Chelsea captain Reece James harshly criticized his team’s defensive weaknesses after their disappointing 2-2 draw with Qarabag in the Champions League. The Blues squandered their advantage against Azerbaijan at the Tofik Bakhramov Stadium, dropping to 12th in the table.
Estevao Willian’s goal put Chelsea ahead within the first 15 minutes, but the west London club’s dominance proved short-lived. Qarabag equalized after the 30th minute thanks to Leandro Andrade’s rebound inside the penalty area. Just before the interval, Marko Janković put Gurban Gurbanov’s side into the lead, scoring from the penalty spot after hitting the arm of Jorel Hato from close range.
Alejandro Garnacho pulled one back early in the second period, but Chelsea were unable to find a winner.
After the game, James gave a scathing verdict on his team’s play in an interview with TNT Sports.
“To sum it up, it’s disappointing,” said the Blues captain. “Coming here, we wanted to win. We felt we prepared strongly, but we made two mistakes that led to the penalty and the goal we gave. After that, it’s hard to get back into the game.”
“Their fans were very good tonight. The pitch was difficult to play on, but this is what we expected and we didn’t fully adapt.”
Reflecting on Qarabag’s return, James commented, “Two mistakes led to two goals. It’s difficult when the flow of the game changes, but we simply didn’t do enough. There were some chances we didn’t take, and the blame lies only with ourselves.”
“If you look at the goals we conceded, it wasn’t because of great play, it was more because of our mistakes, and that’s something we need to cut back on.”
Regarding Estevao, who was named Man of the Match, James added: “He is a great player. He has the world at his feet. Obviously he is still young so we have to protect him and keep him healthy. He still has a lot of development to do, but we are very happy that he is here.”
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca echoed James’ sentiments in his post-match press conference, saying: “When we make changes, the intention is always there, because we think the plan with the opponents’ players is the right one.”
“Today, I don’t know, I think there’s more of a feeling that it’s over because we started the right way, scored a goal and then, especially in the first game with 10 players, we conceded two more goals.
“So for me the big difference today was that we conceded two goals inside our box, especially in the second box, but that can be avoided and inside their box we can probably be more clinical given the number of times we are there.”
“The goal we conceded was a stupid goal for me. In their box, we weren’t clinical enough for the number of times we arrived. So this is a big difference for me.”
