Chelsea beaten by dominant Shakhtar
Shakhtar Donetsk 2 Chelsea 1
Chelsea’s Champions League campaign suffered a setback as they were comprehensively beaten in Ukraine.
They trailed inside three minutes to a Alex Teixeira strike and the hosts deservedly doubled their lead after the interval when Fernandinho fired another low shot past keeper Petr Cech.
Oscar’s simple finish with two minutes remaining gave the holders hope.
But Chelsea, who had topped their group following a win and a draw from their opening two fixtures, struggled to deal with the pace, trickery and movement of their opponents throughout and can have no complaints about the result.
The tone for an uncomfortable evening was set when Teixeira took advantage of a fortunate ricochet off John Terry and fired low past Cech.
Terry had returned to the side along with Frank Lampard, who limped out of the action after 17 minutes with what appeared to be a recurrence of his calf injury.
And Terry, despite a decent individual display, also had a miserable time as part of an overworked defence.
Shakhtar dominated possession and chances and went close on numerous occasions.
Cech was forced into at least five excellent saves, most notably a stunning close-range reaction stop to deny Olexander Kucher.
The home side’s willingness to pour forward left big gaps at the back but Chelsea’s passing and quality in the final third was way below the standard which has seen them climb to the top of the Premier League table with seven wins from eight games.
And it was Shakhtar who made the most of a swift break to score again three minutes into the second half.
Eden Hazard lost the ball in midfield to Fernandinho, who exchanged passes with Luis Adriano before finishing coolly.
Hazard and Ramires went close with long-range efforts and Hazard also had a decent attempt saved when through on goal.
Oscar’s late sidefooted finish after great work by Branislav Ivanovic sparked hope of salvaging a point, but Shakhtar were the better team and could easily have added to their tally before then.
The only consolation for the Blues was the fact Juventus were held to a 1-1 draw by Nordsjaelland in the other Group E match.
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Luiz, Cole, Oscar, Ramires, Mikel, Lampard (Hazard 17), Mata, Torres (Sturridge 70).
Subs not used: Turnbull, Romeu, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Bertrand.
Follow West London Sport on Twitter
