MARC CUCURELLA was embarrassed by a 16-year-old Aston Villa starlet during a mid-season friendly over the weekend.
The Spaniard, 24, joined Chelsea in a huge £62million transfer from Brighton but has yet to hit top gear for his new club following the summer move.
Blues stars that were not selected by their countries to take part in the World Cup in Qatar jetted out to Abu Dhabi last week for some warm weather training.
At the end of the week they took on fellow Prem side Aston Villa, looking to gain match sharpness before the league’s Boxing Day resumption.
With both sides missing players, a number of youngsters were called on to play, including Villa ace Kadan Young, 16.
The youngster was introduced at half-time with his side leading 1-0 through John McGinn’s seventh minute strike.
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And he produced a cameo performance that Cucurella will hope to forget in a hurry.
One moment that has grabbed fans’ attention came in the 91st minute.
Winger Young picked up the ball on the halfway line, embarking on an exciting foray into Chelsea’s half.
Cucurella attempted to get back, only to be repeatedly bamboozled by his prodigious opponent.
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Just as he thought he’d recovered his position, Young outmuscled him – sending him embarrassingly sprawling to the deck.
None of Young’s team-mates were able to get on the end of his cut-back, but the moment inspired a lot of talk online – with some Chelsea fans unimpressed with their megabucks signing.
Taking to Reddit to comment on the clip, one supporter wrote: “It doesn’t take a lot of effort to outmuscle Cucurella but good play nonetheless.”
A second wrote: “Man, I know it’s only been 4 months but Cucurella just doesn’t look anything like the player Chelsea signed from Brighton.”
While a third huffed: “He does nothing every time I watch Chelsea. Man’s like Forrest Gump, all he does is just run and that’s about it.”
And a fourth fumed: “Maybe he wasn’t that good in the first place. They overpaid massively for him considering that he doesn’t have many outstanding traits.”
Another fan decided to praise Young’s perseverance against his more senior opponent, writing: “Cucurella bodied the lad a few times before this, was satisfying to see Kadan give some back. Looks like an exciting prospect for the future.”
Young is yet to feature for Villa’s first team in a competitive match, and has only made two appearances for their Under-21s this campaign.
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He has played three times in the Under-18s Premier League this term, grabbing a goal and two assists.
Cucurella, meanwhile, has made 18 appearances for Chelsea in all competitions – sharing duties down the left side with Ben Chilwell prior to the England star’s injury.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
