Goals from Christian Pulisic and Cesar Azpilicueta have earned Chelsea a 2-1 victory against Lille on Wednesday night, the European champions progressing through to the Champions League quarter-finals 4-1 on aggregate.
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A penalty from Burak Yilmaz gave Lille hope as they had the better of the opening period, but Pulisic’s goal just before the break and Azpilicueta’s clever finish in the second half wrapped up the game for the troubled Premier League side.
For just the second time this season, Thomas Tuchel lined up with a midfield trio of Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante, and such tactics contributed to a relatively uneventful opening half hour.
Everything had been going to plan for Chelsea until Andreas Christensenpicked up an injury, the Dane’s place being taken by Trevoh Chalobah who quickly collected a yellow card from conceding a free kick which eventually led to Lille opening the scoring.
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After VAR deemed that Jorginho had handled the ball inside the penalty area, Yilmaz confidently dispatched the penalty to halve his team’s deficit.
The home side were on the way to heading into half time with all of the momentum, but that changed in the third minute of added-on time, Jorginho supplying a magnificent through-ball to Christian Pulisic who found the far bottom corner from an acute angle.
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Lille had little option but to plough forward after the break and after Yilmaz had headed marginally off target, Xeka powered a header of his own off the far post with Edouard Mendy beaten.
While the deficit remained at two, Lille remained with a chance, but Chelsea wrapped up their progress 19 minutes from time as Azpilicueta converted at the back post after a fine delivery from substitute Mason Mount.
Chelsea squandered a number of opportunities during the closing 15 minutes as more space opened up at the back, but it mattered little as Tuchel’s side moved closer to defending the trophy that they won last season.
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