Neither side made an especially energetic start to the game, though Pafos were clearly happy to not press the issue too much and focus on their defensive work, just as they had done throughout the competition.
Those plans might have been undone pretty quickly had Enzo Fernández gotten away with a little push on the back of a defender, which allowed him to get a free header on goal and score right on the quarter hour mark. Unfortunately, the referee spotted the infringement and deemed it strong enough
to rule out the goal.
Chelsea stepped up a gear (but only one gear) despite that setback, but so did the Pafos goalkeeper, who made several good saves to keep his sheet clean. Not that Chelsea were creating too many big chances, but we certainly had a few decent openings. Reece James came close with a shot from the top of the box, Enzo had another good chance, Liam Delap just missed a couple flighted balls in, and both Moisés Caicedo and Jorrel Hato saw piledrivers parried to safety … and so we headed into halftime without a goal.
Estêvão came on at the break and drew another excellent save from the Pafos goalkeeper not seven minutes later as the pattern of the first half resumed and Chelsea kept knocking on the door. Neto forced yet another save, then Estêvão, again, and the Alejandro Garnacho looked certain to score before last-ditch defensive interventions thwarted them.
The attack-versus-defense exercise continued until we finally found the breakthrough, through a corner of course, in true classic modern football style. Caicedo won’t score too many headers, but he was in the right place at the right time with the right desire to reach the near-post flick-on and find that much-needed goal.
We relaxed a bit too much after that and Pafos had their best spell of the game in the closing minutes, but we would eventually see out the four minutes of added-on time. Not the greatest game of football you’ll ever see, but job done.
Carefree.
- Handful of changes from the weekend, mostly at the back
- Malo Gusto back after missing a few games with injury
- Cole Palmer not in the matchday squad at all
- Jörgensen replaced at half time after picking up some sort of injury in the first half
- Landon Emenalo and Reggie Walsh on the bench, but unfortunately no minutes for either
- Chelsea back into the top-eight, and can stay there with a win against Napoli away on the final matchday. Napoli will need to win just to stay in the competition.
- Next up: Crystal Palace away, on Sunday
- KTBFFH
