Chelsea 8-0 Noah: Blues set new competition record
Chelsea 8-0 Noah: Blues set new competition record. Enzo Maresca and his Chelsea side were ruthless during their third European outing of the campaign, as the Blues put six past the Armenian side Noah in the first half alone at Stamford Bridge on Thursday night, eventually going on to win 8-0 and sit comfortably at top of the Conference League standings.
As expected, Enzo Maresca did make plenty of changes to his starting lineup, utilising his famously massive squad and also handing a first senior start to 18-year-old Cobham graduate, Tyrique George.
How the game unfolded;
It was the visitors that looked to be on the front-foot in the opening minutes, with the Armenian side forcing a save from Filip Jörgensen with just 2 minutes on the clock. But Chelsea did found their footing quickly and blew Noah away in the early stages.
Centre-back Tosin Adarabioyo opened the scoring from a corner, his first every goal for the club. From kick-off, Noah lost the ball to a relentless Marc Guiu pressing, who proceeded to double the lead with what is his first Chelsea goal as well.
Five minutes later, the Blue added the third as Axel Disasi got his head to Enzo Fernandez‘s delivery from a corner-kick again. Having laid on the opener for Tosin as well, Fernandez completed his hat-trick of assists in the opening 20 minutes, when he threaded a through ball for Joao Felix to finish off brilliantly.
Mykhailo Mudryk was also on the scoresheet, as he took advantage of Chelsea’s clear superiority to get a confidence-boosting goal to his name, before Felix got his second of the night courtesy of a deflection in the closing stages of the half.
Six goals to the good for the Blues, when the half-time whistle finally sounded.
Chelsea laid off the gas a little once the second half began, understandably so, although Maresca resisted any temptation of making sweeping changes and kept all but Fernandez on the pitch.
Christopher Nkunku had scored four in four Conference League games this season (including qualifiers) prior to kick-off and wasn’t about to miss out on the action. He got Chelsea’s seventh midway through the second half by finishing off his own rebound, before adding an eighth from the penalty spot.
However, the Blues also did set a new Conference League record for the biggest winning margin in the competition’s short history, as well as Chelsea’s biggest win since beating Aston Villa 8-0 in December 2012.
