Finally, it was a lack of clinical finishing that let the Blues down as the pressure mounts on Graham Potter
Chelsea’s dismal run in the Champions League continued on Wednesday night with a 1-0 defeat at Borussia Dortmund.
Karim Adeyemi scored a spectacular counter-attack goal to win the first leg at Signal Iduna Park.
The first half was pretty end-to-end, but both sides lacked quality in the final third, with Dortmund’s Sebastien Haller coming closest when he hit the side netting in his first UCL game since recovering from testicular cancer.
Meanwhile, Joao Felix squandered two excellent chances, first blazing over Hakim Ziyech’s cutback and then hitting the crossbar from close range.
We didn’t have a shot on goal until the 54th minute, when Reece James’ free kick was well saved by Gregor Kobel, but it was Adeyemi who opened the scoring just past the hour mark.
The 21-year-old blitzed away on the counter before rounding a helpless Kepa Arrizabalaga and slotting the ball into an empty net – all just a minute after James was denied again by a great Kobel save.
Chelsea threw caution to the wind once more and thought they had equalised when Kalidou Koulibay’s powerful shot was cleared off the line by former Liverpool star Emre Can.
Recording session Enzo Fernandez also came close to salvaging a point late in the game, but Kobel tipped his long-range shot wide.
Finally, it was a lack of clinical finishing that let the Blues down as the pressure mounts on Graham Potter, whose side has now won just two of their last 14 games across all competitions, scoring only six goals in that time.
In a game with 10 yellow cards, tempers threatened to flare at the end with a touchline brawl in the final minutes, but officials quickly brought both sides under control.
Club Brugge was defeated 2-0 by Benfica in the other Champions League match of the night.
The second leg of Chelsea vs. Dortmund takes place on March 7 at Stamford Bridge.