BLAME OZ IF YOU DRAW BIG GUNS
Bayern & Real wait as Blues blow their top
TIMO WERNER strayed onside and finally found his range – but it still wasn’t enough to put holders Chelsea in the main pot for the knockout stage draw.
A stunning volley by Magomed Ozdoev levelled the match on the night and allowed Juventus to
steal top honours in Group H with a win over Malmo.
It means Chelsea go into the draw in Nyon on Monday as a second-placed team with the main threat coming from Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
Frustrated Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel said: “We had a very good first 15 minutes and then stopped doing those things.
“We were forgetting why we were the better team – because of the investment, concentration.
“Once this drops five, 10 per cent and it does, once we start managing results and changing our behaviour from what the score is, we get punished.
“It happened to us at West Ham and it happened here. The reaction was good again, that shows me it’s not about what we can do because we can do it.
“Suddenly when we concede two goals we can step up, we can show a reaction. But once we have the lead we give it away.”
Werner has had 16 goals disallowed since he arrived at Stamford Bridge at the start of last season and seems to have missed just as many chances.
Yet in just the second minute he found the perfect spot where even he could not fail to hit the 3 3 back of the target, firing home Andrea Christensen’s flick.
But the game was turned on its head. Claudinho Rodrigues was completely unmarked as he headed in Douglas dos Santos’ left-wing cross for the leveller in the 38th minute.
Then three minutes later Sardar Azmoun beat a poor attempt to spring an offside trap to take the ball around Kepa and put Zenit in front.
Romelu Lukaku ended a two-goal drought by tapping in Werner’s pass to give Chelsea hope of reprieve.
The German then thought he had provided the perfect finish when he danced around the Zenit area to score the third goal for the Blues.
But injury time was enough of an opportunity for the Russian side to exploit one last time as Ozdoev’s sumptuous strike snatched a point.