Chelsea legend Pat Nevin has admitted seeing shades of N'Golo Kante in Malmo midfielder Fouad Bachirou, a player he was hugely impressed with on Thursday night.
The west Londoners secured a 2-1 win over Malmo at a hostile Swedbank Stadion on Thursday to take a slender advantage to the second leg clash at Stamford Bridge next week.
Maurizio Sarri’s men tackled a difficult first leg affair convincingly in Sweden and sealed the tie with goals from Ross Barkley and Olivier Giroud, with Anders Christiansen netting a consolation goal for the hosts.
And in the wake of the Blues’ win away from home, Nevin revealed he was left hugely impressed with Malmo's Bachirou, who he believes is not unlike Kante.
The former Chelsea star admitted that Bachirou impressed him and stressed that his tackling was similar to Kante, which made life difficult for Mateo Kovacic.
“They had a player that impressed me, number 7, Bachirou”, Nevin said on Chelsea TV after the match.
“There was a wee bit of the N'Golo Kante with the way he was going into tackles.
“I was very impressed with him and what it did is it made Kovacic really have to move the ball a little bit quicker.
“And he got caught a couple of times.
"But he then learned from it and started playing quicker.”
Bachirou, who was born in France, opted to represent Comoros at international level and has earned 18 caps at senior level.
It remains to be seen if his Europa League display will put him in the shop window ahead of the summer transfer period.
