Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho took a swipe at the referee as his side slumped to their first preseason defeat, a 3-0 loss to Werder Bremen in Germany that spoiled the return of Didier Drogba and the debut of Thibaut Courtois.
We came here and the referee thought it was a circus for Bremen fans to have fun and he killed the match
Ivory Coast legend Drogba made his first appearance for Chelsea since scoring the penalty that won the 2012 Champions League in Munich when he came on as a second-half substitute for summer signing Diego Costa.
But Jose Mourinho's side were 2-0 down at that point and Drogba's return ended in a tame defeat at the Weserstadion.
"They are the best team we've faced in this period," said Mourinho. "We knew they were in a more advanced stage of the preseason, so we were expecting a competitive, intense game."
Blues captain John Terry conceded a soft penalty after 20 minutes when he needlessly blocked the ball with his arm and Dutch winger Eljero Elia stepped up to plant his spot kick past Belgian goalkeeper Courtois, who has joined Chelsea after a long-term loan at Atletico Madrid.
It got worse for the visitors 17 minutes later when Terry was again implicated as Polish winger Ludovic Obraniak darted past the static centre-half to glance a header past Courtois.