Qarabag 2-2 Chelsea: Blues come from behind to rescue draw in Baku | OneFootball

The Blues had never conceded in two previous meetings with the Azerbaijani champions

The Blues, playing on the road in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, seemed to let the jetlag catch up to them as they faded after a fast start. Estevao struck inside 20 minutes to put them ahead, but his opener seemed to kick the hosts into gear.

Enzo Maresca, clearly disgruntled with the state of the performance, made three changes at half-time, and one of his substitutes had an instant impact as Alejandro Garnacho, replacing Jamie Gittens, fired an equaliser home early in the second half.

With close to forty minutes left to play, Chelsea pushed hard for a winner, but the winner would not come as both keepers made crucial saves in injury time.

Four minutes in, Romeo Lavia pulled up with what looked like a muscle injury and had to be replaced. The midfielder walked off the pitch unaided but visibly frustrated, with yet another disruption to his Chelsea career looking likely.

Moises Caicedo came on and lashed an early chance just over, then Tyrique George - preferred at number nine to Liam Delap - set up Andrey Santos for an awful miss from three yards.

The Brazilian made amends moments later, picking out his international teammate Estevao who cut in from the right and slipped the ball left-footed inside the near post.

Jorrel Hato was caught out to let in Qarabag to equalise. He was outmuscled by winger Camilo Duran who charged into the box and shot against the post. Marc Cucurella was slow reacting to the rebound and in front of him nipped Andrade who volleyed in.

The teenage defender was at fault again minutes later, a handball to concede the penalty from which Jankovic made it 2-1.

Garnacho came off the bench for the second half and levelled in the 52nd minute. His initial cross towards Estevao was poor and easily cut out, but as the ball broke back to him he opted to do it all himself, zipping the ball past Mateusz Kochalski to ease Maresca's concerns.

Delap, another half-time introduction, looked to make up for lost time during his nearly two-month spell out injured, getting ahead of his defender and sending a low shot a yard wide.

Garnacho ought to have won it in stoppage time but was denied by a wonderful save at close range by Kochalski.