Match Report: Chelsea grind out ugly 1-0 against Benfica as Jose Mourinho returns to Stamford Bridge | OneFootball

It wasn’t pretty, but they got the job done. Chelsea had just one priority in this game – getting 3 points after losing to Bayern Munich in the first round of league stage games in their return to the Champions League.

There were plenty of other things to worry about, of course. Injuries have reduced Enzo Maresca’s options, and that’s meant a group of regularly starters getting run into the ground. Changes had to be made, even if that meant weakening the team.

Benfica started as the better team, creating chances and looking the more confident against a young and vulnerable Chelsea side. The first goal was always likely to have a huge part to play in the final result, and this one came against the run of play somewhat.

Jose Mourinho’s team had more of the chances and more of the ball, but they kept getting exposed down their right flank. It was there that the damage was finally done, with Pedro Neto finding Alejandro Garnacho with a great cross.

The Argentine put the ball back across goal, where Benfica midfielder Richard Rios was unable to get out of the way. He diverted the ball into his own net to hand the lead to the Blues.

After that the game just got uglier and uglier, but in a way which suited Chelsea. The second half was a mess of fouls and scrappy play, but with the lead secured, Maresca’s team were happy to let it go that way. There weren’t a huge number of chances either way after that, with our makeshift side lacking any real chemistry or fluidity.

A red card in the final seconds for Joao Pedro – our third dismissal in four games, was a frustrating way to end things. But three points where what mattered, and we got them.

MOTM – Moises Caicedo

Analysis

Moises Caicedo with Enzo Fernandez. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

With so many players out, it was down to the remaining first team stars to make a difference – and they did. Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo battled hard in midfield all day to keep us competitive, while it was Pedro Neto’s attacking threat which really won us the day.

Benoit Badiashile’s return to the team came just in time as he put in a good performance alongside Trevoh Chalobah, while Marc Cucurella battled away as usual.

In attack it was ugly – Tyrique George was ineffective as a false 9, Facundo Buonanotte was pretty anonymous as a number ten and Garnacho balanced out his good moments with some bad ones. But they got the job done.

Teams

Chelsea

Robert Sanchez Malo Gusto Trevoh Chalobah Benoit Badiashile Marc Cucurella Facundo Buonanotte Moises Caicedo Enzo Fernandez Pedro Neto Tyrique George Alejandro Garnacho

Substitutes Filip Jorgensen Jamie Gittens (s 61′) Joao Pedro (s 61′) Jorrel Hato Reece James (s 81′) Josh Acheampong (s 81′) Marc Guiu Estevao (s 54′) Romeo Lavia Reggie Walsh Max Merrick

Benfica

Anatolii Trubin Amar Dedic Antonio Silva Nicolas Otamendi Samuel Dahl Richard Rios Enzo Barrenechea Fredrik Aursnes Dodi Lukebakio Evangelos Pavlidis Georgiy Sudakov

Substitutes Samuel Soares Diogo Ferreira Rafael Obrador Franjo Ivanovic (s 77′) Leandro Barreiro (s 77′) Andreas Schjelderup (s 77′) Henrique Araujo (s 89′) Tomas Araujo (s 73′) Goncalo Oliveira Joao Veloso Joao Rego Diogo Prioste

Stats

Possession

Attempts

Corners

Fouls

Quote of the game

“We saw Malo Gusto was struggling. Enzo Maresca put on a better player [Reece James] than Malo Gusto. This is the challenge of facing Chelsea.” – Jose Mourinho, post-game.