Chelsea rallies past Real Sociedad 3-1 behind João Pedro brace

Chelsea came from behind to beat Real Sociedad 3-1 in a club friendly at Stamford Bridge, with the English side overcoming an early goal from the Basque visitors to seal the win with a commanding second-half performance.

A back-and-forth affair

Chelsea struck first, just 10 minutes in, when Morgan Rogers tucked home a close-range finish with his right foot after João Pedro's initial effort had been saved by the goalkeeper. The goal seemed to set the hosts up for a comfortable afternoon, but Real Sociedad refused to sit back and kept probing through Takefusa Kubo and Luka Sucic, the visitors' main creative outlets.

That pressure paid off right before the break: in the 44th minute, Jon Aramburu leveled things with a left-footed strike from outside the box that snuck in at the far post off a deflection inside the area. The first half ended 1-1, a tightly contested stretch despite Chelsea's edge in possession.

The story flipped almost immediately after the restart. Just a minute into the second half, in the 46th minute, João Pedro headed home a Reece James cross to make it 2-1 and hand the hosts the lead back. Chelsea took over from there, and with both managers having made several substitutions, put the result beyond doubt in the 76th minute: João Pedro struck again, this time with a low right-footed finish set up by Malo Gusto, sealing the final 3-1.

By the numbers

Chelsea controlled the ball better and was sharper in its buildup play, though Real Sociedad actually finished with more shots overall without turning that volume into clearer chances.

Based on an in-house estimate calculated from shot locations, Chelsea generated 1.984 expected goals compared to Real Sociedad's 1.226, a gap that backs up the final scoreline despite the similar shot counts.

What the preview said versus what happened on the field

The projection published ahead of kickoff gave Chelsea a 29% chance of winning, 24% for a draw and 47% in favor of Real Sociedad, with an estimated 1.52 expected goals for the hosts and 1.98 for the visitors. The final result went against that forecast: even though Real Sociedad was the favorite by those numbers, it was Chelsea that took control in the second half, riding the finishing of João Pedro, whose brace proved decisive.

Takeaways from the match

Chelsea earned a hard-fought win after falling behind, making the most of its chances in the second half and finding its biggest offensive threat in João Pedro. For Real Sociedad, the match showed flashes of good football, especially in the first half, but also exposed how difficult it was to sustain that intensity after the break, once the English side took firm control of the game.