It was not the perfect performance in Russia on Wednesday night reckoned opening goalscorer Callum Hudson-Odoi when he spoke after the game, but the 4-0 result showed the players carried out Frank Lampard’s game plan well.
The 19-year-old’s first Champions League goal scored on his seventh appearance in the competition made him Chelsea’s second youngest to find the net in the competition, after team-mate Reece James who scored against Ajax last year.Hudson-Odoi’s was hardly the cleanest of goals, with Krasnodar keeper Matvei Safonov culpable, but that was not concerning Callum unduly.‘I’ll take any goal that comes my way,’ he said. ‘It was a shot that the goalkeeper mis-parried and it went in but a goal is a goal, so you try to keep improving and get more.‘We worked really hard from the start and we deserved our goals with the way we played. There were a few times when we were lackadaisical, a bit slow at times, but after that we grew into the game and we took our chances well.
‘I am really happy with the team performance,’ Hudson-Odoi added.‘We worked really hard, we took our chances and we defended as a team, went forward as a team and collectively what the manager wanted, we did in the game. So we are really happy with what we did and hopefully we continue like this.’Lampard has said it will take time for understandings to bed down in a team with new arrivals, but Hudson-Odoi thinks there are signs that is falling into place.‘Every formation he puts out we try to work on it and try to become better at it. How we played in this game we are used to it. We play it a lot and it is good for us to keep getting used to the same formations, and hopefully keep improving and keep building on it as well.’