Before a crowd of about 33,000 one of the storied London clubs in Chelsea returned to the Bay Area for the first time in 17 years to play against another historic club from Wrexham, Wales that has grand ambitions to play against the likes of the Premiership elites thanks to two Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob MeElhenney buying the team and creating a reality show. While they can possibly make it to the top flight within the next two years the match was a test to see how the upstarts can compete against the juggernauts of football. Both clubs brought most of their roster to provide entertainment to the fans and while the result didn’t count in the standings with the result being a 2-2 draw, the game was a showcase and warmup both their respective upcoming season with Chelsea in the Premiership and Wrexham recently promoted to League One.
Christopher Nkunku of Chelsea opened up the scoring with his strike in the 35th minute with Luke Bolton of Wrexham drawing the game even in the 59th minute with his tally inside the box. Jack Marriott gave the Red Dragons the lead in the 71st minute with the hope that the little team could get an upset but it wasn’t to be as Lesley Ugochuckwu got the Blues even in the 81st to salvage the tie.
The photo album is here, including the Instagram posts.
Our select highlights are here. More can be found at the photo album including the fan shots.
The match was the first in a pair at Levi’s Stadium with another upcoming event featuring the Quakes and Chivas of Guadalajara on Saturday July 27 at 7pm. Chelsea continues their tour with friendlies against Celtic (Scotland), Club America (Mexico), Manchester City, Real Madrid (Spain), and Inter (Italy) before opening up Premiership (Tier 1) play against Manchester City on August 18. Wrexham also continues their tour with a match against the Vancouver Whitecaps before starting League One (Tier 3) play against Fleetwood Town on August 3.