Alejandro Garnacho came off the bench to score his first Champions League goal for Chelsea, but Qarabag held on for a well-earned draw. Check out the best facts and Opta data in our Qarabag vs Chelsea stats page.
Chelsea had to settle for a point in Azerbaijan as a spirited Qarabag held them to a 2-2 draw on Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League.
Enzo Maresca’s men took the lead early on through Estêvão, but went in 2-1 down at the break after Leandro Andrade and a Marko Jankovic penalty turned things around.
Alejandro Garnacho came off the bench at half-time and equalised for Chelsea, but the Blues were unable to find a winner in a tough game.
At 23 years and 97 days, Chelsea named the second-youngest ever starting XI by average age for an English club in an away Champions League match, older only than Arsenal vs Olympiakos in December 2009 (21y 215d).
Maresca also named the trio of Andrey Santos, Estêvão and João Pedro in his lineup, making it the first time Chelsea had named three Brazilians in their starting XI in a Champions League game since December 2015 vs FC Porto (Ramires, Oscar, Willian).
There was an early blow for the Premier League side as Roméo Lavia was forced off with a thigh muscle problem inside the first eight minutes. It was the earliest a Chelsea starter had been subbed off in a Champions League game.
Maresca had hoped to rest in-form Moisés Caicedo but the Ecuadorian had to come on early, and he hit the first chance of the game over the bar from a corner soon after arriving.
It was Estêvão who broke the deadlock in the 16th minute. The teenager took advantage when played in by Santos on the right, cutting inside Elvin Cafarquliyev and firing Mateusz Kochalski at his near post.
At 18 years and 195 days old, Estêvão is the only South American player to score in consecutive Champions League appearances while aged 18 or younger, while the Brazilian is the third-youngest player in Champions League history to score in each of his first two starts behind Ethan Nwaneri (17y 348d) and Kylian Mbappé (18y 85d).
The hosts didn’t wilt, though, and were level just 13 minutes later when Camilo Durán stole the ball from Jorrel Hato and struck the post, but Andrade was on hand to fire in the rebound, much to the delight of the home fans.
It was Andrade’s seventh goal in major European competition for Qarabag, taking him level with Juninho; only Abdellah Zoubir (10) has more for the club.
The hosts looked sharp in attack, and just after Cafarquliyev missed a decent opportunity to put them ahead, they had an even better chance when referee Sebastian Gishamer pointed to the spot after a cross from the right hit Hato’s hand in the box. Jankovic stepped up to score, sending Robert Sánchez the wrong way.
It was only the third time in the Champions League that Chelsea had scored first and trailed at half-time after Napoli in February 2012 and Zenit St Petersburg in December 2021.
Maresca made three subs at half-time, introducing Enzo Fernández, Liam Delap and Garnacho, and it was the latter who made an instant impact, taking advantage of a fortunate deflection after his own poor pass to fire low and hard past Kochalski to level things up.
Garnacho became the first player to score for two different English clubs in the Champions League (Manchester United and Chelsea) aged 21 or younger.
Chelsea looked brighter after the break, with Estêvão looking up for it as he tried to put his team in front again, while Fernández fired a shot over with around 12 minutes to go.
Another sub, Facundo Buonanotte, hit a fierce effort just wide of the keeper’s left-hand post as Chelsea pushed for a winner.
Oleksii Kashchuk had a glorious chance to nick it for Qarabag in stoppage time, but hit his first-time shot from a low cross straight at Sánchez, while Garnacho was denied by a block in the box at the other end seconds later in an exciting finish.
Both teams settled for a draw that leaves each of them on seven points at the halfway stage of the league phase.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Qarabag vs Chelsea stats from their Champions League meeting at Azersun Arena.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
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