Eden
Hazard will be on the bench for Chelsea as they open their Champions League
campaign against Qarabag on Tuesday.
Antonio Conte's side are returning to the competition after a one-year
absence and begin the group stage at home to the Azeri champions, who are
making their tournament debut.
Hazard underwent ankle surgery during the summer and made his first club
appearance of the season as a substitute in the 2-1 win at Leicester, having
featured from the bench in both of Belgium's recent World Cup qualifying
matches.
Conte plans to manage his return to fitness with Sunday's visit of Arsenal -
live on Sky Sports Premier League - on the horizon, followed by a midweek
Carabao Cup tie against Nottingham Forest.
It's part of a busy run of fixtures that sees Chelsea play seven games in
September and Conte admits rotation will be required to keep his team fresh.
"Eden Hazard is in the group and he's working very well to find the best
physical condition, but I think he needs a bit of time to continue to
improve and to avoid taking a stupid risk," Conte said.
"You are never relaxed in England, because you have to play a tough league
and also FA Cup and also Carabao Cup.
"Now we are starting to play the Champions League. To play 60, 65 games it's
normal, but it's not easy. In my past sometimes before a Champions League
game you rested. In England it's not easy to do this.
"When you make the decision (on selection) there is always the risk. The
risk could be to play with the same players as against Leicester and then
after the game, 'Why didn't you change the team that was tired?'
"You know very well if you win you've made the best decision, if you lose
you've made the worst decision. I must be realistic, I must be calm, to make
the best decision for these seven games.
"It's normal when you have to play seven games in 21 days to rotate my
players. I'm very calm about this because I trust my players."
Team news
Danny Drinkwater will miss Chelsea's Champions League return with a calf
problem.
The midfielder picked up the injury in training on Sunday, but Chelsea head
coach Antonio Conte otherwise has a fully fit squad to choose from and
hinted he will rotate his players.
Defender and club captain Gary Cahill is back in contention after a
three-game domestic ban.
Opta stats
This is the first ever competitive encounter between Chelsea and Qarabag. In
fact, the only previous meeting between English and Azerbaijani sides saw
Tottenham face Qarabag in the 2015/16 Europa League group stages; the North
London team won both games (3-1 at home, 1-0 in Baku).
This is Chelsea's 15th Champions League participation, the third most for an
English club after Manchester Utd (21) and Arsenal (19). They are also the
last English club to win the competition (2012).
Chelsea have reached the knockout stages of the Champions League 13 times in
their previous 14 appearances.
Chelsea have lost only one of their last 13 Champions League group games (W9
D3), away against Porto in September 2015 (1-2). The Blues have also scored
in each of their last 24 group games at Stamford Bridge.
Qarabag are the only team, alongside RB Leipzig, to make their Champions
League debut this season. They are also the first team from Azerbaijan to
reach the group stages of the competition.
Qarabag went through three rounds of qualifying to reach the group stages,
knocking out Samtredia, Sheriff Tiraspol and Copenhagen.
No Azerbaijani side has ever reached the knockout stages in Europe. In fact,
Qarabag have won only four of their 18 games in the group stages of a
European competition (D5 L9).
Last season saw Qarabag win the Azerbaijani league for the fourth
consecutive time, a record.
Eden Hazard has scored only one goal in his last 12 Champions League games,
it was from the penalty spot.
This is Antonio Conte's third Champions League campaign as manager. His best
performance was in 2012/13 when he reached the quarter-finals with Juventus.
Qarabag striker Dino Ndlovu scored four goals in six games in this season's
Champions League qualifiers.
It's also Gurban Gurbanov's first Champions League campaign as manager.
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