It wasn’t exactly how Thomas Tuchel would have imagined his 100th game as Chelsea manager. In the competition where he found so much success just 17 months ago in the final against Manchester City, the German could not prevent Dinamo Zagreb from recording a famous victory thanks to Miroslav Orsic’s fine goal.
With owner Todd Boehly watching from the stands, Chelsea were outclassed in almost every department as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang endured a debut to forget following his deadline day move from Barcelona, failing to a total of shots on goal in his 59 minutes. on the field of play. It wasn’t much better for Tuchel, who was uncharacteristically casual with his tactics throughout and even deployed Raheem Sterling in midfield for much of the second half. For the first time since he succeeded Frank Lampard, Chelsea have lost three consecutive away games and their problems are mounting.
Tuchel’s response to the lucky win over West Ham on Saturday was to hand Kepa Arrizabalaga his first appearance of the season in place of Édouard Mendy, while César Azpilicueta, Ben Chilwell, Mason Mount and Kai Havertz returned to be holders It has been almost five years since Aubameyang last appeared in this competition while still at Borussia Dortmund, and their new manager said the 33-year-old was “hungry to play with us” despite leaving break the jaw at the end of the past. month in Barcelona. Sporting a black mask custom-made by a specialist company in Milan, Aubameyang shockingly wasted his first chance to shoot in the seventh minute after being played in by Kai Havertz and then failed to make the most of a Havertz cross that appeared in the face of the goal moments later.
But even though their home was badly damaged by an earthquake in March 2020 which meant attendance was limited to just 22,000 people here, Dinamo fans soon got a chance to find their voice. Chelsea’s high defensive line in the opposition half was always going to be a risky approach and it was Bruno Petkovic’s smart header from a Robert Ljubicic pass that provided Orsic with open space. Wesley Fofana had room to recover but the form in which the Croatia striker, who scored a hat-trick against Tottenham to knock them out of the Europa League in 2021 and also against West Ham last season, overcome the muscles and then walked away from the 70 million pounds. the signing of Leicester will have worried Tuchel. It could have gone even better for Dinamo had Arijan Ademi’s volley from outside the box not been saved by Arrizabalaga just after the half-hour mark.
The hosts have won the Croatian title for the past five seasons and are no strangers to protecting a lead, with Chelsea struggling to create clear openings against an organized defence. Tuchel slowly made his way into the tunnel at half-time, clearly contemplating where it was all going wrong.
The German manager returned to the position five minutes before the start of the second half after bringing on Hakim Ziyech for Azpilicueta and switching to a back four. Despite Sterling returning to an unfamiliar central midfield role, Chelsea at least looked more threatening and Aubameyang’s smart finish from Chilwell’s cross was correctly ruled out for offside.
A spectacular save from Arrizabalaga to push Stefan Ristovski’s brilliant effort from distance onto the crossbar prompted a double change from Tuchel, with Jorginho replacing Mateo Kovacic after a testy meeting against his former club and Armando Broja finishing a frustrating evening for Aubameyang. Try as they might, though, Chelsea just couldn’t find their rhythm as the hosts seemed to grow in confidence as the final whistle approached.
Another line-up change with 20 minutes remaining saw Ziyech sent off after an increasingly angry Tuchel asked him to replace him at left-back, with referee Istvan Kovacs showing the Chelsea manager yellow cards and to his assistant Zsolt Löw after overdoing it. sideline protests.
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Had it not been for a crucial intervention from Ljubicic, Havertz could have equalized with a header from Mount’s cross, before Reece James hit the post at the end and Mount finally called the keeper into action. Dinamo Dominik Livakovic. But it would have been much more than Chelsea and Tuchel deserved.