Zagreb, September 7 (BNA): Dinamo Zagreb scored a surprise victory over Chelsea in the opening match of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday, beating the 2021 European champions 1-0 at home thanks to a lone attack from Croatian Mislav Orsic.
Zagreb have conceded every league game this season, but Ante Kasic kept a clean sheet against the Premier League side, who topped the transfer spending charts in Europe by spending more than 250 million pounds ($299.62 million) this summer, Reuters reported.
Chelsea have now lost three of their last five games in all competitions and Thomas Tuchel was seen furious on the touchline as his 100th game for the London club ended in defeat.
Zagreb opened the scoring against the course of play when Orcic was sent into goal with a solo counter-attack, beating new Chelsea star Wesley Fofana and beating goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga with a delicate touch.
“It’s a poor performance on our part,” Tuchel told BT Sport. “We don’t finish half our chances. We had a very easy counter-attack.”
“There’s a lot to analyze, I’m part of this. We’re clearly not there, where we need to be and where we might be.”
Chelsea had created scoring opportunities in the opening stages but lost to the goal and Tuchel’s side looked short of ideas against the strong Zagreb defence.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made his debut alongside Raheem Sterling and Kai Havertz in the front line but failed to tap while Arrizabalaga was called twice to deny Zagreb, the second with an acrobatic save to dodge a long-range shot.
Chelsea did not threaten inside the penalty area until Tuchel made all five substitutions but Zagreb kept it consistent. Goalkeeper Dominic Levakovic also made a decisive response in blocking Mason Mount’s stinging shot late in the game.
“At the moment, everything is missing. I won’t talk about individuals, we play as a team, we lose as a team,” Tuchel added.
“I need to find a solution for the next match. It’s not enough.”