With a flight home booked for the evening after the Barcelona match, Tuesday was to be the Blues’ final day in Japan.

Unlike Friday in Yokohama, there was no morning training session scheduled, but instead a walk and a stretch to loosen the legs prior to the evening’s game. It was there our photographer captured this picture of the travelling group all together.

Lunch, downtime and a pre-match meal followed before departure for Saitama Stadium, a hugely impressive arena well outside Tokyo’s busy centre.

As they had on Friday, most supporters arrived early and there was a huge cheer for the team’s arrival into the stadium, with fans keen to make the most of this opportunity to see their heroes competing.

There was one major difference in the crowd from that in the Kawasaki game, however. Whereas our Japanese opponents had a large group of ultras generating noise behind the goal, this contest was played out in an altogether quieter atmosphere.

Japanese supporters tend to be very respectful and polite, so there is little noise between the cheers at a goal, impressive move or save.

It made for an interesting spectacle being able to hear more of the talk on the pitch, where the Blues ran out 2-1 winners thanks to an impressive display.

Frank Lampard was thrilled with his players and picked out a couple for high praise in his press conference after the game.

From there, it was a short journey to the airport and a 13-hour flight back to London, with everybody looking back on the past eight days as a huge success.

The players now have two days off before returning to Cobham and continuing their preparations on Friday. Our next action is at Reading on Sunday.

Thanks for reading this, and thank you to our wonderful fans in Japan for the incredible welcome!