Chelsea vs Malmo: Three lessons learnt in comfortable UCL victory

1. Chelsea was too good for Malmo

Thomas Tuchel has been questioned lately about the lack of attacking intent in his tactical style and how Chelsea will outscore stronger opponents. In recent matches, the strikers were often left isolated as most of the game was played in the Blues’ half. While the defence is still impeccable, the attack still needs to improve in order to score more goals and end games before they can become a close contest. In the latest match against Brentford, the Blues were expected to be the more dominant side and easily brush past the Bees, but the hosts were the ones who had more shots on target.

This time, however, Tuchel started a more attacking team and the gameplay was more attack-minded, as well. The Blues were on top of Malmo from the first minute of the game and Timo Werner had a good chance to open the scoring almost as soon as the game began. However, Christensen was the one who opened the scoring and the Blues went on to score three more times from there onward. The English side had 20 shots versus Malmo’s two and they also had seven shots on target versus Malmo’s zero. The Blues earned seven corners, which shows just how much they kept pushing the Swedish side. Malmo had two corners to its name but it could not do much with those set pieces.

Chelsea was so dominant that Malmo ended with just 26 percent possession overall. Players such as N’Golo Kante, Mason Mount and Werner were dominating the play in attack and midfield. Kante was on another level, helping out the attack and the defence equally. When Callum Hudson-Odoi and Kai Havertz came on, some thought that the tempo of the game might drop off. But Chelsea remained composed and continued to threaten for more goals throughout the game. Tuchel certainly got his tactics right this time and the scoreline speaks for itself.