St Petersburg –
Chelsea matched by Zenit St Petersburg in the last match of the group stage Champions League. Thomas Tuchel highlighting Chelsea’s slack performance in the lead.
Chelsea travel to Zenit’s headquarters on the sixth matchday of Group H at Krestovsky Stadium, Thursday (9/12/2021) early morning WIB. Even though they have made sure to qualify for the round of 16, Chelsea need a win to win the group position.
Chelsea started well after Timo Werner opened the scoring in the second minute. Having fallen behind, Chelsea then reacted by scoring twice through Romelu Lukaku and Werner to lead 3-2.
However, the victory that was in sight dispersed in injury time. Magomed Ozdoev found the net for Chelsea in the 90+4 minute to force a 3-3 final result.
A frustrated Thomas Tuchel with this result highlighted the habit of his players who like to slack off when they are ahead.
“We were very good in the first 15 minutes and then we stopped doing what we were doing in the first 15 minutes,” said Tuchel as reported by BBC.
“We forgot why we were the better team. Our attitude changed when we took the lead and this is something we never did and shouldn’t have done.”
“We did what we wanted at the highest level and we pushed ourselves and it hurts and has to hurt.”
“You have to play with pain – physical pain – and you have to raise your level of concentration and overcome difficulties.”
“If you change your attitude because of the score, you open up opportunities to be punished. It’s that simple basically,” said Tuchel.
As a result of this result, Chelsea had to settle for finishing as runners-up in Group H with 13 points. The Blues were overtaken by Juventus, who won the group after winning over Malmo.
(nds/bay)
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