UEFA Europa League 2018-19, Malmo FF 1-2 Chelsea: 5 Talking Points & Tactical Analysis

#2 Malmo make Chelsea work hard but Barkley scores the opener

Barkley's goal gave Chelsea the lead

Despite having registered over 82% of the ball in the first quarter of the hour, Chelsea were pressed really high by the hosts, who made the Blues work hard in order to keep them at bay.

Tactically, Uwe Rosler got his game plan working extremely well. Whenever Chelsea took the extra few passes to start an attack, the light blue shirts pounced on the defenders. The highlight of their game, however, was the sheer use of physical strength.

Backed by an electrifying home crowd, Malmo's players didn't shy away from lunging into tackles, rash challenges, shoulder-tussles and slide tackles. Time and time again in the first half, they broke Chelsea's momentum.

Having said that, they didn't create anything substantial to test Kepa either. But just as the clock turned to the half an hour mark, a mistake from Lasse Nielsen helped Ross Barkley get on the end of a Pedro cross.

The England international took a couple of seconds to sort his feet out but stabbed home the opener to draw first blood.

Boy, Chelsea needed that first goal.

1 - Ross Barkley has netted his first ever goal in European competition, in what is his 11th such appearance (between spells at Everton and Chelsea). Account. pic.twitter.com/kEunrOEUTh

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 14, 2019