Effectively, that was a little bit of a wrestle. Numerous a wrestle? Definitely at occasions within the first half. Fortunately, we did sufficient within the second half to take a 2-0 benefit into subsequent week’s second leg in Switzerland.

Chelsea made a vibrant begin to the sport, and optimistically, Marc Guiu might’ve opened the scoring inside the primary jiffy. However he ran out of room as he took the ball across the goalkeeper, after which Chelsea quickly ran out of that preliminary impetus as effectively, with the guests rising into the sport — not that Filip Jörgensen had a lot of something to do within the Chelsea web, with the protection usually comfy as effectively, exterior of some awkward moments on set items and lengthy throws. Chelsea did have a couple of promising moments of our personal, however lacked the execution essential to make them rely.

We made one other vibrant begin to the second half as effectively, and this time we did get on the scoreboard with Christopher Nkunku drawing and changing a penalty. Then Guiu had a horrendous miss on an empty web after closing down the goalkeeper and profitable the ball, which took the wind out of his, and Chelsea’s sails and we reverted to extra of a primary half movement.

A triple change from Maresca did little to get up the troops; if something, it made us extra sloppy and unfocused. So Noni Madueke determined to issues into his personal arms as a substitute, and provides us the wanted second aim simply as the sport entered its closing quarter hour.

Chelsea managed to see out the end result from there, although not with out a few extra sloppy moments, this time on the again, with Servette hitting the crossbar, letting a pair good possibilities go to waste, and Jörgensen making an enormous save on the ultimate kick of the sport.

So, 2-0. Half the job performed. End it subsequent week.

Carefree.

• Plenty of rotation from Maresca, with solely Caicedo and Nkunku retaining their spots from the weekend
• Captain Caicedo! Armband again to Enzo for the ultimate jiffy after Caicedo taken off.
• A clear sheet!
• Subsequent up: Wolves away on Sunday, then the second leg of this factor on Thursday
• KTBFFH

PLAYER RATINGS:

Loading…