Chelsea battle to 1-0 win away to Malmo

Chelsea beat Malmo 1-0 in Sweden thanks to a Hakim Ziyech strike but an expected glut of goals never materialised against the defensive-minded hosts in Champions League Group H on Tuesday. Chelsea, who hammered Malmo 4-0 when the sides met in London two weeks ago, remain second in the standings, level on nine points with […]

Chelsea beat Malmo 1-0 in Sweden thanks to a Hakim Ziyech strike but an expected glut of goals never materialised against the defensive-minded hosts in Champions League Group H on Tuesday.

Chelsea, who hammered Malmo 4-0 when the sides met in London two weeks ago, remain second in the standings, level on nine points with leaders Juventus.

Malmo, who are yet to score a goal in this year’s group stage, remain bottom without a point. The defeat was their fourth in four games and means that they can no longer make the knockouts.

The Swedish champions and current league leaders frustrated their visitors in the opening 45 minutes as goalkeeper Johan Dahlin mixed up some superb saves with a few hair-raising spills as his side were forced to defend for long periods, but he managed to keep his clean sheet intact until the break.

The goal finally came in the 56th minute as Callum Hudson-Odoi out-paced Franz Brorsson down the right and played a perfectly-weighted pass across the face of the goal for Ziyech to slam home.