Chelsea’s night of two tales: one wonderkid rises while another sinks in Qarabag chaos
It was a night that perfectly summed up the ups and downs of youth football.
Chelsea’s Champions League clash against Qarabag ended in a 2-2 draw, but the spotlight was firmly on two teenagers who represented both sides of the story.
On one end, 18-year-old Estevão — the Brazilian starlet everyone’s been talking about lit up the game with a moment of pure brilliance.
On the other, 19-year-old Jorrel Hato endured the kind of rough night that every young defender don’t pray for.
Estevão opened the scoring with a beautiful finish that, timing his run to perfection before curling the ball past the Qarabag keeper.
You could almost feel the happiness through Chelsea fans watching — this kid looked like something special. But football, as we know, doesn’t stick to one script. Minutes later, Hato’s mistake gifted Qarabag a way back into the game, and before long, things went from bad to worse when he gave away a penalty.
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To his credit, Hato kept fighting. He pulled off a crucial last-man tackle that stopped what looked like a certain goal, showing exactly why Chelsea coaches still trust him despite struggling to pick form.
As for Estevão, he continued to impress with his tireless work rate, completing two slick dribbles, creating a key chance, and helping out defensively with four successful tackles.
In terms of the numbers, Estevão’s stats tell the full story: 2 completed dribbles, 1 key pass, 1 goal, 2 shots, 4 successful tackles, 3 fouls committed, 0 times dispossessed and plenty of energy that had fans comparing him to a young Vinícius Júnior.
Hato, meanwhile, finished with a rough performance, error led to goal, penalty conceded, last-man tackle.
The draw leaves just two points separating Chelsea and Qarabag in the league phase standings, and while Mauricio Pochettino might be frustrated with the defensive lapses, he’ll no doubt be smiling about Estevão’s breakthrough performance.
Nights like these are how future stars are made through brilliance, mistakes, and the lessons in between.
And honestly, that’s the beauty of football, isn’t it? One teenager learns the hard way, another keep shining, and somewhere in between, Chelsea fans can still see a bright future forming right before them.
This season, Enzo Maresca’s team hasn’t performed well in the Champions League and has once again let the Italian head coach down by heavily rotating his vast roster to keep them satisfied with playing time.
Maresca, on the other hand, might come under fire for his seven alterations to Qarabag.
With all due respect to Qarabag, anything less than three points for Chelsea here would be disastrous and would make it more difficult for them to automatically qualify for the round of 16 ahead of crucial games against Italian champions Napoli and Spanish champions Barcelona at home.
Alejandro Garnacho scored a goal seven minutes after entering the game with his weaker left foot, but Hato’s performance, the two points lost, and Romeo Lavia’s early injury are all major drawbacks for Chelsea.
Two Wonderkids’ story as Chelsea struggles Continue
It appeared as though Chelsea would win easily in Azerbaijan when Estevao gave them the lead.
As Chelsea scored a few more goals in the background, we were prepared to wax poetic about Estevao, but as this team frequently does, they made a boring evening challenging.
In a first-half comeback for the Azerbaijani team, Hato was the player who chose to inject some needless drama by being responsible for both Qarabag goals.
Maresca made three changes with his team behind 2-1, but it was unexpected to see him keep Hato on at the half.
Due to some extremely subpar performance from the former Ajax prodigy, they were behind 2-1.
Qarabag hit the post and scored the rebound as Hato, unable to handle a ball in behind, slipped under pressure and fell to the ground.
Then, in the lead-up to a penalty for handball, he gave up the ball. Hato’s performance would be understated by Shaky.
Tosin Adarabioyo’s performance alongside him didn’t exactly help the adolescent, but the second half was more comfortable as Chelsea had more possession. The defensive combination isn’t the most convincing.
Hato has struggled under Maresca, and it’s unclear where he fits in, while Estevao has excelled at one end of the pitch and continues to live up to the hype.
It’s obvious that the former is a highly unique player. Hato is also one, but Chelsea supporters who weren’t totally persuaded by the 19-year-old before Wednesday’s performance will worry them.
Can he play centre back in a back four because of his size and strength? It doesn’t appear to be. He appears more appropriate as the left centre defender or perhaps left back in a back three or five.
In the grand scheme of things, Chelsea actually faced a Champions League team that was playing well and overcame hardship to salvage a point.
In the league phase, Qarabag had won two of their first three games. That might be utilised to minimise lost points, but Chelsea will need to defeat either Barcelona or Napoli to finish in the top eight and automatically advance to the round of 16 if they lose another game that can be won, like Atalanta away or Pafos at home.
That might be utilised to minimise lost points, but Chelsea will need to defeat either Barcelona or Napoli to finish in the top eight and automatically advance to the round of 16 if they lose another game that can be won, such Atalanta away or Pafos at home.
Chelsea is not currently concerned about the Atalanta and Pafos games. Maresca’s top goal is to analyse a subpar performance against Qarabag before getting ready for managerless Wolves on Saturday.
It’s another fragmented performance that Maresca has to examine and work on. Chelsea always seems to be one bad performance away from a crisis, and there have already been far too many this season.
