Chelsea are one foot in the quarter-finals of the Europa League after a comfortable 3-0 victory over Dynamo Kiev at Stamford Bridge.
Goals from Pedro, Willian and Callum Hudson-Odoi helped the Blues beat Dynamo Kieve ahead of their second leg in Ukraine next week.
Pedro could easily have had a first-half hat-trick, while Ross Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek missed good chances too and the hosts were also denied what looked like a penalty.
Kiev goalkeeper Denys Boyko also pulled off a string of fine saves in the first half to keep his side in it and Chelsea should have nothing to fear going into the second leg.
After saying in the build-up to this match that some of his players were physically and mentally tired, Maurizio Sarri made six changes for the Blues’ seventh game in 18 days.
Out went regulars such as Cesar Azpilicueta, Eden Hazard, N’Golo Kante and in came Olivier Giroud, Pedro, Davide Zappacosta, David Luiz, Marcos Alonso and Mateo Kovacic.
Once again Hudson-Odoi had to settle for a place on the bench alongside Loftus-Cheek, while Ethan Ampadu was not even in the squad.
Despite the changes, Chelsea dominated possession from the off as Dynamo Kiev opted to sit incredibly deep.
The Blues duly took the lead after 17 minutes through Pedro, who danced down the left flank and, after a neat one-two in the box with Giroud, slotted the ball through the legs of Boyko.
Minutes later Pedro should have doubled his and Chelsea’s tally after Zappacosta’s cross picked him out, but this time he fluffed his lines from six yards.
There was a clear gulf in quality between the two teams and in truth Chelsea could have put the entire tie to bed before half-time.
Dynamo Kiev could not live with Giroud and his hold-up play was causing all sorts of problems, while Pedro and Willian ran riot out wide.
However for all their brilliant build-up play, Chelsea lacked a cutting edge as Pedro and Barkley both wasted good chances.
They were denied a strong shout for a penalty too when Pedro was bundled over by Tomasz Kedziora in the 30th minute.
But Dynamo Kiev survived that scare, mainly because VAR is not in use in the Europa League until the final, and somehow limped through to half-time only 1-0 down.
It was going to take something special to beat the goalkeeper again and it came from Willian as, with 25 minutes to go, the Brazilian curled a beautiful free-kick into the top corner.
Chelsea were now searching for a third goal to kill the tie and they got it in the final minute of normal time as Hudson-Odoi finished off a brilliant attack.
