In our final game before the Academy Christmas break, the Chelsea Under-21s went within a point of the top two in our Premier League International Cup group with one game remaining by beating Celtic at Kingsmeadow.

The Blues opened the scoring early on when a patient passing move out from the back ended with Jimmy-Jay Morgan timing his run perfectly to meet Deivid Washington’s pass and slot in the first goal.

The Scottish visitors got an equaliser against the run of play shortly after half-time, but we were back in the lead by the hour mark with Washington’s second assist of the game, driving at the defence on the ball and finding Zain Silcott-Duberry to fire into the corner of the net.

The victory was completed when Morgan sealed his brace late on with another good finish, after we had pressured Celtic into giving away possession in a dangerous area.

After the match, head coach Mark Robinson was pleased to see his team in a promising position to reach the knockout stages of a competition which provides a unique challenge at this level, in general and in this match specifically, ahead of our last group game early next month.

‘The win against Celtic leaves us third in the group with one game to go, against Valencia,’ he said. ‘The top two teams from each group, along with two of the best third-place sides, will progress to the quarter-finals, so a win against Valencia should be enough to see us qualify for the next stage.

‘One of the good things about this competition is the opportunity to face teams you wouldn’t normally come up against. It’s an interesting competition. There are eight teams in each group – four Premier League sides and four European sides – and each team plays four games, so the English sides don’t face each other.

‘Leading up to the game, Celtic’s results hadn’t been that favourable for them but it was clear that they played some really good football and could pose a threat. They came back from 3-0 down against Brighton to draw 3-3 earlier in the group stage, and probably should have won the game, so we knew that we would have to play well.

‘They had to win against us to stand any sort of chance of going through, but it was an important one for us to win as well, so we had to be mentally prepared for that.’

While the Blues did the job and got the victory, Robinson wasn’t completely pleased with the performance, especially during what he felt was a scrappy first half, even if we went into the break with a narrow lead.

‘We didn’t start too well and there was a lack of detail to our passes, even though we scored an early goal,’ he continued. ‘We knew they were strong down the middle of the pitch, so we felt that if we got down the outside at pace, eventually it would open up spaces. That’s exactly what we did for the opening goal on eight minutes.

‘I would have thought that would make the boys realise the importance of a ruthless edge in the game, but that mentality didn’t materialise. We overcomplicated things at times and their shape – with two sitting midfielders and two No10s in rotation – caused us some problems.

‘We couldn’t quite get our press right, and when we did get it right, we turned the ball over to them again too quickly. Although there were some good moments, the game was bitty and we lacked flow to our play in the first half.’

Thankfully, a change of approach off the ball resulted in an improved second-half performance, which ultimately sealed our victory through Silcott-Duberry and Morgan’s goals.

‘We talked about the press at half-time and decided the best thing to do was to go man-for-man, due to their rotation, and we also thought that would be a good challenge for the lads.

‘We weren’t happy with the goal and felt we turned the ball over to them too easily, but generally our game plan nullified what they were doing and we were on top throughout the second half.’

That was enough to take all three points, leaving us one point off the top two in the Premier League International Cup group going into our final match of this stage. We host Spanish side Valencia at Kingsmeadow in our Under-21s’ first match of 2024 on Tuesday 9 January.

Chelsea 3-1 Celtic

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Max Merrick; Brodi Hughes, Alfie Gilchrist, Billy Gee, Dylan Williams; Alex Matos (Michael Golding 68), Samuel Rak-Sakyi (Kiano Dyer 62); Deivid Washington (Ishe Samuels-Smith 90+2), Leo Castledine, Zain Silcott-Duberry (Tyrique George 62); Jimmy-Jay Morgan
Unused subs: Eddie Beach, Richard Olise, Jimi Tauriainen
Scorers: Morgan 8, 90, Silcott-Duberry 58
Booked: Matos 45

Celtic (3-4-2-1): Joshua Clarke, Josh Dede (Ben Quinn 54), Andrew Kyle (Thomas Hatton 68), Mitchel Frame (Sean McArdle 74), Lenny Agbaire, Magnus MacKenzie, MacKenzie Carse, Kyle Ure (Corey Thomson 74), Daniel Kelly, Rocco Vata, Daniel Cummings (Lewis Dobbie 54)
Unused subs: Joe Morrison, Justin Osagie
Scorer: Cummings 48
Booked: Ure 65