Chelsea beat Barcelona to win Rakuten Cup

Chelsea beat Barcelona 2-1 to win the Rakuten Cup in a pre-season friendly match in Japan thanks to goals from Tammy Abraham and Ross Barkley.

Frank Lampard’s Chelsea were impressive as Abraham opened the scoring with a neat first-half finish after rounding the goalkeeper, and substitute Barkley curled in a second late on.

Ivan Rakitic struck in injury time for Barcelona with powerful drive.

The game saw £107m signing Antoine Griezmann make his debut for the Spanish giants.

The former Atletico Madrid striker showed some good touches and linked up well with Ousmane Dembele, who is reportedly set to leave Barcelona this summer, but never really troubled Kepa in the Chelsea goal.

Pulisic puts on a show as Blues youngsters impress

Lampard gave Christian Pulisic a first start for the Blues and the 20-year-old American forward caught the eye with his pace and trickery.

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He got the better of the Barcelona backline on a number of occasions, breezing past defenders to set up a couple of chances, although his finishing failed to match the rest of his game.

But he was not the only one of Chelsea’s young players to impress.

Abraham recovered from a shocking miss at the start of the game, when he fired over from four yards, by showing a striker’s instinct for the opener, reacting quickly to a deflected clearance and then rounding Barcelona’s experienced keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Meanwhile, Mason Mount, who played under Lampard on loan at Derby last season where he scored 14 goals, did not look out of place.

Playing just behind Abraham, Mount linked up play well and showed he was not afraid to shoot against illustrious opposition with a decent drive that flew just over.