Olivier Giroud's first goal under Maurizio Sarri gave Chelsea an unconvincing 1-0 win at BATE Borisov to seal their Europa League progress
Chelsea are now guaranteed to reach the last 32 after their fourth win from four, which was not without difficulty in Belarus
The hosts hit the woodwork in both halves and defended stubbornly, which proved problematic for a sluggish Chelsea who failed to register a shot on target in the first half
But after the interval, they opened the scoring through Giroud's header from an Emerson cross (52) and, courtesy of a welcome clean sheet, kept up their 100 per cent record in Europe this season
Chelsea had much of the possession but little creativity before half-time, and were nearly a goal down before they had even settled when Dzmitry Baga struck the post from range
Kepa also had to keep out a near-post header from Stanislav Dragun following a corner, as the visitors went in grateful to be level
Immediately after the restart, there was a sense of increased urgency from Sarri's side and after spending most of the opening five minutes camped in the BATE half, they took the lead
Jorginho's first-time pass was fizzed in from wide towards Giroud by Emerson, and the France striker's near-post header went underneath Denis Scherbitski's despairing dive for the opener
The Belarusian side, who had never beaten an English team on home soil, went in immediate search of an equaliser and nearly found it six minutes after falling behind, when Nilokai Signevich struck the bar after turning Dagun's long-range shot into one of his own
Chelsea threatened to move further ahead with Giroud's header from a corner and Ross Barkley's long-range effort both forcing Scherbitski into saves, but the closest the game came to a second goal was in injury time, when BATE hit the woodwork for a third time
A corner in the dying seconds was half-cleared to substitute Evgeni Berezkin, who smacked the post from outside the area
That narrow escape summed up BATE's night, as they were left empty-handed from a strong performance against the only unbeaten side left in Europe, but Chelsea had more to smile about, and now need only a point from their two remaining games to win Group L
Volkov was a man mountain for BATE at the back, taking on eight duels and winning a higher percentage than any other starter for his side
 He also made several vital clearances, including from another Jorginho dinked through-ball which has already caught out a number of Premier League defenders this season
Chelsea travel to Everton on Super Sunday at 2
15pm
 You can catch all the action live on Sky Sports Premier League from 1pm
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