The good times continued for Chelsea on Wednesday night as they continued their domestic form and qualified for the Champions League.
Enzo Maresca made significant changes to the team that beat Nottingham Forest 3-0 on Saturday, but far from looking dysfunctional, they crushed Ajax 5-1.
Admittedly, the Dutch side were behind after just 17 minutes, but it was still an impressive performance from a young Blues side.
There were some great performances from some of our starters, including the great Estevao and players who are currently emulating the likes of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.
Estevao’s performance against Ajax
Although he didn’t win the Man of the Match award on Wednesday, it was another sensational performance from Estevao.
The young Brazilian seemed to be everywhere and everywhere during his time on the pitch, and Ajax could not live with him.
His first Champions League goal may have come thanks to Enzo Fernandes conceding a penalty just before half-time, but he was the first to score.
Furthermore, on any other night they could have easily scored at least one more point from open play.
It was a truly all-action performance, one that will no doubt see him start the game at the weekend, and one that left quite an impression on Bobby Vincent of the Express, who gave him a full-time match rating of 9/10.
Naturally, his statistics more than justify such a rating.
In 95 minutes, he had 1.69 expected goals and assists, 8 shots, 70 touches, 1 penalty, 2 key passes, 92% pass completion rate, and 1 interception.
Estevao vs Ajax match | |
|---|---|
minutes | 95 minutes |
expected number of goals | 1.51 |
the goal | 1 |
Expected assist | 0.18 |
shot | 8 |
touch | 70 |
Penalty earned | 1 |
key pass | 2 |
exact path | 34/37 (92%) |
long ball | 1/1 |
intercept | 1 |
collect | 1 |
All stats by Sofascore | |
Overall, Estevao once again proved why he is one of the most exciting young players in the world, despite being one of the team-mates currently emulating Haaland and Mbappe.
Chelsea jewel imitates Haaland and Mbappé
There were some other standouts for Chelsea last night, from Jamie Gittens to Moises Caicedo, but there’s only one player who emulates Haaland and Mbappe: Marc Giu.
Yes, as unbelievable as it may sound, this exciting young Spaniard has achieved something that only two international superstars have achieved before. It involved scoring for two different teams in the Champions League as a teenager.
The 19-year-old opened the scoring for Maresca’s side with a tap-in from close range, but his first goal in the competition came in December 2023, when he was previously at Barcelona, against Belgian side Royal Antwerp.
Now, although he has emulated the likes of Manchester City and Real Madrid stars, it has to be said that no one is seriously claiming that this youngster will be as good as them.
But the Spanish treasure is undeniably talented and on Tuesday night and against Forest he showed in every sense of the word that he is the “nightmare” that talent scout Jacek Kulig said he would be up against.
The Granollers-born forward is technically sound, agile and physical, has impressive jumping ability and knows how to finish, so while he may not match Haaland’s goalscoring numbers, he could well be an incredibly useful player for Maresca this season.
After all, Giu has a long way to go before he reaches his full potential, but his goals and performance against Ajax show he’s a real talent.
