Chelsea vs Qarabag LIVE: Tiemoue Bakayoko grabs first Blues goal as Antonio Conte’s side run riot

ANTONIO CONTE'S next challenge as Chelsea boss is the Champions League as he is set for his game in charge of the Blues in Europe.

The Blues welcome Qarabag to Stamford Bridge as the Premier League champions will look to get off to a good start in the group stages.

The Italian has rested Alvaro Morata and has opted for Michy Batshuayi to lead the line.

There is also a first start for summer signing Davide Zappacosta in defence with Andreas Christensen also making a rare appearance from the off.

🏆Latest Champions League odds🏆

SUN BETS ARE 🔝 PRICE FOR BRITISH CLUBS IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

• Man United to beat Basel: 2/13
• Chelsea to beat FC Qarabag: 1/12
• Liverpool to beat Sevilla: 8/11
• Man City to beat Feyenoord: 2/5

FACT ME

• This is the first ever competitive encounter between Chelsea and Qarabag. In fact, the only previous meeting between English and Azerbaijani sides saw Tottenham face Qarabag in the 2015/16 Europa League group stages; the North London team won both games (3-1 at home, 1-0 in Baku).
• This is Chelsea’s 15^th Champions League participation, the third most for an English club after Manchester Utd (21) and Arsenal (19). They are also the last English club to win the competition (2012).
• Chelsea have reached the knockout stages of the Champions League 13 times in their previous 14 appearances.
• Chelsea have lost only one of their last 13 Champions League group games (W9 D3), away against Porto in September 2015 (1-2). The Blues have also scored in each of their last 24 group games at Stamford Bridge.

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• Qarabag are the only team, alongside RB Leipzig, to make their Champions League debut this season. They are also the first team from Azerbaijan to reach the group stages of the competition.
• Qarabag went through three rounds of qualifying to reach the group stages, knocking out Samtredia, Sheriff Tiraspol and Copenhagen.
• No Azerbaijani side has ever reached the knockout stages in Europe. In fact, Qarabag have won only four of their 18 games in the group stages of a European competition (D5 L9).
• Last season saw Qarabag win the Azerbaijani league for the fourth consecutive time, a record.
• Eden Hazard has scored only one goal in his last 12 Champions League games, it was from the penalty spot.
• This is Antonio Conte’s third Champions League campaign as manager. His best performance was in 2012/13 when he reached the quarter-finals with Juventus.
• Qarabag striker Dino Ndlovu scored four goals in six games in this season’s Champions League qualifiers.
• It’s also Gurban Gurbanov’s first Champions League campaign as manager.