Enzo Maresca was very pleased with the tempo and intensity shown by his Chelsea side during our pre-season victory over AC Milan at Stamford Bridge.
With our preparation for the 2025/26 campaign truncated into two weeks following our Club World Cup triumph, today’s game was the Blues’ second and final pre-season fixture before the Premier League gets underway next weekend.
Yet there was little sign of ring rust in the early exchanges, as we constantly flooded forward and struck twice in the opening eight minutes against the Italian giants. An own goal from Andrei Coubis put us ahead, and Joao Pedro doubled the lead with a fine header from a Pedro Neto cross.
An 18th-minute red card shown to Coubis changed the dynamic of the game, but in the second half, Liam Delap converted a penalty and swept home in the final moments to ensure we recorded a resounding win. Youssouf Fofana netted for the visitors.
‘I think the performance was very, very, very good until the red card,’ Maresca reflected after our win. ‘We started the way we wanted to start, intense and with a high tempo on and off the ball.
‘The red card changed a little bit the game but it’s also normal [that the energy dropped a little] as Milan started pre-season on 4 July, 40 days ago, and this was their sixth friendly game.
‘For us, it’s our second one. But overall, I’m very happy and now we start the Premier League.’
Joao Pedro’s goal was his second of pre-season – he netted late on against Bayer Leverkusen on Friday – and Delap also looked sharp on his second outing at Stamford Bridge.
Maresca is happy with the impact made by both in our pre-season fixtures, and expects more of the same once the Premier League campaign gets underway.
The Blues head coach said: ‘They are both our strikers, we need them scoring goals during the season, and we are very happy with both of them.
‘Liam played some games in the USA [at the Club World Cup] and he scored here today. They have to be without pressure or stress, and they will score goals for sure and miss goals for sure. But at the end, they are going to help us.’
The Blues have another week at Cobham to undertake our final training sessions of pre-season before our top-flight campaign begins at Stamford Bridge next Sunday against Crystal Palace.
Maresca is looking forward to getting back to competitive action ahead of a season that will see the Blues compete once again across four fronts.
He said: ‘I’m confident in general and for sure excited. We have another long season ahead and we are going to try to do our best.’
