NOT EVEN PIERRE-EMERICK AUBAMEYANG’S space-age face mask could cover up an abject Chelsea performance.
The £12 million striker’s debut was overshadowed by the worst performance yet this season which saw boss Thomas Tuchel in bother with the referee again as his frustrations boiled over.
Aubameyang, 33, was thrown in from the start and wearing a bespoke plastic face covering to protect the broken jaw he suffered in a raid on his house in Spain just eight days ago.
It was meant to give Chelsea a lift but a disastrous all round performance and a tactical disaster show by Tuchel summed up a miserable opening night in the Champions League.
The Premier League side changed defensive formation twice in the 90 minutes as Tuchel tried and failed to get to grips with the game Croatians.
Chelsea’s new £105 million centre half pairing of Kalidou Koulibaly and Wesley Fofana were also humbled for Zagreb’s first half goal while the strikers were easily controlled by the Zagreb defence.
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Winger Mislav Orsic, who destroyed Tottenham two years ago with a hat-trick against them in the Europa League, scored yet again to pile pressure on Tuchel as his side struggles to gather any momentum in a tricky start to the season both at home and abroad.
Fofana in particular was comfortably outpaced by Orsic for the 13th minute goal which gave Dinamo a famous win on the 55th anniversary of the day they beat Leeds to win the now defunct Fairs Cup.
And had it not been for two saves by stand-in Chelsea keeper Kepa – one a stunning one-handed tip onto the bar, it would have been even worse.
By the end of the game, Tuchel had at one point used all six of the major signings from the summer transfer window at a cost of more than £200m only to see them flop.
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To make it even worse for Aubameyang he did put the ball in the net in his first game for Chelsea, only for Ben Chilwell to be ruled offside.
Reece James also hit the post in the dying minutes.
Chelsea needed a late fightback and the help of an incorrect decision by VAR at the weekend to take three points against West Ham at home and this performance was even worse.
A clearly agitated Tuchel was given a yellow card by Romanian ref Istvan Kovacs for animated complaints about Dinamo time-wasting in the second half.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
