Chelsea fielded five England development players in their first team as they continued their pre-season with a draw in Austria.
Lewis Baker, Izzy Brown and Patrick Bamford all started in the Blues’ 1-1 draw against Austrian top-flight side WAC RZ Pellets – while John Swift, Nathaniel Chalobah and Dominic Solanke all came off the bench to feature.
Although Jose Mourinho's side was young, it also featured some of the club’s more senior professionals as John Terry, Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic and Nemanja Matic also all started.
Prolific: Baker has scored eight goals in 12 England U19 appearances
But it was French youngster Jeremie Boga who rescued Mourinho’s men – cancelling out De Oliveira Silvio’s opener to pull the Blues level with six minutes remaining.
Despite the result, the Chelsea faithful will take heart from the emergence of young English talent through the ranks at Stamford Bridge.
In May the club won The FA Youth Cup for the third time in five years - and forward Brown was a key player throughout.
Although too old to feature in the most recent Youth Cup success, fellow starters Baker and Bamford also impressed during 2013-14 and will be hoping to make their mark next term.
Izzy Brown was named in the starting eleven for the first time
Highly-rated Baker was one of the star players for the England U19 team throughout last season and has scored eight goals in 12 appearances.
A goalscoring midfielder, Baker also enjoyed a prolific season at club level by scoring 23 goals in 50 youth team appearances.
Meanwhile, Bamford – capped for England at U18, U19 and Under-21 levels – spent the year on loan at MK Dons and Derby County.
He impressed with both, scoring 14 goals in 23 games at stadiummk and eight goals in 21 outings for Derby and will be hoping to kick-on after enjoying a positive start to the pre-season campaign.
Next up for the Blues is a game against Olympia Ljubljana in Slovenia on Sunday 27 July.
