The hosts controlled the flow of play at the start of the first half showing why they had won last year’s tournament. However, Ziv Arie’s charges were up to the task and held a very strong defensive front to withstand the Chelsea attack.
In the 20th minute, Chelsea broke through the Maccabi defense as Kasey Palmer scored for the home side to give the Blues a 1:0 lead. The Yellow-and-Blue threatened as they were able to get deep into Chelsea territory but their chances in Lehigh those by Lazar Durovic missed the target as Maccabi went into the half down by a goal.
The second half started quickly for Chelsea as Palmer scored his second of the match off a Maccabi turnover in the 47th minute and the third Chelsea goal came from Tammy Abraham in 78th minute after he capitalized on a Maccabi defensive error giving the hosts a 3:0 victory.
Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv lineup:
Ohayon, Rosenboim, Galili, Grechkin, Zelikovic, Glazer (c), Altman (Galili 78), Haramati (46 Almog), Kanichowsky, Shapira, Durovic (69 Al Awisat).
Chelsea lineup:
Baxter, Tomari, Clarke-Salter, Aina, DaSilva, Chalobah (75 Maddox), Mukhtar (61 Sammut), Scott, Muheim (46 Sterling), Abraham, Palmer
