The Blues were held to a 1-1 stalemate after a late penalty was converted by the hosts following a handball by Trevoh Chalobah. Christian Pulisic had fired us in front early on but we were eventually beaten in a shoot-out following Conor Gallagher's miss.

The Chelsea head coach was left mulling over a mixed night in North Carolina as he felt our final-third play let the result slip away.

‘In general I would say we played a good first half but unfortunately only for 80 metres of the pitch,’ he said.

‘The last 20 metres were not good enough, even in the first half. We found a lot of spaces to accelerate and to penetrate the box but we struggled with our decision-making and precision in the last 20 metres.

‘It was simply not good enough for the effort and quality we showed in the first 80 metres of the pitch. The amount of space we had and the amount of attacks we created, there were simply not enough clear chances or deliveries in the last 20 metres.

‘We played a very good match in all the other aspects but in the second half, it took us about half an hour to show some quality and that was maybe for 10 minutes so not good at all - not offensively, not structure-wise, not in effort or the hunger to be the dominant team.’

Twenty-one players featured at the Bank of America Stadium but Timo Werner, Cesar Azpilicueta, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Ross Barkley were all absent, with Tuchel providing an update on the quartet’s fitness following the final whistle.

‘Timo had some hamstring problems so we didn’t take the risk with him tonight,’ said Tuchel of his compatriot.

‘Kepa has had some pain that was disturbing him to feel free in the movements, nothing too much but we didn’t take the risk.

‘Azpi took a big knock above his knee on his muscle in training. He ran into Edou [Mendy] in an accident and is in some discomfort but if it was a Premier League match then I think we would have taken the risk. We just felt that today it was not worth it in case he did any further damage and is out for another three or four days.

‘Ross has felt his hamstring for a few days now, the same like Timo. It’s more of a discomfort than an injury but like the others, we didn’t think there was any need to take a risk at this stage of pre-season.’