London (AFP)

Valencia went on to win a 1-0 win at Chelsea on Tuesday for the first day of Group H in the Champions League as the Blues missed the equalizer penalty three minutes from time.

The ball that hit the top of the bar, shot by Ross Barkley, returned shortly before, could cost the Blues who had never lost against the Spaniards in six games.

The penalty awarded after consulting the VAR for a hand of Dan Dassan Daniel Wass, former resident of Ligue 1, would have done more justice to the score.

Champions League or not, Frank Lampard had decided to maintain his confidence in his triplet of young, Fikayo Tomori, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham, authors of 5 goals this weekend in Wolverhampton (5-2).

For Mount, the discovery unfortunately lasted only a quarter of an hour, the time for him to be damaged by an ankle tackle François Coquelin, only warned about this action.

- Chelsea clumsy -

The Blues have in any case bitten into the match with much desire, imposing their physical impact in Valencia.

But they often showed too much clumsiness or bad choice to get to find really favorable positions, facing the strong defensive block Valencian.

Author of seven achievements in the last three league games, Abraham has been too rarely found in the sense of purpose.

And even if he tried to be as useful as possible in the game of handing over and fixing, he hardly had to announce himself a deviation to the first pole countered from the first seconds of play and a head too uncrossed on corner (26th).

Titianized to the right of the 3-4-3 attack, the Brazilian Willian was by far the most dangerous player by his strikes and his ball percussion, but he also lacked precision in the last move (35th , 41e).

And on the few shots framed - by Willian (45th) or Marcos Alonso, on free-kick (63rd, 90th + 1) - goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen was still on parade.

A quarter of an hour from the end, Lampard wanted to take a risk by Kurt Zouma out and return Olivier Giroud attack.

Tough decision since his defense - Chelsea's weak point this season (11 goals in 5 games) - may still be looking for tweaks after this tactical change, was committing a huge scoring error on a free-kick, exploited with success by Rodrigo (0-1, 74th).

For Chelsea, it will now be necessary to get three points in Lille, beaten 3-0 by Ajax, not to take too late in the race for the eighth.

© 2019 AFP