Summary and goals of Lille-Chelsea in the Champions League

Associated Press

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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – Eye-catching but messy, Lille reached its limits in the Champions League with a 2-1 defeat this Wednesday, March 16 against Chelsea, again stumbling on the ceiling of the eighths, as in 2007, and letting the champion slip away in the quarters Europe, already winning 2-0 in the first leg.

Chelsea may be entangled in a politico-financial imbroglio after the British sanctions aimed at its Russian owner Roman Abramovich, Thomas Tuchel’s team has resources: the defending champion responded by Christian Pulisic (45th + 3) to the fervor born from the opening of the score of Burak Yilmaz on penalty (38th), before settling the affair on a lucky goal from Cesar Azpilicueta (71st).

Watch the recap of the meeting below

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Other teams than Chelsea might have sunk into the warm atmosphere of the Pierre-Mauroy stadium. But not the Blues, European champions and club world champions, who have seen others and join Manchester City and Liverpool in the quarter-finals.

That’s three English teams in the European Top 8, like last year, against no French club at this stage for the first time since 2019 and only the third time in 10 years – PSG having also fallen in the eighth.

It will soon be time to wonder under what conditions Chelsea, whose travel expenses are now strictly controlled by London, will go to their future opponent, who will be chosen on Friday in the draw in Nyon (Switzerland).

Chelsea wall

But the Blues will be in the quarters and not the Lille, who did not deserve over the two matches but were sent back to their shortcomings, in terms of talent or depth of the workforce.

Lille’s journey up to the round of 16, their second appearance at this stage after an elimination against Manchester United in 2007, was dotted with beautiful moments, such as this group stage which ended in a cannonball. But the final impression is that Chelsea are evolving two or three classes above, especially in the absence of the Lille playing master Renato Sanches, injured.

At home, Lille will have had the merit of “believing in the feat”, in the words of Jocelyn Gourvennec, with careful tactics and a united block.

In this scheme, it is the ghost Burak Yilmaz (36 years old) who played the role of discounter and accelerator (7th, 11th, 21st).

But Chelsea never panicked. His defense of three has often turned into a wall of five defenders, protected by a bastion of three defensive midfielders (Kanté-Jorginho-Kovacic) in a Vauban citadel style, despite the rapid injury exit of Danish defender Andreas Christensen (33rd).

It was a twist of fate, more than a controlled action, that allowed Lille to open the scoring: London midfielder Jorginho hit the ball with his arm and the referee, after using video assistance at the arbitration (VAR), whistled the necessary penalty, allowing Yilmaz to open the scoring in force (38th).

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Two cold snaps

Half the way seemed done and the northern stadium roared with fervor … for eight short minutes, until Jorginho was forgiven in the dying seconds of the first period. Too alone at the entrance to the Lille area, the Italo-Brazilian launched Pulisic, whose crossfire ended up at the bottom and froze the atmosphere (45th + 3).

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Everything had to be redone for Lille. And then Losc suffered two cold snaps at the start of the second half, with the simultaneous injuries of Botman and Celik (58th).

And when Lille could have recovered in the sense of the feat, on a dribbling festival from Jonathan Bamba, Yilmaz’s header was off target (52nd). As for that of Xeka, she finished on the post (63rd).

Conversely, London’s success was maximum: cross from the incoming Mason Mount for his captain César Azpilicueta, whose recovery – from the knee! – deceived Lille goalkeeper Leo Jardim (71st).

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At 2-1, the Mastiffs missed three goals to hope for an improbable extension. But there was also too much missing, technically, physically, globally, to hope for better than this elimination with honors.

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See also on The HuffPost: Champions League: Manchester United fans heckled in Madrid

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