UK Edition
Chelsea 6 Qarabag 0: Davide Zappacosta marks full debut with goal as half-strength hosts run riot
Diego Costa may not be in Chelsea’s Champions League squad as he still tries to engineer a move back to Atletico Madrid, but the Stamford Bridge crowd do at least have a new Costa of sorts to chant the name of.
The transfer deadline day signing of Davide Zappacosta from Torino was most notable for the similarity between the right wing-back’s name and that of Chelsea’s AWOL striker.
Certainly, nobody was expecting Zappacosta to help make up for the loss of last season’s top scorer in terms of goals.
But Zappacosta marked his Chelsea and Champions League full debut with an accidental strike that had Stamford Bridge singing his name and helped the club thrash Qarabag on their return to European competition.
He may not have meant it, but Zappacosta will cherish his mishit Champions League cross that flew into the Qarabag net. The 25-year-old may also be surprised to learn that the goal puts him within one of Costa’s tally for Chelsea in the competition.
Sources in Spain claimed that Costa arrived in Madrid on Tuesday in an attempt to hasten a move to Atletico, but at least Zappacosta is already settling into life in West London.
He turned provider at the end to set up Maksim Medvedev’s own-goal, as Chelsea, who had five different scorers in Pedro, Zappacosta, Cesar Azpilicueta substitute Tiemoue Bakayoko and Michy Batshuayi, ran riot in the final 19 minutes.
Spare a thought for visiting captain Rashad Sadygov. Earlier in the day he had overseen a 5-0 defeat to Chelsea for the club’s Under-19 team in the UEFA Youth League in his other job as Qarabag’s youth coach.
Sadygov left that game early in order to prepare for the senior side’s first-ever appearance in the Champions League and suffered an even heavier loss than the club’s youngsters.
Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte made five changes to the team that won at Leicester City and gave Alvaro Morata and Eden Hazard a rest ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash against Arsenal.
Pedro was one of the players asked to start his second game in four days and the Spaniard did not show any signs of fatigue, as he gave Chelsea a fifth-minute lead.
Conte had recalled Willian and it was the Brazilian who collected a short corner and teed up Pedro to curl the ball into the net from the edge of the penalty area.
Any notion that Conte was taking it easy against Qarabag was quickly dispelled as he celebrated Pedro’s opener in his usual enthusiastic and slightly manic style.
But he was soon remonstrating angrily at his assistants after Batshuayi, who Conte tried to replace with Fernando Llorente in the final days of the transfer window, was slow to react to Willian’s saved shot and eventually scuffed the ball into the side-netting.
It is only 16 years ago that Qarabag could not afford kit or travel costs for domestic games and their qualification for the Champions League was celebrated like a public holiday in Azerbaijan.
Qarabag manager Gurban Gurbanov would have been encouraged with how his team had reacted to going behind early, but they were left with a mountain to climb once Zappacosta marked his Stamford Bridge bow with a stunning, if highly fortunate, goal on the half-an-hour mark.
The right wing-back, who was preferred to Victor Moses, advanced down the flank before sending the ball over Qarabag goalkeeper Ibrahim Sehic and into the net.
Zappacosta admitted afterwards that he had mishit his attempted cross, but neither the Italian nor the majority of the Stamford Bridge crowd cared.
And five minutes later Zappacosta almost had a second goal as he fired a shot inches wide of the post.
Marcos Alonso tried his own version of Zappacosta’s goal from the left side towards the end of the first half, but the Spaniard shanked his effort straight into the Qarabag supporters.
It took Chelsea just 10 minutes of the second half to effectively kill the game, as Azpilicueta netted his first-ever Champions League goal.
Cesc Fabregas will be concerned that his appearance against Qarabag could mean that he misses out on a start against his former club Arsenal, but the midfielder did not let it impact on his performance.
Having pulled the strings in the middle of the pitch, Fabregas sent over a superb ball for Azpilicueta to head into the net unmarked.
If Qarabag hoped that Chelsea would take their foot off the gas with a three-goal advantage, then they were mistaken as Conte sent on Hazard and Bakayoko.
Hazard was quickly involved, as he laid the ball off for Willian to fire a shot against the top of the crossbar and Bakayoko grabbed his first Chelsea goal with just under 20 minutes remaining.
A cross from Hazard was not dealt with by the visiting defence and Bakayoko reacted to prod the ball into the net for Chelsea’s fourth.
It got even worse for Qarabag, as Batshuayi got off the mark for the season with a goal that should lift his confidence and earned a full-time hug from Conte.
There was still time for Zappacosta to complete a memorable personal evening by turning provider. He bustled his way down the right and crossed for Batshuayi, but Qarabag defender Medvedev bundled the ball into his own net ahead of the former Marseille man.