A clinical display from Chelsea powered by a hat-trick from Ruben Loftus-Cheek helped them ease past BATE Borisov in the Europa League.
This was Chelsea’s third win in as many matches as they built their lead at the top of the table with nine points.
Loftus-Cheek was absolutely unstoppable on the night and he made his presence felt right from the very start with a goal in just the second minute after pouncing on a cross from Davide Zappacosta.
Six minutes later, he again registered his name on the scoresheet with a volley after receiving the ball from a corner by Willian. In the 53rd minute, he completed his first professional hat-trick with a goal from 20-yards to hand Chelsea a three-goal advantage. This was just his fourth appearance for the London club this season as he was part of eight changes that were made by head coach Maurizio Sarri from the team that drew 2-2 against Manchester United.
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The English midfielder has just had 33 minutes of playing time since Sarri was given the reins of the club this summer. His compatriots in the midfield–N’ Golo Kante and new signing Jorginho played every league game. On-loan Real Madrid mideo Mateo Kovacic has played 476 minutes so far.
Despite notching up a 13th consecutive win and maintaining an unbeaten start to the season, Sarri was a visibly disappointed man when his team conceded in the 79th minute.
For the Belarusian champions, it was Aleksei Rios who scored a consolation goal in the 79th minute.
Chelsea could have had more to their scoreline had it not been for he visitors’ goalkeeper Denis Scherbitski who came up with some fine saves to deny Olivier Giroud and Zappacosta.
“The target in the short period is to qualify and then to win the group. We played very well for 65 minutes and not very well in the last 20 minutes. It was a good match.
“When we conceded the goal I didn’t like it very much. I don’t know why but I prefer the clean sheet.”
Image credit-The Independent