Chelsea vs Malmo LIVE: Champions League result, final score and reaction tonight

The teams are out at Stamford Bridge and we are minutes away from kick off!

It’s a packed house as the Chelsea fans welcome the European champions out onto the pitch.

Is this Chelsea’s most important player at the moment? Edouard Mendy certainly was in Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Brentford on Saturday.

And according to Vithushan Ehantharajah, it was a man-of-the-match performance which showed why he deserved to be included on the Ballon D’Or shortlist.

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel, speaking to BT Sport:

[Is this Chelsea’s strongest team?] “We have some strong teams in our dressing room because we have a squad full of quality. We have 21 players who we like and we have a strong team tonight, hopefully we can prove it.

“We want to be at our top level because it’s the top competition in Europe. There’s no other way to win matches and we need a good performance to keep the three points here.

“It’s important to start strong and impose intensity, play our game in the opponent’s half and bring a certain energy that we are used to bringing in the Premier League and Champions League.

[On Werner and Lukaku] “They are two guys who can play together. They are very different from each other. Timo can play around Romelu a little bit, and we use Romelu as a reference up front. We need to create chances.

“We need guys in the box who feel confident in the box. We have Mason [Mount] back and the full-backs have been decisive in recent games, so should be able to have attacks with five or six players in the box and have the coverage to not allow counter-attacks.

Romelu Lukaku will be looking to end his six-game streak without a goal tonight against Malmo.

After marking his return to Chelsea with four goals in four, the Belgian striker has not scored since the opening Champions League win over Zenit in September.

He did score in Belgium’s defeat to France in the Nations League, however, but Tuchel believes he is playing in too many matches for the national team and has not had a proper rest since the Euros this summer.

“In this very moment I feel Romelu is a bit overplayed, I think he played too many competitions over the summer, too many competitions with the national team,” Tuchel said.

“And now he has played the Nations League. He is a fantastic athlete and such a competitive guy that he digs in deep, he wants to win these things and he never takes it easy and judges games. He wants to be out there and win.”

While three points will be the biggest concern for Thomas Tuchel tonight, especially after losing to Juventus last time out, the Chelsea manager will also be keen to see an improved performance from his side.

Perhaps that is why Tuchel has picked such a strong team tonight, as he is maybe trying to play his team into form by picking up a big win against the Swedish opposition.

After impressing earlier in the season, particularly in away games against Arsenal and Tottenham, Chelsea’s momentum was hit following those back-to-back defeats to Manchester City and Juventus.

Victories against Southampton and Brentford have followed, but Chelsea were unconvincing at times. Tuchel will be hoping that tonight is the night where everything clicks into place.

It’s a little surprising, perhaps, that Tuchel has named such a strong side for what is - on paper - the most straight-forward fixture of the group stage.

The German hinted before tonight that he was considering resting Romelu Lukaku, who he said was “mentally tired” following a busy schedule of matches.

“He is overplayed a little bit,” Tuchel said. “It is difficult to judge whether he needs a break or is it better to keep him on the pitch?”

Chelsea face Norwich in the Premier League on Saturday lunchtime, however, so perhaps Tuchel is viewing that fixture against Premier League’s bottom side as an ideal time to rest the Belgian striker.

Thomas Tuchel makes four changes from the side that started Saturday’s 1-0 win over Brentford, with Thiago Silva, Antonio Rudiger, Jorginho and Mason Mount all coming into the side in place of Trevoh Chalobah, Malang Sarr, Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

Ben Chilwell, who scored Chelsea’s winner at the Brentford Community Stadium, keeps his place in the starting line-up ahead of Marcos Alonso.

Chelsea XI: Mendy; Christensen, Silva, Rudiger; Azpilicueta, Jorginho, Kante, Chilwell; Mount, Werner, Lukaku

Malmo XI: Dahlin; Larsson, Olsson, Brorsson, Nielsen, Berget; Innocent, Pena, Chrisiansen; Birmancevic, Colak

Chelsea welcome Malmo to Stamford Bridge this evening as the Champions League group stage continues.

Defending champions Chelsea were beaten 1-0 by Juventus in their last outing in the competition, while Malmo were reduced to 10 men as they suffered a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Zenit Saint Petersburg. Chelsea’s narrow victory over Zenit in the teams’ first game of the campaign means Thomas Tuchel’s side are second in Group H. The Blues are ahead of Zenit on goal difference, while Malmo are bottom of the pool on 0 points and Juventus lead with six.

At the weekend, Chelsea edged past Brentford in the Premier League, securing a 1-0 win despite a late onslaught from the newly-promoted club. Tuchel’s team remained top of the table with that result, for which they had goalkeeper Edouard Mendy to thank in large part. Meanwhile, Malmo followed their defeat by Zenit with a loss in the Swedish top flight, but they have since responded positively by winning back-to-back games – one in the league and one in their domestic cup. They will look to make it three on the bounce tonight but must upset the reigning European champions to do so.