Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool: 3 Blues positives and negatives from first game

1. Chelsea’s failure to capitalize on second-half dominance

For the first half hour of the game, the Reds were dominant with the ball maintaining possession as the Blues seemed to have no answers and found it difficult to win back the ball. Liverpool scored in the 17th minute when Luis Diaz slotted one through, then in the 30th minute former CFC winger Mohamed Salah scored another giving the Reds a 2-0 lead. But the goal was called back for offside. After the VAR decision, Chelsea was able to tie the game and start to settle into the match.

Throughout most of the second half, the West London side started to control possession of the ball, resulting in some good chances but the Blues failed to take advantage of them. In the 71st minute, Jackson made a long run fighting off the two Liverpool center-backs Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk but shot the ball straight at the goalkeeper Alisson.

Later on in the 93rd minute, Jackson made another great long run and passed it to Mykhailo Murdryk who was unable to get a good shot off. One of the biggest reasons why CFC was unable to score multiple goals was the Reds’ defense was very stout and held firm for quite a while.