The second leg of the UEFA champions league round of 16 tie between defending Champions Chelsea and French champions Lille took place at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy with over 49 thousand fans in attendance amidst sanctions and restrictions of Chelsea FC. The sanctions imposed on the club saw questions asked about the logistics heading to France with both Tuchel and Kai Harvertz offering to help in order to get to the venue, Such determination was evident in the performance of the blues as they came up a very intense Lille side.
The first half of the game saw the men from London struggle to get into the game after a fast start by the home side before the game took a more stable form with both sides looking to pounce on each other’s mistake. The first half climaxed right on the 38th minute mark after Lille were awarded a penalty for a Jorginho handball. Burak Yilmaz stepped up and coolly placed the ball into the top right hand corner, leaving goalie Mendy with no chance of saving it.
Chelsea responded well to going behind and Jorginho made amends for his previous error with a delicate through ball to spilt the Lille defence and found Pulisic who brilliantly found the bottom left corner of Leo Jardim’s goal to put Chelsea level on the night.
After the break, Tuchel decided to go back to basics with Mount coming on for Kovaciç and that led to a more improved performance by the blues. With the game finally poised, and the clock ticking, Lille took more risks by committing more players forward and gaps became visible which led to the “killer-goal” on the 71st minute as Mount charged down Thiago Djalo, won the ball back fairly and showed brilliant awareness to locate the on-rushing captain, Caesar Azpilicueta who in the most fortuitous manner, knee’d the ball into the net for a 2-1 lead. Game set and match! Chelsea through to the quarter final of the 2021/2022 UEFA champions league.
Here are 4 lessons learnt as Chelsea booked a place in the last 8 of the UCL;
1) First half curse lingers
Chelsea’s first half performances in recent games have left much to be desired and excluding the game at Norwich, the Blues more often than not have struggled to have major impact on games in the first half of matches. At Lille, the French side took note of this problem and sought to pile on the pressure early on but poor decision making and some brilliant defending kept the hosts at bay. Lille’s pressure and intensity finally paid off on the 38th minute and only a swift response from Chelsea meant the game didn’t take a tougher turn with the game delicately poised at that moment in the match. In the first half of the match, Chelsea couldn’t get close enough to Lille’s defenders and the spaces on the flanks were evident due to the narrow nature of the set-up with (3) center midfielders. If Chelsea are to go further than the Quarter final in this season’s Champions league, the team has got to perform at the optimum from start to finish.
2) Shaky Chalobah costs Chelsea again.
In a recent review of mine, I stated how shaky Trevor Chalobah has been and that trend continued against Lille. Minutes after coming on against the French Champions, the young Englishman was rolled by Jonathan David and committed a foul reminiscent of the previous one against Jacob Murphy. The resulting free kick led to the pandemonium in the Chelsea box before Jorginho handled the ball at close range.
The Chelsea defender has been found wanting in recent weeks and with the injury incurred by Christensen, Chalobah needs to step up to the task of replicating his early season assuring form.
3) Jorginho becoming chief creator.
UEFA’s men player of the year, Jorginho has often divided opinion and despite his impressive trophy-haul last season, many questioned his ranking amongst the best 5 players. In games against Newcastle and Norwich, Jorginho showed how well he could set-up attacks from deep with lovely passes over the top of opposition’s defence but proved to be more than capable of treading through balls and killer passes while close to the opponent’s box. Against Lille, with the game threatening to swing in the favor of the hosts and his handling of the ball in the 18yard area, Jorginho found himself at the edge of the box and his superb vision and execution of a Fabregas-esque pass, ensured Pulisic found himself in a perfect position to strike Chelsea level and give the blues the initiative going into the half-time break, Jorginho is finally adding the numbers!
4) Tuchel’s tactical glitch
Tactical deficiency is a statement that one wouldn’t generally attribute to a man that has won 32 matches in his first 50 champions league games (The best record of all coaches with the same number of games). Tuchel more often than not gets his structure and tactics spot on irrespective of the opponent and manager.
Against Lille, that wasn’t the case with Tuchel electing to go with a rather pessimistic approach and play with a midfield three of (Kante, Jorginho and Kovaciç) all “double sixes” as preferably referred to by Tuchel, this decision meant one attacker was sacrificed and with just two upfront, Lille’s defenders found space to bring the ball out from the back and the flanks were fully utilized with Lille having joy with overloads on the flanks. Bamba and Gudmunsson found joy down the flanks with both players with the help of fullbacks (Thiago Djalo and Celik) offering enough depth and able to deliver dangerous crosses into the box. Tuchel spotted the problem and reacted well by introducing Mason Mount in place of Kovaciç and the vast improvement in play was evident with Chelsea able to apply pressure up the pitch and deny the Lille fullbacks the freedom of pushing forward they had in the first period. As a result of that change, Mount’s pressure o to on Djalo led to the turnover of possession high up the pitch and his brilliant cross was met by uthe impressive Azpilicueta.
Tuchel makes amends!
Chelsea progress onto the last 8 with the draw being on Friday, you can be assured that Thomas Tuchel’s men are not afraid of anyone in there despite all the uncertainty around the club!
