It was another disappointing outing for Chelsea, as the Blues were beaten 2-1 by Real Madrid in the pre-season tour of US.
Real Madrid were by far the better side, as the Los Blancos bossed proceedings in the Bank of America Stadium.
Real Madrid raced to an early lead with Lucas Vazquez scoring in the 16th minute, and Brahim Diaz doubled the scores shortly after. Noni Madueke scored one for Chelsea just before the break.
The second-half was played at a slower tempo without much happening, as the game ended 2-1 to Real Madrid.
Chelsea’s defence has been a cause for concern over the past two seasons, and it has continued under Enzo Maresca, in pre-season at least.
Speaking after Chelsea’s 2-1 loss to Real Madrid, Enzo Maresca blamed his side’s high defensive line and claimed that is hampering their game. The new boss believes the players have been used to it from previous years.
Enzo Maresca said: “It’s a problem we are trying to solve from pre-season, since day one.
“One of my first meetings with the squad was about the amount of goals we conceded last year with the defensive line very high.
“It’s something we are trying to work on. Today, offensively, we are there – the patterns are there. We created chances. The problem is defensively; when I say defensively I don’t just mean the defensive line, but in general, all the players.
“Overall now it’s finished. We head back to London. We have Inter and then an official game. It’s a habit. We are not working on defensive lines so high. It’s a habit from last year, or years ago; I don’t know.
“We are trying to drop the defensive line a little bit, usually about four or five metres, just to have some advantage. Last year, we already conceded many goals with this problem. Hopefully we can solve it very soon.”
Chelsea have already conceded 12 goals in five pre-season matches so far, with Chelsea’s high defensive line being a factor for most goals.