Chelsea Under-21s

In our last group match of the Premier League International Cup this season, Chelsea Under-21s had to settle with just one point, and head coach Mark Robinson feels that our choices have placed qualification for the knockout stages in jeopardy.

It was not to be. A win over Valencia would have all but confirmed our place in the quarterfinals. With only two of the three teams in third place going through, we still have a chance to advance even though this point put us up to third in our eight-team group. However, we will have to wait and hope that other outcomes go our way.

Our Premier League International Cup fixtures are, however, done for the time being as we finished the group stage at Kingsmeadow with a draw against Valencia. The most of the game saw Chelsea in control, but there weren’t many opportunities throughout it.

We were deserving of the lead when we took it just before the half.

Silcott-Duberry was clipped and pulled down as he charged at pace into the box. Morgan stepped up and easily buried the penalty into the bottom-left corner of the net after the referee pointed directly to the spot.

However, Valencia tied the game just after the half, and Chelsea was disappointed to give up that goal. We put ourselves in a difficult situation defensively, allowing Rodrigo Farofa to predict Rak-Sakyi’s pass across our box and intercept it for a goal.

When Morgan felt he had scored his second goal of the match, we almost immediately responded, but the linesman’s flag was raised after he turned in Tyrique George’s low cross from close range and the goal.

We started the game with five Under-18 players and ended up with nine on the field, while they had at least three or four players who were 22 and 23 years old. Still, it was a positive that we deserved to take the lead.

Nonetheless, he was not at all happy with the way we let Valencia get an equaliser to tie the game.

We didn’t want to invite pressure, so at halftime, I asked the boys what we needed to do in the next fifteen minutes. They advised that we should try to stay as long as we can in their defensive third.

It was really disheartening that right from the start, we found ourselves back in possession of our custodian. After a few mistakes, they were able to tie the score at one goal thanks to their errors. In the game of football, it almost seems normal now to allow up a cheap goal if you’re thought to be acting morally. It was frustrating since that’s not how I view it.

We’re improving our ability to make decisions and handle games, so if you’re playing under pressure, you need to make sure you have enough overload to perform well. If not, you should locate the space and release the pressure.