Dusan Tadic said "one guy came and stole everything" as the Ajax captain appeared to accuse the referee of "destroying" his team's Champions League clash against Chelsea.

Ajax were reduced to nine men in the second half at Stamford Bridge, where the Eredivisie champions saw their 4-1 lead erased in a thrilling 4-4 draw with Chelsea.

Tammy Abraham and Kepa Arrizabalaga own goals and strikes from Quincy Promes and Donny van de Beek had Ajax in control until Daley Blind and Joel Veltman were sent off in the space of a minute.

Jorginho converted the resulting 71st-minute penalty – his second successful spot-kick of the match – before substitute Reece James equalised three minutes later at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea's Cesar Azpilicueta had a late goal ruled out by VAR.

"We were much better," Ajax star Tadic said afterwards. "We should just talk about our game because we had 4-1 and everything was under control and then one man steals everything from us.

"Big disappointment, because we should just talk about Ajax and how we play nice football, but we cannot because one guy came and stole everything.

"We saw a situation where there's a foul on Daley Blind, then it's not second yellow for Daley Blind, then it's not second yellow for Joel Veltman, then it's not a penalty.

"I have never in my life seen triple punishment, never. But everything starts with a foul on Daley Blind, he was tackled by [Christian] Pulisic I think.

"It's a big disappointment. I don't like to make excuses, I don't like to talk about other people. We should just be talking about how Ajax played much better than Chelsea but we cannot because somebody destroyed our game."

The result left Ajax, Chelsea and Valencia level on seven points after four matchdays in Group H, with Erik ten Hag's side top on goal difference.

Ajax defender Noussair Mazraoui added: "I'm very disappointed. We deserved to win. You are leading 1-4, eventually it's 4-4.

"In the end you could say you should be happy with a point, but how it went was a disgrace to get two red cards in one moment. For me that is new and happened never before."