Hakim Ziyech has a starting place at Chelsea for the first time this season. The summer purchase made its appearance as a substitute in the past three official games, but starts on Wednesday-evening at 6.55 pm from the kick-off in the away game against FK Krasnodar in the Champions League. He starts on the right flank in the forefront with Timo Werner and Kai Havertz.

Chelsea have to count without goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and midfielder Billy Gilmour, who are struggling with a shoulder and knee injury respectively. In addition, defender Marcos Alonso is still suspended due to a red card he received in February in an eight-final match against Bayern Munich (0-3 defeat). Furthermore, trainer Frank Lampard has a fit selection, but he has decided to give Thiago Silva a rest.

The personnel problems at Krasnodar are a lot bigger, especially in the vanguard: Remy Cabella and Evgeniy Markov are absent due to an infection with the corona virus, while Wanderson and Viktor Claesson have muscle injuries. Ruslan Kambolov and Aleksandr Cherkinov are not available due to injuries and also Sergey Petrov and Dmitri Stotskiy, both right backs, are not there.

In the run-up to the game, the English media already took into account a basic place for Ziyech. Opinions mainly differed about the filling in of the rearguard. In Saturday’s Premier League match against Manchester United (0-0), Lampard opted for a five-man defense with Reece James, César Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Kurt Zouma and Ben Chilwell, César Azpilicueta, but now he’s going for a four-man defense with Azpilicueta, Antonio Rüdiger, Zouma and Chilwell.

Line-up FK Krasnodar: Safonov; Smolnikov, Kaio, Martynovich, Chernov; Vilhena, Gazinski; Utkin, Olsson, Ramirez; Mountain.

Chelsea lineup: Mendy; Azpilicueta, Rüdiger, Zouma, Chilwell; Hudson-Odoi, Jorginho, Kovacic; Ziyech, Werner, Havertz