Yesterday’s Champions League action saw the first competitive encounter between Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie.
Contested at the Signal Iduna Park, both sides came into the game with contrastingly different runs of form, BVB on the back of 6 wins on the trot, while Chelsea had just a solitary victory in their last seven.
Despite this, the odds remained in the visitor’s favour, primarily due to the swathe of talented players present at Graham Potter’s disposal.
The game itself kicked off with an action-packed first half, as Dortmund’s rapid exchanges through the midfield left Chelsea befuddled on numerous occasions, allowing for some decent shooting opportunities.
Unable to cope with the German outfit’s pace, the Blues were forced to play on the counter to occasional joy, mainly due to the luxury of having Joao Felix as an attacking outlet.
The Portugal International was easily Chelsea’s most potent attacking threat throughout the game, and he even came close to scoring a couple of times.
The second half saw Chelsea establish a stronger foothold on the game, as they held onto possession better and also created a number of chances.
However, their lacklustre finishing consistently let them down, and ironically enough, they conceded a goal during one of their best spells on the ball.
Karim Adeyami covered the length of the pitch before blazing past Enzo Fernandez and skipping away from Kepa, he went on to calmly stroke the ball home and give Dortmund a first-leg advantage.
Overall, the match provided plenty of talking points, including the possibility of a Chelsea comeback in the second leg and their worrying form at the moment.
Another major talking point from the game was Dortmund’s 19-year-old captain, Jude Bellingham.
The England International grabs the world’s attention wherever he goes, and fans were particularly looking forward to his display against Chelsea.
Aside from taking note of his performance, fans online also discovered signs which suggest that the young midfielder might be friends with Blues forward Hakim Ziyech.
The entire theory is based on their brief post-match interaction, as the 19-year-old appeared to walk straight to Ziyech after the full-time whistle.
They went on to share an embrace and also have a brief exchange, the manner of it really made it seem as if the pair were familiar with each other.
The entire interaction caught fans off-guard as the duo have never been linked together in any way.
Naturally, they proceeded to wonder whether Ziyech and Bellingham are friends off-the-pitch, although there seem to be no signs of that whatsoever.
Perhaps the entire interaction was more of a ‘game recognizes game’ matter or maybe the pair were just discussing their affinity for the Number 22.