Man City edge Chelsea in thrilling friendly

An Edin Dzeko double and a late Micah Richards winner helped Manchester City secure an astonishing 4-3 friendly win over Chelsea in St Louis.

Chelsea made a flying start to Thursday’s match, and led 3-0 early in the second half before Brian Kidd’s team came storming home to pull off an unlikely victory.

Chelsea took an early lead in the friendly when Demba Ba headed home from close range early on.

That was followed by a succession of chances for City, but it was Chelsea who struck again before the interval.

Juan Mata was clumsily brought down in the box by Karim Rekik, allowing Cesar Azpilicueta to clinically dispatch the resulting penalty and double the Blues’ lead.

It soon got even better for Chelsea as Oscar rounded Joe Hart and remained composed to finish from a tight angle early in the second half to make it 3-0.

Dzeko’s introduction proved to be the turning point.

The Bosnian was cheered on by a large contingent of his compatriots at the Busch Stadium and he was instantly involved in the corner which led to Javi Garcia pulling one back.

Minutes later the former Wolfsburg man, linked with a move to Napoli, raced up the field from a Chelsea corner to meet a James Milner pass and calmly slot past substitute goalkeeper Jamal Blackman to cut the deficit to one.

Blackman then made a succession of impressive stops, most noticably from Milner and Dzeko, before he was finally beaten again with five minutes remaining.

Carlos Tevez persistently plugged away throughout the match and earned some reward by claiming a fine assist for Dzeko’s equaliser.

City had all the momentum and Richards found a dramatic late winner to cap off a remarkable match.