Chelsea belittle Juventus partly thanks to assist and front assist Ziyech

Tuesday, November 23, 2021 at 10:53 PM• Mart van Mourik • Last update: 23:02

Chelsea took an important step on Tuesday evening to group victory in the Champions League. At Stamford Bridge, manager Thomas Tuchel’s team was visited by Juventus, who were beaten 4-0. Although the teams are tied (twelve) at the top of Group H, Chelsea have an advantage thanks to a better head-to-head result. The previous encounter ended in a 1-0 win for la Vecchia Signora. In the other group match, Malmö FF and Zenit Saint Petersburg kept each other in balance: 1-1.

In contrast to the last Premier League match with Leicester City (0-3 win), Hakim Ziyech did receive a basic spot from Tuchel this time. Furthermore, Romelu Lukaku was back in the squad for the first time since mid-October, when he was eliminated against Malmö with an ankle injury. Matthijs de Ligt started at Juventus, while Giorgio Chiellini, Danilo and Federico Bernardeschi, among others, were missing due to various injuries. It was the Londoners who created the first danger of the match.

Several attackers had the ball for typing after a return ball from Christian Pulisic, but De Ligt was barely able to clean up in the goal mouth. Ten minutes later goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny acted as a lifesaver. The closing post tapped a shot from a direct free kick by Reece James from the corner. The opening goal came from the corner that followed. Hakim Ziyech had a nice kick in the house from the left and put the ball down at Antonio Rüdiger. Although the center defender touched the leather with his hand and put the ball in front of Trevoh Chalobah, play was allowed to continue. The latter scored convincingly: 1-0.

Chelsea were in control, although Juventus had a huge opportunity to level the score shortly after the opening goal. Álvaro Morata looked like he was going to score eye to eye with goalkeeper Édouard Mendy with a watched marker; Thiago Silva, however, took the ball off the goal line with a spectacular volley. The Blues Ten minutes before half time, they had to deal with another setback with the injured N’Golo Kanté dropping out. The Frenchman was forced to be replaced by Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

After the break, Chelsea walked away from the team from Turin in a period of two minutes. Reece James first put his name on the scoreboard in the 56th minute. After a cross from the left, the ball ended up through De Ligt’s head, after a header duel with Ziyech, at the feet of the right winger. He scored effectively: 2-0. Almost immediately after doubling the margin, the 3-0 was also found. Tuchel’s team simply combined through the Italian defense, after which the ball ended up on the edge of the sixteen at Ziyech. The right winger on duty gave the ball to Loftus-Cheek, who played Callum Hudson-Odoi after a nice dribble. Kanté’s replacement seized the opportunity.

In the final phase, Weston McKennie had a good opportunity on the honorary goal, but Mendy parried the bet. On the other side, Szczesny prevented the score from rising even further: the Polish closing post tapped a shot from Ziyech from the bottom corner. Deep into injury time, the 4-0 fell after all. Substitute Timo Werner put the final score on the scoreboard on the advice of Ziyech.