On 2nd November Chelsea secured their third Champions League group stage win, which earned nine points and a second place in the group. London had a huge statistical advantage, but that day the implementation left much to be desired. 22 shots on goal for Malmo brought only one realized chance. In the 56th minute Ziyech closed the pass of Hudson-Odoi and brought the Blues another victory and a decent bonus. The retirees are successfully performing in the FA League Cup, where after a penalty shootout they beat Southampton (2:1) and made their way to the quarterfinals. In the Premier League tournament, Thomas Tuchel’s charges are in the lead. On Saturday the aristocrats easily beat Leicester (3:0) away, which eventually brought the ninth victory and 29 points. The gap from the second Man City is three points and the main struggle is yet to come. Today, Kovacic, who has a muscle injury, will not be able to take part in the match and Lukaku’s exit is still in question.
Benfica made a lot of efforts to get into the Champions League group, but in the first round they played clearly below their capabilities. In Kyiv Jorge Zhezos’ team was clearly inferior to Dynamo in terms of play and was close to defeat, but in the end they managed to defend a zero draw. However, in the second round Benfica added and defeated Barcelona with a score of 3:0, having produced the best match in the tournament so far. In the home match with Bayern in the third round, the Eagles managed to beat off the opponents’ attacks until the 70th minute and a goalless draw was quite achievable, but the Bavarians eventually put the squeeze on and scored as many as four goals in the remaining 20 minutes. In Munich Benfica played bravely, but lost 2:5 while the Eagles are the third in the group with four points, but they are only two points behind the second Barcelona.
