Chelsea’s 100 percent winning record in this season’s Europa Conference League remains intact as second half goals from Christopher Nkunku and Mykhailo Mudryk helped overcome Heidenheim.
The Frenchman broke the deadlock shortly after the restart as he took in Jadon Sancho’s cross and finished with aplomb to net his fifth goal of the competition and 11th in total across all competitions so far this season.
Then with time ticking away and the home side threatening an equaliser, Mudryk made the game safe as he picked out the top corner with an impressive finish after being picked out by Sancho.
This result guarantees the Blues will be playing European football in the new year and more importantly they remain on course to qualify automatically for the last-16 stage.
Though a much sterner test compared to that of FC Noah on matchday three, Chelsea still dominated possession and mustered 10 shots on goal in the first-half as Kevin Muller kept out efforts from Marc Guiu and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in particular.
The standout moment of the half brought about a bizarre bit of refereeing as Serdar Gozubuku appeared to awarded Chelsea penalty after Mudryk went down in the area.
However, because he barely signalled there was some confusion as to whether he adjudged the winger to have dived and therefore was planning to issue a yellow card for simulation.
In the end, following a VAR check, the decision was overturned and Mudryk was not cautioned.
The Bundesliga side did have chances in the second half and the visitors were somewhat indebted to goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen as he pulled off a brilliant double save to deny Paul Wanner and Leo Scienza whilst Maximilian Breunig had a goal disallowed as he was in an offside position prior to his header finding the net.
Cesare Casadei was sent-off for Chelsea in injury time as a result of two bookable offences on what was the only negative for Enzo Maresca’s side on the night.
