{"id":4543,"date":"2025-03-06T19:49:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T19:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/?p=4543"},"modified":"2025-03-20T00:08:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T00:08:18","slug":"copenhagen-1-2-chelsea-match-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/06\/copenhagen-1-2-chelsea-match-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Copenhagen 1-2 Chelsea – Match Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ashton Cox<\/em><\/p>\n

A much changed Chelsea team overcame Copenhagen 1-2 away from home in the first-leg of the UEFA Conference League in an unconvincing performance.<\/p>\n

Shumaira Mheuka was handed his first-team debut to become the Blues’ youngest-ever starter in a European match, but was hooked at half-time.<\/p>\n

The introduction of several Chelsea regulars at the break inspired the West London side to take control of proceedings and looked in cruise control with a 2-goal lead.<\/p>\n

However, the Danish side took full advantage of the Blues’ customary complacency and grabbed a late consolation goal to give them hope heading into next week’s second leg.<\/p>\n

First-Half<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Blues, armed with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall playing unconventionally on the left of midfield alongside Shumaira Mheuka at striker, were toothless upfront and failed to register a single shot on target throughout the first half.<\/p>\n

Copenhagen were similarly substandard in the final third and their best chance came as William Clem blazed over a loose ball on the edge of the penalty area, albeit the offside flag was raised.<\/p>\n

Enzo Maresca’s wish to rest Marc Cucurella wasn’t granted as Malo Gusto was added to the long Chelsea injury list 25 minutes in, requiring the Spanish left-back to fill the void.<\/p>\n

Second-Half<\/strong><\/p>\n

In response to the poor first 45 minutes, the Italian made three more substitutions as Enzo Fernandez, Christopher Nkunku and Levi Colwill replaced Benoit Badiashille, Moises Caicedo and Mheuka.<\/p>\n

The changes paid dividends instantly, when Reece James arrowed Cucurella’s pass into the bottom-left corner from 25 yards out less than a minute after the restart.<\/p>\n

The home side were unfortunate not to reply straight away, as Birger Meling found Viktor Claesson in behind with a through ball, but the Swedish winger could only hit the woodwork.<\/p>\n

Cole Palmer, who had again struggled to make an impact, almost stamped his authority with a swerved shot that had Diant Ramaj in goal concerned but the ball crept wide.<\/p>\n

Chelsea doubled their lead in the 66th minute mark as Cucurella stole possession from Giorgi Gocholeishvili high up the pitch, leading to Tyrique George laying the ball on a plate for Enzo to finish from close range.<\/p>\n

With 10 minutes left, Copenhagen grabbed a lifeline from a free-kick; Marcos Lopez’s delivery was towards the back post and found an unmarked Gabriel Pereira who headed home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ashton Cox A much changed Chelsea team overcame Copenhagen 1-2 away from home in the first-leg of the UEFA Conference League in an unconvincing performance. Shumaira Mheuka was handed his first-team debut to become the Blues’ youngest-ever starter in a European match, but was hooked at half-time. The introduction of several Chelsea regulars at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4543"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4591,"href":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4543\/revisions\/4591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chelseabluesnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}