Mislav Orsic makes Chelsea suffer as Dinamo Zagreb secure famous victory

This was not exactly how Thomas Tuchel would have imagined his 100th match as Chelsea manager. In the competition where he found such success 17 months ago, the German was powerless to stop Dinamo Zagreb recording a famous victory courtesy of Mislav Orsic’s well-taken goal in the first half.

With owner, Todd Boehly, watching on from the stands, Chelsea were outclassed in almost every department as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang endured a debut to forget after his deadline-day move from Barcelona, mustering a grand total of no shots on target from his 59 minutes on the pitch. For Dinamo’s manager, Ante Cacic, the victory was just reward for his team who executed his gameplan perfectly against opponents whose problems are mounting. Tuchel’s response to the fortunate victory over West Ham on Saturday was to hand Kepa Arrizabalaga his first appearance of the season in place of Édouard Mendy, while Cesar Azpilicueta, Ben Chilwell, Mason Mount and Kai Havertz were all restored to the starting lineup. It had been nearly five years since Aubameyang’s last appearance in this competition while the Gabon striker was still at Borussia Dortmund, with his new manager saying that the 33-year-old is “hungry to play for us” despite suffering a broken jaw at the end of last month.

Sporting a black facemask, Aubameyang surprisingly passed up his first opportunity to shoot in the seventh minute after being played in by Havertz and then failed to make the most of a Havertz cross that flashed across the face of goal moments later.

But despite their home being badly damaged by an earthquake in March 2020 that meant the attendance was restricted to only 22,000 here, Dinamo’s supporters were soon given an opportunity to find their voices. Chelsea’s