ZIYECH DELIVERS FOR CHELSEA TO LEAVE MALMO FEELING BLUE
THOMAS TUCHEL modestly chose not to highlight any of his own qualities when discussing the reasons for the considerable success he has enjoyed since taking over at Chelsea. And when there was more praise heading his way last night Tuchel, almost typically, was keen to make sure it was shared around. Facing dogged opponents who had accounted for Rangers’ Champions League dreams in the qualifying round, Tuchel appeared to make the crucial tactical tweak to finally break the spirited Swedes down. At half-time he ordered Callum Hudson-Odoi and Hakim Ziyech to swap wings. Eleven minutes later, Hudson-Odoi burst down the right, crossed for Ziyech who drifted in from the left and Chelsea had their winning goal. It seemed yet another occasion when Tuchel’s work had done the talking for him but the Chelsea head coach revealed: ‘All the credit to my assistant (Arno Michels), he had the idea at half-time and we liked it. ‘We had the feelings that maybe when we enter into spaces behind their back five we would lose seconds if Callum or Hakim had to switch back. We thought maybe we can enter and save important tenths of a second.’ The match-winner was a first strike since the Super Cup against Villarreal in August for Ziyech and another recent key contribution from Hudson-Odoi. He has had to wait patiently to show what he can do in more attacking areas, even having to take one for the team and fill in as a wing-back on occasion. But injuries to Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner in particular have opened the door and this was the third goal he has been involved in in his last four games playing higher up the pitch. Having thumped Malmo 4-0 a fortnight ago, Chelsea might
have expected it to not be the only one and had enough chances to repeat, if not better, that scoreline. But they were rarely troubled and their solitary goal was enough to secure a third win from their four Champions League group games and edge them another step closer to qualification. Job done. Tuchel said: ‘We needed a result and we delivered. There were a lot of reasons where you could stumble. The pitch was not in good condition, lots of travelling, some injuries. But we got the job done.’ Chelsea dominated the first half, their pressure sustained and the best chance falling to Kai Havertz, who took too long to sort his feet out and gave Johan Dahlin time to burst off his line and smother. Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Marcos Alonso went close after half-time and then the interval alteration of Chelsea’s set-up paid off when Ziyech tapped in Chelsea’s 500th goal in European competition.
MALMO (3-5-2): Dahlin 7; Ahmedhozic 7, L Nielsen 8, Brorsson 7; Berget 6 (Larsson 86), Pena 7 (Lewicki 58), Innocent 7, Nanasi 6 (Nalic 74), Rieks 6 (Olsson 57); Rakip 6 (Birmancevic 86), Colak 6. Subs not used: Ellborg, Diawara, Moisander, Abubakari, Gwargis, Elie. Booked: None. CHELSEA (3-4-3): Mendy 6; Silva 7, Christensen 7, Rudiger 7; Azpilicueta 7, Jorginho 7, Loftus-Cheek 8, Alonso 7; Ziyech 7 (Barkley 74), Havertz 6, Hudson-Odoi 7 (Pulisic 74). not used: Kepa, Bettinelli, Chalobah, Saul, Chilwell, James, Sarr, Vale. Booked: Silva, Loftus-Cheek. Man of the match: Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Referee: Felix Brych (Germany). Attendance: 19,551.