Zenit St. Petersburg 3-3 Chelsea
UEFA Champions League, Group H
Wednesday 8 December, Gazprom Arena

Goals: Zenit - Claudinho 38’, Azmoun 41’, Ozdoev 90+4’; Chelsea - Werner 2’, 86’, Lukaku 62’

The reigning European champions wasted no time in taking the lead against Zenit, as Timo Werner tapped the ball over the line from a matter of inches inside the second minute. An early corner was flicked on by Andreas Christensen, leaving Werner with the simplest of finishes.

Although the game was a dead rubber for Sergey Semak’s side with them guaranteed to finish third in the group whatever happened, a strong Zenit side was instantly under pressure from the London side, who still had first place to play for.

The game opened up soon enough though, with Malcom wasting a glorious opportunity to exploit a huge gap when put clean through on goal midway through the opening half. Claudinho then teed up Sardar Azmoun for a close-range header which the Iranian bulleted wide.

The hosts’ attacking intent paid off handsomely as they turned the game around before half time. The spaces opening up in Chelsea’s defence were gaping wide, and in all honesty Zenit should have scored more.

First, Douglas Santos whipped a simple cross in towards Claudinho to turn a header past Kepa Arrizabalaga on 38 minutes. The game had barely had time to get going again when Azmoun took the lead with an ice-cool finish after being put clear behind the defence by Malcom’s pass. With time to assess his options, he simply rounded Arrizabalaga and rolled the ball into an empty net.

The momentum evaporated just after the hour mark though when Werner and Romelu Lukaku combined to slice through Zenit’s defence. A one-two allowed the German to square the ball to Lukaku to tap in from a few yards out.

Only a sensational save low down to his left from Arrizabalaga managed to keep out Azmoun’s thumping header 10 minutes later. 

His intervention proved crucial. With five minutes left, Christian Pulisic threaded a clever pass through to Werner, who cut inside Vyacheslav Karavaev before slotting a composed finish under Mikhail Kerzhakov.

As added time crept int its fourth minute, Zenit had one last chance - and boy how they took it. Magomed Ozdoev was on hand to collect a headed clearance around the edge of the area, and with a controlled swivel shot he sent a first-time rockt scorching into the roof of the net to earn Zenit a share of the spoils.

Zenit finish third on five points and drop into the Europa League knockout stages, while Chelsea end as group runners up on 13 points.