It was an intense battle between Ajax and Chelsea at the Johan Cruijff Arena. The game ended 1-0 in favour of Chelsea following a late strike from 10 yards by Batshuayi.
Batshuayi came in as a substitute but little did he know he was going to be the match winner.
It was a goalless first half, as Ajax saw Quincy Promes goal ruled out for offside by the help of VAR. They came close again with Edson Alvarez’s header, only to be denied by the woodwork.
The victory helps Chelsea to level on point with Ajax and it has giving Chelsea their sixth win in all competitions under Frank Lampard.
Lampard’s decision to replace Tammy Abraham with Batshuayi paid-off as he was set up by fellow substitute Christian Pulisic in the 86th minute to give Chelsea the win.
Lampard, speaking after the match told reporters this is “what you want from your substitutes, for them to stay positive and come on and do what they did tonight,”.
The youth stars line-up produced a high tempo encounter but there were few clear cut chances in the match as defenders generally got the better of the strikers.
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“I’m delighted with the performance. Even if we had drawn 0-0 I would have been delighted, but we deserved to win,” added Lampard.
“What a performance against a team that is fantastic on the ball. It was our work ethic and quality that proved the difference.”
Ajax captain Dusan Tadic bemoaned too many errors on the part of the Dutch hosts.
“It was a 50-50 game. Chelsea is a good team but we could have done better. We were sloppy and made too many mistakes.”
The two clubs meet again on Nov. 5 at Stamford Bridge in their next group encounter.
In the other group match, Valencia defeated Lille and is third on four points while Lille is bottom on one point.
Ajax Amsterdam tops the group with six points, ahead of Chelsea in second-place on goal difference despite losing to the Londoners at home earlier on Wednesday.
