The Wrexham Red Dragons and the Chelsea Blues battled to a 2-2 draw at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara (photo by @CarolRadull)
By Tony Renteria
SANTA CLARA–The Hulu Documentary darlings the Wrexham Red Dragons played their second match of the teams 2024 United States tour playing Chelsea Blues at Levi Stadium. Wrexham which has been riding a wave of interest since the Docu series “Welcome to Wrexham” premiered in August of 2022 arrived in Santa Clara coming off One to One a tie against F.C. Bournemouth last Saturday evening in Santa Barbara.
The first half was pretty uneventful until the 35th minute with Christopher Nkunku put the ball in the back of the net to give Chelsea a 1-0 lead into the break. Nkunku a French Born player came over to Chelsea in 2023 on a six year deal that is whopping 52 million pounds.
The second half started out quickly as Wrexham’s Luke Bolton scored at the the 58th Minute to tie the score to One to One. Bolton’s teammate Jack Marriot was able to get ahead of a defender and take shot on the goal at the 71st minute that put the underdog Red Dragons ahead 2-1.
Wrexham turned up the aggressiveness as the ball seemed to stay on the Chelsea side of the pitch. Chelsea was able to exploit that over aggressiveness and get a game tying goal at the 81st minute by Lesley Ugochukwu.
After this goal both Wrexham Manager Phil Parkinson and Chelsea’s Enzo Maresca started to replace all the starters with sub. A Friendly Match translated is an exhibition match. Parkinson must has memories of losing the amazing striker Paul Mullin last season in a friendly that hurt the start of Wrexham’s 2024 campaign in League Two. Both Managers played it safe in the last moments that lead to a 2-2.
Wrexham which was just promoted to League One has the uneasily task of taking on a top notch Premier league team. In context it would as an AA baseball team was taking on the Los Angels Dodgers. This marks the second time these two clubs have played in a friendly as Chelsea handed the Red Dragons a five to to nil lost last year in Chapel Hill N.C.
Chelsea is an established power house in the Premier league and commands fans from all over the world and Wednesday night was no different as the flood of Blue Jerseys in the stands stood out against the red that encompasses Levi Stadium.
Wednesday night’s Friendly actually marks the first match for Chelsea under the guidance of new head manager Enzo Maresca. Maresca comes over from Leicester City Football Club where he was there for two season coaching in the Championship League. Chelsea will open their season against Manchester City on August 18.
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