It was not a pleasant start for the new coach of Chelesa, Graham Potter as Nigerian-born Noah Okafor denied the rampaging Chelsea from victory in Wednesday's night debacle of the European Champions League match day two placed at the Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea are at risk of crashing out of the UEFA Champions League no thanks to a late goal scored by Nigerian-born Noah
Okafor at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.
Following the sacking of erstwhile manager Thomas Tuchel and the
postponement of last weekend’s Premier League games, the UCL matchday two tie
against RB Salzburg was Graham Potter’s game as Chelsea manager.
The Blues dominated the first half but could not find the back of the
net, as Philipp Kohn was solid in-between the sticks for the visitors.
Raheem Sterling, however, got the second half rolling on a bright note
as the English forward broke the deadlock with a fine curling effort after just
two minutes.
While Chelsea had chances to extend their lead, they failed to do so and
paid the ultimate price as 15 minutes from time, Okafor’s close-range finish pulled
Salzburg level.
Substitutes Hakim Ziyech and Armando Broja went close as the hosts
pushed for a winner, but the Austrian side held firm and the game finished 1-1.
Okafor’s goal thus denied Potter a winning start to his Chelsea career.
The result means Chelsea have just one point from two games and stay
bottom of Group E.
At the Etihad, Erling Haaland continued his phenomenal run for
Manchester City as he got the winning goal against his former club Dortmund.
City trailed in the encounter until the 80th minute before two stunning
late goals saw them come from behind to beat Dortmund.
After a barren first half, the visitors took the lead when Jude
Bellingham stole in to head of Marco Reus’ driven cross.
City struggled to break down the resilient visitors but in the 80th
minute, John Stones smashed in the equaliser from outside the box pulling the
hosts level.
That set the stage for Haaland’s spectacular winner against his former
club, off a no-less stunning cross from João Cancelo.
City are top in their group with a maximum of six points from two games.
Elsewhere, Kylian Mbappe became PSG’s joint leading Champions League
goalscorer in the comeback win over Maccabi Haifa.
The Israeli club drew the first blood as Tjaronn Chery’s superb finish
put the home side ahead in the 24 minutes to delight a packed Sammy Ofer
Stadium.
But Mbappe’s pace helped set up Lionel Messi for an equaliser and the
Argentine repaid the favour in the second half when Mbappe scored his 30th
Champions League goal for the club, drawing level with Edinson Cavani. Neymar
sealed the victory late on.
Napoli hammered Rangers 3-0 in Glasgow as AC Milan also registered a 3-1
victory against Dinamo Zagreb. Real Madrid scored two late goals to beat RB
Leipzig 2-0.
There were two draws from Wednesday’s matches as Copenhagen and Sevilla
ended their game goalless while Shakhtar and Celtic also settled for a 1-1
draw.
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