Callum Hudson-Odoi comes off the bench to seal Europa League win
Callum Hudson-Odoi celebrates with loftus-cheek after scoring the 3rd goal yesterday
After Arsenal fluffed their lines in Rennes in the first leg of their last-16 tie, Chelsea enjoyed an easy night at Stamford Bridge as their visitors failed to register a single shot on target.
The Blues eventually ran out 3-0 winners thanks to goals from wingers Pedro, Willian and Callum Hodson-Odoi, but they should be taking an even bigger lead to Ukraine next week.
Pedro could easily have had a first-half hat-trick, while Ross Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek missed good chances too and the hosts were also denied what looked like a stonewall penalty.
Kiev goalkeeper Denys Boyko also pulled off a string of fine saves in the first half to keep his side in it and Chelsea should have nothing to fear going into the second leg.
After saying in the build-up to this match that some of his players were physically and mentally tired, Maurizio Sarri made six changes for the Blues’ seventh game in 18 days.
Out went regulars such as Cesar Azpilicueta, Eden Hazard, N’Golo Kante and in came Olivier Giroud, Pedro, Davide Zappacosta, David Luiz, Marcos Alonso and Mateo Kovacic.
Once again Hudson-Odoi had to settle for a place on the bench alongside Loftus-Cheek, while Ethan Ampadu was not even in the squad.
Despite the changes, Chelsea dominated possession from the off as Dynamo Kiev opted to sit incredibly deep.
In doing so, they invited the hosts onto them and the Blues duly took the lead after 17 minutes through Pedro.
The Spaniard danced down the left flank and, after a neat one-two in the box with Giroud, slotted the ball through the legs of goalkeeper Boyko.
Minutes later Pedro should have doubled his and Chelsea’s tally after Zappacosta’s cross picked him out, but this time he fluffed his lines from six yards.
There was a clear gulf in quality between the two teams and in truth Chelsea could have put the entire tie to bed before half-time.
Dynamo Kiev could not live with Giroud and his hold-up play was causing all sorts of problems, while Pedro and Willian ran riot out wide.
However for all their brilliant build-up play, Chelsea lacked a cutting edge as Pedro and Barkley both wasted good chances.
They were denied a strong shout for a penalty too when Pedro was bundled over by Tomasz Kedziora in the 30th minute.
But Dynamo Kiev survived that scare, mainly because VAR is not in use in the Europa League until the final, and somehow limped through to half-time only 1-0 down.
It was largely thanks to Boyko’s first-half performance that Kiev were still in the tie and he remained in fine form after the break as he again denied Pedro with a smart save.
It was going to take something special to beat the goalkeeper again and it came from Willian as, with 25 minutes to go, the Brazilian curled a beautiful free-kick into the top corner.
Chelsea were now searching for a third goal to kill the tie and they got it in the final minute of normal time as Hudson-Odoi finished off a brilliant attack.
