Italy forwards Federico Chiesa and Federico Bernardeschi ran consistently through the heart of Chelsea’s defense, Romelu Lukaku was held in check, and Juventus convincingly beat the injury-depleted trophy defender 1-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Ten seconds into the second half, Chiesa sprinted onto a through ball from Bernardeschi and beat defender Antonio Rudiger to score from a difficult angle.
“It should be impossible to concede an easy goal like this at this level in the first seconds of the second half,” Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel said. “You know what’s coming, you have defensive organization like we have, so normally at all times it should be possible to defend it. And we got punished for it, of course.”
Bernardeschi nearly made it 2-0 when he tripped just as he was about to redirect a cross from Juan Cuadrado.
“We showed the real Juve spirit,” Chiesa said. “We tried to attack deep and into the open spaces.”
It wasn’t until the 75th minute that a decent cross found its way to Lukaku, who Chelsea bought for a club record $135 million in August. But the Belgium striker’s ensuing header went well wide.