Unfortunately for Callum Hudson-Odoi, his Champions League season is over. Six matches, one goal and some nice moments - very Hudson-Odoi-y really.
The 21-year-looked sharp for a team that is blunt, he was dynamic and direct, he played, which is a bonus. His 468 minutes is nearly as many as he achieved in the two previous seasons of European football at Chelsea put together. This season's minutes make up for nearly one third of his total Champions League game time despite making his debut three years ago.
Never had he played in all six group matches before, never had he started six games in the tournament in a row. It's disappointing to crash out, but if we file this in the Ruben Loftus-Cheek of loans rather than the Billy Gilmour's, then just playing is all that matters.
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Here is a player so talented that he was valued at £70m before Kai Havertz, before Victor Osimhen, before Jadon Sancho. Here is a player that is still yet to score more than two goals in a single Premier League season.
Hudson-Odoi's stunted development is not all his fault and it's not all Chelsea's, the blame lies somewhere in the ether of injuries, managerial movement and times gone past at Chelsea - see case study Loftus-Cheek for more detail.
In this sense, it doesn't really matter what Hudson-Odoi does on his loan, just like it wasn't about turning relegation-bound Fulham into Premier League champions for the 26-year-old midfielder: just play some football and remind yourself what it's like to kick the ball. Find yourself and get some fitness.
If the unexplainable science of match fitness or sharpness are so key, Hudson-Odoi will get better as the season goes on in Germany. He's already shown why he has been so highly rated, very few have his skill-set of passing and direct dribbling. Unlock the confidence and move onto the next level.
So here he is, vitally being offered a life-line to play more football after Christmas. If, as is most likely, he remains a Bundesliga player for the rest of the season, he would only need to play what he already has twice over to bypass his most league minutes played in a single campaign. Given there's still 22 games left, he will probably do it.
Leverkusen's 0-0 draw with Club Brugge offers a new avenue though. It's not the Champions League, but the Europa League is nevertheless minutes and extra competition. The strength of the competition alone will see the winger pitted against high-level opponents. He could face Arsenal in a play-off still, Barcelona and Ajax are in the tournament, both of whom could also be joined by Juventus.
The Gunners have started the league campaign brilliantly and look a long way in front of Chelsea but they aren't assured a passage into the last-16 yet. There is still a play-off to be done between second-placed Europa League group stage teams and Champions League drop-outs. Should Mikel Arteta's side fail to beat Zurich, then they will be thrust into this pocket of teams as midweek football offers new challenges.
It was the Europa League that saw Hudson-Odoi breakthrough fully at Chelsea under Maurizio Sarri in the first place. His 2018/19 campaign saw him score four goals in nine matches with two assists. That makes up a quarter of his Chelsea goals.
He was given freedom to play on the wings and to express himself as a teenager, he started four games as an 18-year-old and would have played more had it not been for his Achilles tendon injury. He scored in three games in a row in Europe and was a gem.
If he can find the same enjoyment of the second-tier of European football at Leverkusen then not being in the Champions League isn't all doom and gloom. Chelsea rate him highly, Graham Potter is a fan, Boehly wants him to stay.
Loftus-Cheek's Fulham loan didn't catch the eye but he stayed fit and played football, now he's a key first team player. Albeit at 26 and with his own reoccuring injuries, but this may not be all about scoring Erling Haaland levels of goals in Germany, it's just about playing and being there. The Europa League offers that, and it's a good thing.
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