On a sunny hot day in Santa Clara, California, the two European sides come together in a preseason friendly as they continue to tour the United States before they kick off their respected season. Fans in drove through the entry checkpoints in loads as they were ready for a Wednesday night football matchup at the home of the San Francisco 49ers.
As the fans got to their seats you could see the crowds of fans representing their team of choice as part of the stadium was Wrexham red and the other side was Chelsea Blue. During warmups you could see the smiles on the players face, as this was some of the players first time in the San Francisco Bay Area.
As the friendly began, it only took a few minutes for things to start getting chippy. At the second minute a small scuffle broke out between the two teams towards midfield and gave the stadium an early buzz.
For the most part of the first half it seems that both teams were playing the game very calculated and a little bit of a slower pace, but things finally changed once Chelsea was able to get on the scoring sheet with the goal by Christopher Nkunku at the 35 minute mark.
The two teams continue to play with the score showcasing one nothing into halftime. There was a good amount of pressure being played by both teams as the chances were coming, and that was setting the tone for what was to come into the second half.
After the halftime break, Chelsea decided to make almost a full squad change as they substituted 10 players. Wrexham made a single change coming into the half, and looked to keep things intact coming back onto the pitch. Chelsea came out of the gates with a lot of pressure where two attempts came towards goal around the 57th minute, but it was Luke Bolton, of Wrexham A.F.C., who was able to equalize the game at one goal a piece in the 58th minute.
After the Wrexham goal, they decided to make a major squad change with 7 different substitutions on the pitch, and put in fresh players to finish the game up. This is exactly when the pace of the game started to change.
Both teams turned up their pace, and the attacks began to push from both sides. It seemed that both teams were able to mirror their chance creation as the ball continued to be moved into dangerous territories on both sides of the pitch. It appeared that every time Chelsea had a chance, Wrexham had their own chance to score. Wrexham was able to to finally add to their scoring sheet once Jack Marriott was able to score into the bottom right corner being assisted by Sam Dalby. This gave Wrexham the two to one lead in the 71st minute.
Once the score had changed, the pressure was turned up again as Chelsea seemed determined to make up the score they had just gave up. Mere minutes after the goal, Chelsea was able to get the ball down in opposing territory and push the defense back against the back line. Chelsea was in able to equalizing the 82nd minute with a goal from Lesley Ugochukwu.
The score line would remain at 2-2 even after late pressure from both sides to end the night tied. The players both walked around the stadium applauding the fans who came out to Levi Stadium. The final game capacity totaled about 32,000 fans packing the site for a future 2026 World Cup game.
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