Celtic FC blew past Chelsea FC 4-1 in the second-ever soccer game held at Notre Dame Stadium in front of tens of thousands of fans on a beautiful South Bend day. The Irish Tribune got to watch this great match, see how the game played out below.
Photo by The Irish Tribune
Notre Dame Stadium played host to a friendly between Chelsea FC and Celtic FC on Saturday, July 27th. This game was only the second time in the stadium's history to host two European teams. The first time was in 2019 when Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund traveled to South Bend. Chelsea, from the English Premier League, and Celtic FC, from the Scottish Premiership, are both getting ready for their season to begin. This game operated as a friendly, so both teams could get into playing shape before league play.
As it was just a friendly, Chelsea was missing some of their top players, but Celtic FC elected to play most of their starters. Celtic FC is closer to their season debut, so they were much more eager to get their starters ready. Chelsea is still weeks away from the start of their season, leaving more time for their team to get ready. Either way, a matchup between two major European clubs was a huge event for Notre Dame and soccer fans in America and Europe.
The game got off to an exciting start, as both teams saw some early chances to score. Chelsea had most of the early chances, but they could not find a way to score due to strong Celtic defending and some bad luck. As the chaotic start continued, Celtic FC struck first when center midfielder, Matt O'Riley snuck one past the goalie in the 19th minute. Only 14 minutes later, Celtic FC would double the lead when forward, Kyogo Furuhashi slipped behind Chelsea's defenders to get on the end up a cross for an easy tap-in. This was the start of a lot of mistakes from Chelsea's defenders, who seemed to lack energy and concentration all afternoon. The game wouldn't see any more scoring for over 30 minutes until Celtic FC's, Luis Palma took advantage of another Chelsea error, leaving Palma with an easy opportunity in front of the goal. Just three minutes later, Celtic FC took back possession and found Michael Johnston on the end of a fantastic through ball, leaving him one-on-one with the goalie. Johnston's goal made it 4-0 in the 79th, the cherry on top of what was already a dominant performance from Celtic FC. Chelsea eventually scored off a penalty kick with only a minute left in the game, making the friendly a 4-1 final.
Although the game was not particularly competitive, there were a lot of exciting plays for the fans at Notre Dame Stadium, which appeared to be at around 50-60% capacity. Games like this not only boost the popularity and image of Notre Dame, but also help grow the game of soccer in the United States.
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