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Pre-Season Friendlies Review: Terry nets Chelsea brace, Subotic in Dortmund return

SoccerNews in General Soccer News 19 Jul 2014

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A number of Europe’s top clubs ramped up their pre-season plans with friendlies on Saturday which saw comebacks in more than one sense.

A John Terry double helped to prevent Chelsea from suffering an embarrassing defeat to AFC Wimbledon as they came from behind to win 3-2.

Jose Mourinho’s men made the short trip to Kingston-upon-Thames to face Wimbledon and for a significant amount of time they appeared set to lose their first pre-season friendly.

Alan Bennett netted for the hosts in the first minute, getting the hosts off to a brilliant start, before Matt Tubbs converted a penalty towards the end of the first half.

However, Terry netted either side of a Mohamed Salah goal in the final 15 minutes to salvage a victory for Chelsea.

Borussia Dortmund snatched a late 4-3 win in their encounter with German 3. Liga champions Heidenheim, with Neven Subotic making his return after missing eight months of action with a knee ligament injury.

There was also a return to the pitch for Steven Fletcher, who made an impressive return after four months out as he netted twice in Sunderland’s 5-1 hammering of Darlington.

Like Chelsea, Liverpool too had to come from behind fairly late on as they beat Preston North End 2-1 at Deepdale, but a first-half injury to debutant Emre Can will have left a sour taste for Brendan Rodgers.

Liverpool equalised with just over 15 minutes left as Suso, who replaced new signing Rickie Lambert, cut on to his left foot and curled a delightful effort into the top-left corner and Kristoffer Peterson grabbed the winner a few moments later.

Luis Enrique’s completed his return to the Barcelona bench on Saturday as his took charge of his first match as coach, guiding a very young side to a 1-0 win over Recreativo Huelva.

Barcelona dominated proceedings throughout in Andalucia and, unsurprisingly, where generally in control of possession against their second-tier opponents.

Despite their monopolisation of the ball, Barca struggled to make the most of their superiority and were forced to wait until the 67th minute before breaking the deadlock, as Joan Roman pounced on a rebound to slot in the winner and claim the Colombino trophy.

Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham reign got off to an entertaining start as they were held to a 3-3 draw by Seattle Sounders, as Iago Falque’s late penalty spared their blushes.

French sides Lyon and Marseille both picked up 4-1 wins against highly rated opponents, defeating Shakhtar Donetsk and Bayer Leverkusen respectively. Michy Batshuayi netted a debut goal for Marcelo Bielsa’s men.

Arsene Wenger had a very young squad at his disposal, but Arsenal still came out on top against Boreham Wood, winning 2-0 thanks to second-half goals from Kristoffer Olsson and Benik Afobe.

Alfred Finnbogason scored on his first start for Real Sociedad following a move from Heerenveen, but opponents Ajax ended up running out 3-1 winners, while Celtic could only draw 1-1 at Dynamo Dresden.

Valencia were also unable to defeat German opposition, as Nuno Santo’s side succumbed to a 3-1 loss at Nurnberg, who suffered relegation from the Bundesliga last season.

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