Thomas Tuchel was unsurprisingly full of praise for his marksman Romelu Lukaku after the Belgian netted the only goal of the game to kick off Chelsea’s defence of the Champions League title with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Zenit St Petersburg. Lukaku’s goal 20 minutes from time was enough for the reigning champions to get their Group H campaign off to a winning start through they were certainly made to work hard for it by a well-organised and well-drilled Russian outfit in Zenit. Tuchel was asked about his marksman after the game in the press conference and, after scoring twice against Aston Villa at the weekend, believes Lukaku has shown exactly why the club smashed their record transfer fee to get him in.
Thomas Tuchel said: “I am happy. It was a tough match against a strong opponent. It was tough for us in the first half to find little gaps to accelerate the game and to be dangerous in the box. But we played high integrity, many ball recoveries, we had to be very focused and aware in defence as they have a lot of individual quality. Second half we found it a bit easier to find space and create chances.
The cross from Azpi was very good and dangerous, a difficult position to defend. Target the second post with Romelu, Kai was also there and at the same time it was the decisive goal which was good for us.
Thomas Tuchel said: “The performance for Romelu was not easy, we didn’t create many chances for him but he is a guy that doesn’t lose confidence. That’s why he is here You don’t find many strikers of that quality and the guys who are there to score regularly, they are so important as there are not many goals in football.”
