Chelsea & Ajax Produce a Dramatic Match with 8 Goals Shared Equally

Another dramatic chapter can now be transcribed into the book of UEFA Champions League. Thanks to Chelsea and Ajax!

Own goals, red cards, madness- the game had everything you would ask for. And as for goals, it had as many as eight.

Chelsea’s response after being down by four goals (out of which two were own goals) to one deserved appreciation. And the red cards in the end helped them completely dominate and they would have won the game if not for VAR.

“It was a mad one,” Chelsea manager Frank Lampard said after the match. “Chelsea fans know the stories we had in the Champions League. I don’t think there are many you can compare it to in our day. I know we had a 4-4 with Liverpool, and some other crazy games. It’s hard to put in perspective, I will have to watch it back, but for the spectacle it was it’s right up there.”

“Take VAR out of it, and the red cards. What I have to think about is us. The spirit we showed, the character, is something I loved and I think the fans loved. We need to tighten up for sure, but with that spirit we can go places.

“For a performance like today you need characters, personalities. It would have been easy to turn it in at 4-1 down and give it up, but we never did. The experienced players drove the team: Jorginho, Kovacic, Willian, Azpilicueta. Those players really pushed tonight and I loved it.”

During the second half, out of nowhere, Kurt Zouma made an exceptional run of 80 yards towards the goal, and then remembered he was a defender. Tammy Abraham was allowed to run on and score a goal, and then the linesman remembered he was off side. Azpelicueta scored a winner, but the VAR spotted a hand ball. The game ebbed and flowed, bringing about some unintended chaos, but unadulterated entertainment.

Chelsea, playing with a two man advantage, might be disappointing of not sealing a victory, but Lampard acknowledged that it was still a great comeback to make it level.

“It’s tough,” he said. “You kick yourself, because a draw in the Valencia game here would have got us off to a good start and the group would look differently. But this group was always going to be quite tight. There was a feeling teams would take points off each other. We’re in it. We have a lot of work to do, and we must focus on that for what it is.”

Match highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBlE7VUmNDk