ROMAN ABRAMOVICH made an appearance in the crowd to watch £33million signing Hakim Ziyech score on his full debut for Chelsea.
Frank Lampard’s team were already in control with goals from Callum-Hudson Odoi and a penalty from Timo Werner before Ziyech and Christian Pulisic pounced to the delight of their Blues team-mates.
Timo Werner scored as Chelsea hammered Krasnodar 4-0Credit: Getty Images – Getty
Hakim Ziyech opened his account for the Blues in RussiaCredit: Reuters
Roman Abramovich was present for his first Chelsea game since May 2019
At 0-0, Jorginho missed his second successive penalty and while it was a scrappy performance, Lampard will be relieved to get the win due to the draw with Sevilla the previous week.
And equally, it is never a good thing to only manage a point or suffer a defeat in front of the boss.
So Lampard would have known it was good to manage a victory in front of Abramovich who was among the 11,000 especially-distanced fans.
Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy helped his team with a decent early save from Daniil Utkin after Kai Havertz lost possession.
And while they had not offered much up front, Lampard’s team let their hosts off the hook courtesy of Jorginho’s latest penalty miss.
Turkish referee Ali Palabiyik pointed to the spot after Werner was clipped by Brazilian defender Kaio and Jorginho delivered a hop and a skip before planting the ball against the left post.
Fortunately for Russian keeper Safonov, it rebounded against his back while Werner’s follow up was blocked by Aleksandr Martynovich
Krasnodar’s players surrounded their keeper and congratulated him but he knew absolutely nothing about it.
Callum Hudson-Odoi opened the scoring for ChelseaCredit: AFP
Christian Pulisic bagged Chelsea’s fourth after some good work from Tammy AbrahamCredit: AFP
Jorginho had scored eight successive penalties before his miss against Liverpool last month. And we will never know whether he would have taken Chelsea’s second penalty as he was off the pitch.
After the penalty save, Krasnodar were not so happy with the 21-year-old keeper when he somehow allowed Hudson-Odoi’s badly-struck shot to squeeze through his body..
Yet the goal came after a fine passing move, which also saw Hudson-Odoi involved in the build-up, and at least Chelsea then discovered some more confidence.
Chelsea had a nervy start when Jorginho missed a penaltyCredit: AFP or licensors
Hudson-Odoi kept his cool to slot home before the first-half whistleCredit: AFP
But Chelsea then lost control in the second half and Krasnodar improved. Yuri Gazinski struck a half volley effort against the bar and Chelsea clearly needed a second goal.
Ziyech wasted a good chance after Havertz carried the ball from his own half while Mendy saved Chelsea again by pushing away a shot from Marcus Berg.
With 20 minutes left. Lampard introduced three subs with Mason Mount, N’Golo Kante and Christian Pulisic all arriving.
Werner made sure Chelsea’s second spot-kick was successfulCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Ziyech wrapped up his first start with a good goalCredit: Reuters
And soon after, Pulisic’s shot struck the thigh and then hand of Martynovich with the referee once again pointing to the spot.
It was harsh on Martynovich who was also booked and Werner hammered the ball into the top corner.
Ziyech was then rewarded for his hard work by blasting a shot through two defenders with 10 minutes left for 3-0.
To end a miserable night for keeper Safonov, Pulisic threaded the ball through his legs for 4-0 after good work on the right from sub Tammy Abraham.
Antonio Rudiger made his return to the starting XI after a brief exileCredit: AP:Associated Press
Kurt Zouma looked to be hurt at one point but recovered to see out the gameCredit: AFP
Edouard Mendy continued to impress between the sticks and kept another clean sheetCredit: Reuters
Krasnodar players blasted as only FOUR take knee in support of Black Lives Matter before Chelsea clash
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
