Moses Impresses Conte As Rapid Wien Beat Chelsea In Pre-Season Friendly

Super Eagles forward, Victor Moses was quite impressive for Chelsea in their 2-0 loss to SK Rapid Wien in the pre-season friendly game in Austria on Saturday.

Moses, who recently returned to Stamford Bridge on loan from West Ham, earned himself a hand-shake from new Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte, after leaving the pitch for Christian Atsu with just 10 minutes to play.

Both Moses and Nigeria-born Ola Aina linked-up well down the left, but Credit was given to Moses for his brilliant moves in the game. A goal at the beginning of the game and one near the end settled Antonio Conte’s first pre-season friendly in charge of the Blues in Rapid Vienna’s favour.

Plenty of our players received valuable game time in the Austrian capital against a side who have already played a competitive game this season and returned to training five weeks ago. Rapid’s goals came from Joelinton and Tomi, while Chelsea went closest through a Diego Costa shot and a cross from Aina that missed everyone and hit the post. The next step for Conte and Chelsea is Velden where pre-season preparations will continue with more training sessions and a game against WAC Pellets on Wednesday evening.

There was plenty of pre-match fanfare on display to celebrate the opening of the Allianz Stadion, a neat 28,000-capacity arena with an impressive large terrace behind one goal. Live music and a display of Harvey Davidson motorbikes were the highlights before kick-off, along with a match between Chelsea and Rapid’s disabled teams that the hosts edged 3-2.
Conte brought Loic Remy and Kenedy on with a little under 20 minutes remaining and the latter snatched at a chance when a bouncing ball in the box landed at his feet after more good work from Moses.

Also in the game, Nathaniel Chalobah replaced Super Eagles captain, John Mikel Obi who had a relative average performance in the 58th minute, as the match ended 2-0 in favour of the Austrian club.