Luis Suarez and Sandro Ramirez scored second half goals for Barcelona, but Gary Cahill‘s late header combined with a brilliant opening goal from Eden Hazard to force penalty kicks between Chelsea and Barca in International Champions Cup action on Tuesday at FedEx Field in Landover.
In the shootout, Thibaut Courtois stopped Gerard Pique and watched Alen Halilovic’s panenka go off the crossbar, while Victor Moses, Radamel Falcao, Ramires and Loic Remy scored to lift the Blues to a 4-2 win.
Close to 80,000 saw Barcelona move to 1-2 in three ICC matches. Barca finishes off its tourney vs. Fiorentina in Florence on Aug. 2.
For Chelsea, the Premier League champions also have a shootout win over Paris Saint-Germain and a loss to New York Red Bulls. They’ll look for a regulation win when they host Fiorentina on Aug. 5 at Stamford Bridge.
Kurt Zouma came very close to putting Chelsea ahead on an arrow of a free kick from Cesc Fabregas, but his bouncing header was pushed off the bar by a diving Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Moments later, on a free kick a bit closer and from the left, Cahill nodded a Fabregas offering over the bar.
Chelsea stayed on the front foot, and Oscar forced ter Stegen into another prone save before Hazard broke through in the 10th minute. The reigning PL player of the year busted through the middle of the 18 on a dribble and beat Rakitic before besting two more defenders and ter Stegen. 1-0 Chelsea.
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