Barcelona defender Alejandro Balde has named a current Chelsea player as one of the toughest opponents he’s ever come up against in his career to date.
The current Chelsea squad may be filled with young stars for the future, but there’s still plenty of talent inside the building. In particular, there’s so much attacking firepower to choose from.
Speaking via the Premier League’s official website last month, Ian Wright explained Chelsea’s attack will dismantle plenty of teams. So far, they’ve scored 19 goals in their opening nine league matches this season.
Alejandro Balde praises Noni Madueke
During an interview with ESPN, Barcelona’s Alejandro Balde was asked for the three toughest opponents he’s faced in his career so far.
Interestingly, the 21-year-old left-back did include Chelsea winger Noni Madueke because of a previous battle when he was a PSV Eindhoven player.
“Another could be when I was in youth football against Madueke, who’s at Chelsea now. He’s a good player, I think he was at PSV then, it was another good game,” Balde said.
We hope to see Balde and Madueke compete against each other again plenty of times in the future, both in a Chelsea vs Barcelona fixture and an England vs Spain international.
A key Chelsea starter
Even if the goals have dried up recently for Madueke, he still remains a very important player in Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea XI.
The £29m right-winger (Sky Sports) gives so much to the Blues team both on and off the ball, so it’s going to be very difficult to kick him out of the starting team.
Alan Smith called Madueke an “automatic pick” at Chelsea at the weekend via Sky Sports.
He’s scored five goals in 10 games across all competitions so far this season. He’s yet to register an assist, though.
The fast, skilful and direct wide player is the type of profile that most full-backs will hate playing against.
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