2024-07-25 17:15:03
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Lesley Ugochukwu scored in the 82nd minute to help Chelsea salvage a 2-2 tie with Wrexham in a friendly match Wednesday night at Levi’s Stadium.
Ugochukwu rolled a shot from the middle of the box through traffic into the right corner.
Wrexham took a 2-1 lead when Jack Marriot scored on a counterattack in the 72nd minute.
Luke Bolton also scored for Wrexham, the Welsh team co-owned by actor Ryan Reynolds that was promoted this year to the third tier of English soccer.
“It’s important that we show the Wrexham spirit we’ve been known for the last few years,” Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said.
“We had to dig deep at times and tonight we did that again. Whether it’s preseason or not you want to see that kind of spirit we’ve kind of built a reputation. We’re representing a working-class town and a fantastic area and we’ve got to reflect that with our performances.”
Christopher Nkunku scored first for Chelsea in the perennial Premier League power’s first preseason match and its first under manager, Enzo Maresca, the former Leicester City manager.
“I’m very happy about the performance in general because in this moment, if we think that we started just two weeks ago, it’s important that as a staff and in general people can start to see the identity of the team and I think tonight it was quite good,” Maresca said.
Nkunku fired a shot from the middle of the box into the left corner of the net past goalie Arthur Okonkwo in the 35th minute off an assist from Marc Guiu after a corner kick.
Wrexham tied it in the 58th minute when Bolton scored from the right wing off an assist from Sebastian Revan, who connected with Bolton on a crossing pass.
Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez blocked a breakaway shot from James McLean in the 29th minute.
Chelsea beat Wrexham 5-0 in a friendly last season.
___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
