Chelsea (2) vs. Lille (0) – Results

Reigning UEFA Champions League winners and recently crowned Club World Cup champions, Chelsea managed to dominate French club Lille in all aspects of the game in this round of 16 first leg match, where they had an immense Kanté who did what he wanted on the pitch.

Lille came to this match with a lot of confidence and even more so; after seeing how teams inferior to them, managed to complicate life for the powerful Chelsea in the Club World Cup. However, they couldn’t cope with a team that didn’t commit a single mistake in 90 minutes.

Although this match was very important for both teams, Thomas Tuchel had the luxury of leaving Romelu Lukaku and Jorginho on the Chelsea bench.

While Lille did have its stellar squad and intended to cause a surprise in London trying to go home with an advantage to define the tie, something that did not happen at all.

Chelsea started the game by overwhelming Lille, with many incessant attacks just 5 minutes into the game. At minute 8, after a corner kick taken short by Chelsea, Kai Havertz with an extremely powerful shot and without any opposition managed to score his team’s first goal, showing that Chelsea’s supremacy would not be only in possession of the ball.

Although Chelsea controlled most of the first time, at one point the French got excited and managed to create some concerns in the defense led by Thiago Silva, but that did not go beyond scoring chances.

The first half ended with a score of 1-0, favoring Chelsea.

Second Half

The initial stampede was repeated at the start of the second half. Tuchel had a feeling that, with another goal, the French, who have little experience in the Champions League round of 16, would break down.

After a game change proposed by Chelsea, where they locked themselves up and began to play on the counterattack, in the 63rd minute, in a deadly counterattack, Christian Pulisic managed to score Chelsea’s second goal that would put definitive figures in this match.

Chelsea smells the quarterfinals. Chelsea’s experience and mettle surpassed a Lille that managed to compete but never disturbed Chelsea’s goal. Havertz’s in the first half and Pulisic’s second-half got the goals, and thus put the pass to the next phase on track. Renato Sanches was the best of Lille, and Kanté, of the match.