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Key events
85 min: Buonanotte has got into decent positions and shoots narrowly wide after space opens up for him. There’s still some juice left in this game.
84 min: Chelsea piling it on, Buonanotte and Enzo both play key passes, and Delap should have got on the end of that.
83 min: Sanchez claims the resultant corner to the relief of Garnacho.
81 min: Estevao, Chelsea’s best attacker on the night, continues to run the Azeri team ragged. They have to hurry away the ball, as does Caicedo when Qarabag mount an attack after Garnacho makes a mess of an attempted flick.
79 min: Cucurella and Kochalski smash into each other. Just wondering if Gurban Gurbanov is regaled by fans to this song.
78 min: Lovely skill from Estevao, full of courage, with a defender trying his best to crop him down, and Enzo is given space to surge on and shoot over the bar.
77 min: Estevao is the only remaining starter left on from the starting front five. He shows off his skills in winning a corner from which Garnacho is thwarted.
74 min: Qarabag subs: Dani Bolt is one of the arrivals, another Brazilian, along with Oleksiy Kashchuk, as Zoubir and Cafarquliyev depart. The lattter is a bugger to spell.
73 min: The points are there to be won and Chelsea are pushing for them. Liam Delap is doing some more exemplary hold-up play. Chelsea are a club for such players.
71 min: A break in play sees Maresca deliver some touchline advice. Joao Pedro is off, and on comes the mystery that is Buonanotte.
69 min: Delap makes one of the bulwarking runs that made his reputation at Ipswich, and then fires wide. He reminds of a Paul Mariner, a bustling striker of years gone by. That’s a mark of approval, by the way. The big men are where it’s at.
67 min: AA BB gets in touch: “IIsee your primal scream reference on 45+2 minutes and now raise you one, that Chelsea are suddenly LOADED up top with those half time switches, and two, that I bet Maresca wishes he could GET (Damien) DUFFY. I needed a crowbar to make all that work tbh but ultimately I feel it was worth it “
Everybody is a star in Guardian Football’s MBM community.
66 min: Reece James is the beneficiary as Addai is sent down the line and then slips over. This one will feel heavy on the legs on the long flight home.
64 min: Within seconds, Akhundzade zips in a shot on goal. Perhaps that’s why he’s been brought on.
63 min: Qarabag have a Baku derby with Neftçi on Sunday, perhaps that’s why those two star men are off. Bayramov and Akhundzade are the players on.
61 min: Perhaps positive of the bigger Champions League stage is that teams do seem to go for wins, rather than draws. Both going for the points here.
Qarabag changes: Leandro Andrade off, the scorer, and Duran goes off, too. Both were excellent. Very strange subs from Gurbanov.
59 min: It’s Qarabag with the hurried defending now, and Joao Pedro is coming into the game. Medina, though, is a brick wall that Estevao cannot get past. He’s a unit, as they say.
57 min: Delap sent through, Joao Pedro’s ball, but it’s offside. Kochalski had made the save in any case. Chelsea showing more danger, more impetus. Much much better.
57 min: Duran tries to tie Hato in knots again, and this time the Dutchman wins the battle, standing tall. He is only 19.
55 min: Delap has already looked far better at leading the line, and he sets up Enzo for a shot that’s beaten behind. Kochalski the keeper claims the corner but suddenly Chelsea look like Chelsea.
54 min: Garnacho has been criticised in his early days with Chelsea but that was better, the direct running and the finishing skills he made his name with. And then seemed to lose for a bit.
Goal! Qarabag 2-2 Chelsea (Garnacho 53)
Delap plays the ball wide to Garnacho who initially loses the ball, only for him to get it back and smash in with his left.
51 min: Some jeers as Enzo plays the ball out of play. It’s not happening for Chelsea. And then Tosin gets caught in possession by Duran, who cannot get away from him but this is poor from Chelsea, inspired by Qarabag.
49 min: Duran continues his torment of Hato who has must have been a candidate for being subbed.
47 min: Medina and Estevao clash, and there’s a ruckus. Then Reece James pulls down Medina, and Silva, of Qarabag, is booked for asking for a red card. That challenge would have been illegal in rugby. Oddly desperate.
46 min: Three Chelsea changes: Garnacho, Enzo and Delap on, Santos, Gittens and George are off. Maresca means business. Big 45 minutes for Liam Delap.
Jacob Steinberg is our man in Baku, he’ll be providing the report later.
Meanwhile, this is an important story, and needs investigating by the authorities.
Kari Tulinius gets in touch: “There’s a long way to go, but the mind wanders to embarrassing English defeats in Europe. Arsenal losing to Graham Potter’s Östersunds takes some beating.”
Whatever happened to Graham Potter?
Matthew Lysaght gets in touch: “I can’t see much of a difference between noted pest Marc Cucurellas challenge and the Luis Diaz version from last night. Same end result – a player subbed off through injury – but this time no yellow or VAR review. I can’t help think that if it was a leading CL team instead of “little old” Qarabag then the consequences may have been different.”
It was a bit nasty, yes. Cucurella is a master at looking innocent after such moments.
Half-time: Qarabag 2-1 Chelsea
Qarabag continue to be the surprise package of the group stage while Chelsea have shown off the issues of playing too many young players together at once. It started badly with Romeo Lavia’s injury, and got worse, even accounting for Estevao’s excellent goal.
45+3 min: Chelsea end the half on the attack, with Gittens again running into traffic. Qarabag hold firm.
45+2 min: That corner is cleared by Kochalski, the Qarabag keeper. Vanishing point?
45 min: Three minutes added on, which seems skinny considering two injuries, two subs. Gittens and George win a corner.
44 min: Santos is booked, which won’t help in midfield. Duran, a Colombian, has been electric. He once played for Lusitania FC in Portugal, and may well sink Chelsea tonight.
43 min: The stadium is making plenty of noise now. Chelsea booed on each touch. They need to keep calm, pull themselves together. This is a severe test of the youngsters within this team. Character building perhaps.
41 min: Justin Kavanagh gets in touch: “Chelsea should get themselves almost over the line at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium. Some people think it’s all over, already. You finish it, John… “
Maresca might need to do an Alf Ramsey team talk at this rate. From promising beginnings, Chelsea have been rotten.
40 min: Hato has had a nightmare, guilty for both goals. He’s been exposed by his teammates, mind. Chelsea are *so* open.
Goal! Qarabag 2-1 Chelsea (Jankovic, 39 pen)
A most calm penalty follows a deep breath. Chelsea have themselves to blame.
Penalty to Qarabag!
Hato handles it in the box, Duran smashing the ball at his hand from point-blank range.
36 min: So close for Qarabag again….Cafarquliyev goes on a bustling run from left-back, nobody putting in a tackle, and he sees glory….and misses. Chelsea have gone very milky….
34 min: Chelsea have not played much in the way of possession football. They try to attack at speed. Gittens finds space and gets his angles all wrong, smashing the ball into the side-netting.
