{"id":1223886,"date":"2021-09-14T22:31:16","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T21:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1223886"},"modified":"2021-09-14T22:51:46","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T21:51:46","slug":"chelsea-1-0-zenit-champions-league-lukaku-rudiger","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/chelsea-1-0-zenit-champions-league-lukaku-rudiger\/","title":{"rendered":"Lukaku saves Chelsea from deja vu as Blues start Champions League defence with victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chelsea got their Champions League defence off to a winning start with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Zenit St Petersburg on Tuesday night.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Blues were made to work for their victory but Romelu Lukaku’s second-half goal was enough to secure the win and stick Chelsea second, with Juventus beating Malmo 3-0 in Group H’s other game.<\/p>\n

But what did we learn from Stamford Bridge?<\/p>\n

1. Champions League Lukaku<\/h2>\n

Chelsea weren’t great at Stamford Bridge and were made to work extremely hard for their result but the most important thing is that it did come.<\/p>\n

Over the years Chelsea fans will have grown accustomed to failure in games like this Zenit one, when they were almost perfectly dealt with by their opponents and offered very little hope of breaking through. Despite starting the game well, Chelsea did not make the most of their control and allowed their Russian visitors to get comfortable with their back five preventing a shot on target in the first half.<\/p>\n

Even when Chelsea did finally hit the target in the 48th minute, it was a tame one, as Hakim Ziyech scuffed his effort straight into the hands of the goalkeeper. The lack of threat in front of goal came as Zenit starved Lukaku of the service he thrives on, targeting Ziyech and Mason Mount who had an uncharacteristically poor game.<\/p>\n

In the past, this would have ended goalless. But Chelsea spent \u00a397.5m in the summer to ensure they put their past behind them and, in the 69th minute, it paid off. Growing in confidence, Chelsea started to test the Zenit defence once again and Cesar Azpilicueta put an excellent cross into the box which Lukaku had no real right to get onto the end of. But he did, connecting with a beautiful header and giving Chelsea the lead.<\/p>\n

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14 – Only Robert Lewandowski (21), Erling Haaland (20) and Bruno Fernandes (17) have scored more goals than Romelu Lukaku (14) in major European competition since the start of 2019-20. Rise. pic.twitter.com\/8wEzRvLJEJ<\/a><\/p>\n

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 14, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n