Wrexham 0 Stoke City 6

Stoke City ended their first pre-season friendly of the summer on British soil in emphatic fashion after beating Vanarama National League side Wrexham.

The Potters hit the Welsh side for six at the Racecourse Ground as a brace from Jonathan Walters and others from Mame Diouf, Marco van Ginkel, Joselu and Dominic Telford secured a satisfying victory.

It was a satisfying night for Mark Hughes against his home town side and he said after the game “It was a good workout for us and it was important to give a number of the other players who didn’t get game time in Singapore a run-out

“Almost all the group have now had a good amount of minutes and we are all at a good level of fitness and we look forward to the Brentford game at the weekend.

“I thought overall we performed with the correct manner because sometimes you can take lower league opposition for granted.”

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Toronto FC 1 Sunderland 2

Sunderland rounded off their pre-season tour of North America with a win over Toronto FC thanks to Jermain Defoe’s two goals against his former club.

The MLS side led just after the break thanks to a composed finish from Jonathan Osorio, but Sunderland responded as two well-taken efforts from Defoe earned his side the win.

The first goal, in the 65th minute, was a reward for Defoe’s persistence in a scramble on the edge of the area. The second came along four minutes later, courtesy of a flowing counter-attack led by Adam Johnson.

Dick Advocaat: “It was a good win; the players gave everything to get a better result than the previous two games.

“We’ve had a 12-day pre-season camp with two training sessions every day and performances will improve when we don’t train as often.

“We were much improved in the second half from the first.”

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New York Red Bulls 4 Chelsea 2

Chelsea were beaten in their pre-season fixture against the New York Red Bulls after conceding four goals in the second half

Loic Remy opened the scoring in an entertaining start the pre-season campaign of the Champions with Eden Hazard finding the net in the second half, but four goals after the break from the MLS outfit won the game.

Chelsea fielded vastly different sides in each half, with only three players asked to complete the 90 minutes.

Jose Mourinho was in typical modest mode at the end of the game “They gave us a good training session

“If we came here and won 10-0 I would not be happy because it would mean it was too easy. We needed the game they gave us.

“Obviously we needed to play better than we did in the second half defensively, and there were also too many missed chances, but the intention of pre-season matches is to play, to run, to bring intensity back, so no problem. We are a top team, we have top players. We only started training six days ago.

“The kids that played for Red Bulls were very good opponents for us: sharp, quick, fast, and highly motivated. I believe they were so happy to play against Chelsea.

“They gave us a good match, maybe better than they should, but a very good match! They are not going to forget they beat Chelsea, even if it was pre-season.”

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