Bamford plays as Chelsea and Bees youngsters draw

A Chelsea XI drew 1-1 with Brentford B in a behind-closed-doors friendly at Cobham on Wednesday.

The Blues’ line-up included Patrick Bamford, Marco Marin and Christian Atsu, while the Bees’ side featured trialist Emmanuel Ledesma for his third appearance in five days.

And it was the Argentinean midfielder, formerly of QPR and Middlesbrough, who opened the scoring five minutes before the break.

His free-kick from just outside the box hit a hand in the wall, leading to a penalty – and although Ledesma’s kick was saved, he reacted to nod the rebound into the net.

Earlier, Brentford’s Reece Cole had seen his shot saved while Bamford – who is interesting QPR – was denied three times by a trialist playing in goal for the Bees.

Chelsea equalised in the second half when a late tackle from Nathan Fox – returning to action after injury – led to another penalty, which was comfortably converted.