Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 Chelsea, Champions League: Post-match reaction, ratings

A raucous atmosphere greeted the players, as expected, and the home fans didn’t stop chanting for a single second from then on.

And they had plenty to cheer as well, with their dangeman Mislav Oršić making the most of a counter-attack as he burst beyond the backline. Chelsea had the better opening 10-15 minutes, with multiple decent-to-good half-chances going to waste, but Dinamo made their one chance count.

Chelsea’s impetus died out with the goal and the home side only grew in confidence to keep us easily at arm’s length.

Changes at half-time and at the hour-mark didn’t really change the flow of the game markedly enough. A half-hearted penalty shout for a push on Havertz was the closest we came to actually threatening the goal, while Kepa had to be at full stretch to keep the deficit at just one.

Chelsea eventually created a few chances in the final 10 minutes, but James hit the post and Mount was denied by a great save, and really, it was too little far too late, even with 8 minutes of added-on time.

Carefree.

• Six changes from the weekend, including a debut for Aubameyang. Mount-Kovačić as the two midfielders, which not unexpectedly left quite a lot of open spaces. Fofana in the middle of the back three.
• Ziyech on for Azpi at half-time, at wing-back. Broja & Jorginho like-for-like on the hour-mark for Auba & Kova; Cucurella on ten minutes later, Pulisic a few minutes after that.
• Back-four for the final 20 minutes, with Cucurella & James at full back; Ziyech on left wing, Jorginho at the base of the midfield-three.
• Obviously, a defeat is not a disaster, but it could make the group a bit tougher in the end.
• Next up: Fulham away on Saturday
• KTBFFH

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