Chelsea 4-4 Ajax: The Sportsrus discusses 3 talking points as Chelsea makes a historic comeback to draw against Ajax at the Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea Vs Ajax truly lived up to its hype, as an 8 goal long encounter between both the side turned out to be an intense game of football.
By the end of the first half, it seemed like Chelsea has lost the match after trailing by 3-1 against the Dutch giants.
Chelsea conceded early in the game after Tammy Abraham’s own goal but Chelsea quickly equalized the score after converting the penalty.
However, after a while a sensational headed goal by Quincy Promes and another own goal by Chelsea after the ball went in by embarrassingly hitting the face of Kepa Arrizabalaga made Chelsea hit a new low.
To make things worse, Chelsea conceded the fourth goal in the second half, making a comeback even more difficult. However, a goal by Cesar Azpilicueta changed the game for the rest of the night.
Further, two red cards and a penalty changed the whole game as Chelsea made a comeback to make it 4-4. Thus, this 8 goal fest was certainly full of entertainment, as the 9 men Ajax saw their worst disaster on the field.
With this, we discuss three points to discuss in the game after Chelsea and Ajax end up playing a sensational game at the Stamford Bridge.
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1. Hakimi Ziyech’s performance could not save Ajax
Ziyech was undoubtedly the star in the first half of the game, as Chelsea had no answer to his splendid balls inside the box. His lethal aerial deliveries easily made the Blues concede two goals in the span of fewer than 10 minutes.
The Morrocan International gave a beautiful ball to Quincy Promes, who barges the ball inside the net with his pinpoint header. The goal was checked by VAR but the Dutch forward was at the right position.
later, Ziyech hit a graceful strike after Ajax was awarded a free-kick at a difficult angle, near to the corner area but, Ziyech makes a terrific shot, which directly hit the post and the ball goes beyond the goal line after Kepa Arrizabalaga embarrassingly hits the ball by his face.
Tus, Ziyech was a nightmare for Chelsea, but it did not last long, as the Blues became more intense in the game. However, two successive red cards to Ajax see its centre-back pair heading towards the dressing room.
Hence, it forced Erik Ten Hag to substitute Ziyech in 73rd minute to call in a defender in order to prevent the hype spirit of the West Londoners. Thus, a great performance fazed out with Ajax downfall.
2. Chelsea need to solve its set-pieces vulnerability
Chelsea has been criticized for its lack of ability to clear away set-pieces and they generally end up being conceded by Frank Lampard’s men. Moreover, in this game also Chelsea conceded two goals through set-pieces.
Thus, Lampard has to resolve this problem, as the Blues get to be seen most nervous during such set-pieces instances. Adding further, the defensive setup of Chelsea has been poor since the last few games.
The English giants are giving too much space in the box, which allowed Ajax to dominate Chelsea in the initial part of the game. thus, this area of weakness of Chelsea has surely been revealed and teams do try to make them concede with such plannings.
3. It took 2 red cards for Chelsea to register a comeback in Chaos
It was surely a game of two halves. In the first instalment of the game, Ajax totally ruled the Stamford Bridge, as a comfortable 3-1 score made the Dutch champions relieved.
Later in the first few minutes of the second half, De Godenzonen were once again dominating, as they scored the 4th goal to give a setback to the Blues.
However, Cesar Azpilicueta scored the second goal to give a ray f hope to Chelsea, and soon in an instant flow of action, two players from Ajax picked red cards out of continuous errors- Daley Blind and Joel Veltman.
With this, Ajax was left with only 9-men, which actually panicked the Dutch team and to take advantage of the scene Chelsea first converted the penalty from Veltman’ handball after picking the second yellow.
Then soon the Blues made several attempts to find the equalizer but failed. Although, a magnificent strike by the Reece James ends the comfortable lead of all the system.
Later Chelsea tried to advance the lead but did not manage to score, even though Azpilicueta was close in the final minutes of the game but Tammy Abraham’s handball was found. Thus, chaos was certainly formed with the footballing action by the end of the game.
