Chelsea 4-0 Malmö FF, Champions League: Post-match reaction, ratings

Thomas Tuchel rolled out a surprisingly strong lineup against our Champions League group’s whipping boys, and Chelsea wasted no time in asserting control and dominance.

Chances quickly followed with Malmö offering little resistance — though it was another defender who got on the scoresheet first: Andreas Christensen scoring an historic first ever senior goal for the club! We always said he wouldn’t go 138 games without a goal!

Christensen’s goal inside the first ten minutes was quickly followed by a Jorginho penalty conversion ten minutes later. Lukaku won the penalty but got hurt in the process, getting his ankle trapped underneath the defender who had slid in from behind. Lukaku’s replacement, Kai Havertz had a couple good chance to increase Chelsea’s lead before half-time, but the only thing we managed to increase was our injury count, with Timo Werner pulling up lame just before the break and clutching at his hamstring.

Any suggestions of a Malmö comeback in the second half were quickly put to rest by Chelsea’s third of the night, scored just a couple minutes after the restart: Hudson-Odoi playing in Havertz for his second ever Champions League goal. Jorginho then added another one from the spot (Rüdiger winning this one) to put the final nail in Malmo’s coffin with well over 30 minutes still left to play.

Eventually those 30 minute were up, without any further injuries fortunately. Easy as you like.

Carefree.

• Four changes from the weekend, with Rüdiger, Silva, Jorginho, and Mount all returning to the starting lineup. Havertz for Lukaku and Hudson-Odoi for Werner were the injury-enforced changes in the first-half.
• That’s 14 different goalscorers for the season already, with Jorginho getting his first of the season (then his second) and Christensen getting the first of his Chelsea career.
• Anxiously awaiting news on Lukaku and Werner
• Mendy could’ve read a book in this one, needing to make zero saves for the clean sheet
• In the other match, Zenit and Juventus played out a scoreless draw in St Petersburg, which is a perfect result for us. Nope Juve won it late, 1-0, so they’re still on maximum points.
• Next up: bottom of the table Norwich City on Saturday
• KTBFFH

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