When Chelsea signed Davide Zappacosta from Torino on transfer deadline day, a few eyebrows were raised by the Stamford Bridge faithful, wandering whether or not the 25-year-old was good enough for the Premier League.
While he’s only played 16 minutes of English football so far, he does have a full 90 minutes of Champions League experience under his belt, and what a full debut it was.
Scoring an impressive if very fortunate goal and picking up an assist in Chelsea’s 6-0 rout of Qarabag, Zappacosta will never forget his first at Stamford Bridge, and he told Gazzetta dello Sport as much on Thursday.
Asked straight away if he meant his goal, he said: “Honestly, before kicking the ball, I looked in the penalty area to see if one of my teammates were free. I then kicked it, and, at that point, I didn’t understand anything.
“It was a moment of true trance: the ball in the net, the celebration with the fans, the embrace of my teammates. Total chaos, but a beautiful chaos”.
Describing that game as ‘the best evening’ of his career, the right-back discovered during the interview that he became the 100th Italian player to score in the Champions League.
Still settling in at Chelsea, Zappacosta is still looking for a house, explaining that’s what he currently gets up to in his spare time, already enjoying the atmosphere of ‘impressive’ London.
The Italy international also revealed he’s already working on improving his English in order to make everything easier, and live the opportunity handed to him to its fullest.
That’s his goal at Chelsea: “To give and take as much as possible out of it. It’s a crucial time for my career, and I want to live it intensely”.
