Alejandro Garnacho makes Champions League history! Argentine winger writes name into English record books with goal for Chelsea in Qarabag draw

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Alejandro Garnacho broke new ground for English clubs in the Champions League with his goal for Chelsea against Qarabag. The Argentina international came off the bench when his side were 2-1 down but grabbed a crucial equaliser soon after his introduction. And in doing so, the former Manchester United star created a little bit of history for himself.

Garnacho claims personal record

The winger made a name for himself at United, where he graduated from their academy to the first team. In 144 appearances, he scored 26 goals - one of which came in the Champions League against Galatasaray in 2023. Following his switch to Chelsea this summer, Garnacho is back playing in Europe's elite competition, and with this goal, he became the first player to score Champions League goals for two English clubs by the age of 21. But while he impressed off the bench, the Blues flattered to deceive for long periods. Qarabag would have been worthy winners if they had held on but in the end, both sides settled for a point. The result means the two teams are in with a shout of qualifying for the next stage of the competition, without needing the play-offs, but for Enzo Maresca's team, there is a lot of work to do.

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Maresca's rotation game doesn't pay off

The head coach made seven changes from the Chelsea team that outclassed Tottenham in a 1-0 Premier League win last weekend. The Italian decided to rest the likes of Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Pedro Neto, Garnacho, and more, for their trip to Azerbaijan but they missed their heavy hitters in this clash. Despite the result, Maresca says rotation is key after their Club World Cup exploits this summer.

He said at a press conference: "The intention is always, you know, when we make changes, is because the intention is always, because we think that the plan with the players that they start against is the correct one. I think today, I don't know, the feeling that it's about, you know, is more, because we start in the right way, we score the goal, and then, again, we concede two goals, especially in the first one with 10 players. So, for me, the big difference today (Wednesday) has been, especially in the second box, in our box, we concede two goals that we can avoid, and in their box, for the amount of times that we are there, probably we can be more clinical."

Chelsea boss repeats himself amid injury concerns

The 45-year-old added, "I think I've tried to explain already many times. We have players, the intention tonight was to rest Enzo, to rest Moises, to rest Malo [Gusto], to rest more players, because they are not able to play every three days.

"They need recovery from last season, as you said, the Club World Cup affects a lot. We try to rotate when you win, no one mentioned all that. I know that when we don't win, everyone is focused on that, and now I think it's important to recover energy for Saturday and go again."

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Blues return to Premier League action

Chelsea, who sit seventh in the Premier League after 10 matches, will hope to return to winning ways on Saturday when they host lowly Wolves in the last game before teams head off for the international break.