very soon."

Pulisic puts on a show as Chelsea youngsters impress
Lampard gave Christian Pulisic a first start for the Blues and the 20-year-old American forward caught the eye with his pace and trickery.

He got the better of the Barcelona backline on a number of occasions, breezing past defenders to set up a couple of chances, although his finishing failed to match the rest of his game.

But he was not the only one of Chelsea's young players to impress.

Abraham recovered from a shocking miss at the start of the game, when he fired over from four yards, by showing a striker's instinct for the opener, reacting quickly to a deflected clearance and then rounding Barcelona's experienced keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Meanwhile, Mason Mount, who scored 14 goals while playing under Lampard on loan at Derby last season, did not look out of place.

Playing just behind Abraham, Mount linked up play well and showed he was not afraid to shoot against illustrious opposition with a decent drive that flew just over.

Valverde impressed by 'dangerous' Griezmann
While Griezmann did not mark his Barcelona debut with a goal, coach Ernesto Valverde was impressed with the forward's contribution.

"He needs to get used to the team and how we play," said Valverde.

"But he proved himself as a dangerous player on the ball. He has a lot of ideas.

"This is only his debut game. He will have to fit into Barca's style. I am sure he will become better and better."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49087583

Our Blue Boys played Barcelona hands down yesterday,
Scoring 2 Beautiful goals

This season is gonna be interesting,
despite we are not having the chance to buy any player.

KTBFFH!

lomprico:

dem dash una abraham?

Stop embarassing yourself online,
next time ask questions you don't know anything about!

Lampard is gathering a good group of youngsters at Chelsea and empowering them. Pulisic, Mason Mount, Hudson Odoi, Abraham, Kepa etc. All he needs is give these guys more confidence and to get them to be firing on a more regular basis and also mix in some needed experience in the likes of David Luiz, Kante, Azpilicueta etc and he could end up with an exciting and vibrant team. I'm not a Chelsea supporter but we need everyone firing on all cylinders if Man City are to be challenged this season and for the PL to remain as competitive as always.

i tip lampard to succeed

Chelsea shall be great again

Tammy
(Batman/Giroud)

Odoi. Mount. Pulisic
(William) (Barkly) (Pedro/kenedy)

Kovaci/luftus. Kante
(Drinkwater) (jorginho)

Emerson. Zouma. Rudiger. Azpiculieta
(Alonso) (luiz) (christen) ( Reece)


Kepa

Nice

A good way to go. The future is bright for the blues family. Weldon boys

Good job!

2 Nigerians scored in the match, if you know, you know

Blues for life

These ones dey celebrate beating barca for pre-season, mediocrity at its peak..

can't wait to deal with them come August 11...


GGMU

Nice one

Lampard must succeed

Good development in Chelsea I trust....lovely

I watched the highlights of the game and I was highly impressed by our boys. Up you legendary Lampard.

Don't you sleep in the night.... :-

post=80571407:
Our Blue Boys played Barcelona hands down yesterday,
Scoring 2 Beautiful goals

This season is gonna be interesting,
despite we are not having the chance to buy any player.

KTBFFH!

Impressive performance from the young stars

adewumiopeyemi:
Don't you sleep in the night.... :-

This illiterate boy,
you want to continue where you stopped during the election.
You better becareful Ope.
Be guided!

Ok

:Pgo back to sleep bro...

post=80572014:

This illiterate boy,
you want to continue where you stopped during the election.
You better becareful Ope.
Be guided!

adewumiopeyemi:
Don't you sleep in the night.... :-

how her sleep dey take affect ur life. u wan sleep wit am?
monitoring spirits everywhere.
see as him head b..Take am----

Lampard had played barca severally in the past so he knows his way around them.

CaesarDon:
2 Nigerians scored in the match, if you know, you know

who is he?

on behalf of nairaland vampires, we say good morning and have a great day, blue is the color, chelsea is the name.

Wetin concern you on this issue....isewui..

TheGreenLand:

how are sleep dey take affect ur life. u wan sleep wit am?
monitoring spirits everywhere.
see as him head b..Take am----

ucsquare:
These ones dey celebrate beating barca for pre-season, mediocrity at its peak..

can't wait to deal with them come August 11...


GGMU

Watch the singing descend into discordant tunes after a couple of losses.

Sirdiq21:



who is he?

Tammy Oghenetega Tamaraebi Bakumo is of Nigerian descent, while Barkley's grandfather and father are Nigerians, he chooses to use his mothers maiden name "Barkley" because he doesn't have a cool relationship with is dad

Hope it is not initial Gragra, let him replicate it in premiership

Remaining our win against Liverpool in super cup

That a good start.
Check my signature for your cheap data, all network