Chelsea end USA tour with win over Roma

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Chelsea ended their pre-season campaign on a winning note, with Romelu Lukaku’s late goal giving them a 2-1 victory against Roma in Washington DC.

David Luiz returned to action at the RFK Stadium, where Frank Lampard levelled in the second half after a mistake by keeper Mark Schwarzer had allowed Eric Lamela to give Roma an early lead.

Luiz had been sidelined by a hamstring problem, with his absence for previous friendlies increasing speculation about his Blues future amid apparent interest from Barcelona.

He played the first 45 minutes, although Juan Mata remained unavailable.

Summer signing Schwarzer was given a chance to impress in goal but failed to control Ryan Bertrand’s routine back-pass and Lamela had the simple task of scoring from close range.

Roma keeper Morgan de Sanctis produced a fine second-half stop to deny John Terry but could do nothing about Lampard’s fine equaliser.

Demba Ba and Oscar combined nicely to release the England midfielder, who fired into the corner from 25 yards.

Youngster Jamal Blackman, who came on for Schwarzer at half-time, pulled off an excellent save.

And once Chelsea’s appeals for a penalty were ignored after first Eden Hazard and then Ba went down in the box, the match looked to be heading for a draw.

But when Hazard dribbled his way into the area with two minutes to go and pulled the ball back for Lukaku, the striker’s deflected shot left the stranded De Sanctis with no chance.

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