LONDON: Chelsea capitalised on an early red card for Ajax captain Kenneth Taylor to thrash the Dutch side 5-1 in the Champions League at Stamford Bridge.
Enzo Maresca’s decision to make ten changes paid dividends as Marc Guiu and Moises Caicedo scored before Enzo Fernandez and Estevao converted first-half penalties.
Tyrique George completed the scoring in the second half as Chelsea made Champions League history with three teenagers scoring for the same team.
“We trust a lot of young players,“ said Maresca about the goals from Guiu, Estevao and George.
“That is the strategy of the club, but not only the ones that we buy.”
Victory gave Chelsea consecutive Champions League wins following their opening defeat at Bayern Munich.
The Blues moved up to 11th in the table while Ajax remained bottom of their Champions League group.
Ajax arrived in London without any points or goals in this season’s competition.
Maresca targeted this match to rotate his squad amid Chelsea’s injury crisis following their Club World Cup win in July.
Only Romeo Lavia retained his place from the side that won 3-0 at Nottingham Forest last weekend.
The rotated lineup included Fernandez returning from injury alongside record signing Caicedo and Brazilian talent Estevao.
“It’s a very demanding season, so we need to rotate, otherwise it’s complicated for the ones that play all the games,“ Maresca added.
Ajax’s hopes vanished when VAR upgraded Taylor’s high challenge on Facundo Buonanotte from yellow to red after 15 minutes.
Chelsea immediately exploited their numerical advantage from the resulting free-kick.
Guiu turned home Wesley Fofana’s header back across the box for the opening goal.
Caicedo scored Chelsea’s second with a shot that deflected in off Josip Sutalo.
Ajax briefly revived their hopes when Tosin Adarabioyo fouled Raul Moro for a penalty converted by Wout Weghorst.
Chelsea secured two more penalties before halftime to effectively end the contest.
Weghorst tripped Fernandez who scored from the spot himself.
Estevao then won and converted another penalty with a confident finish past Remko Pasveer.
Maresca made four additional changes at halftime including withdrawing Fernandez and Caicedo.
George needed just three minutes after coming on to score with a precise low finish from Andrey Santos’s backheel. – AFP
