Tuchel ‘proud’ as Chelsea make ‘sacrifices’ to reach CL quarter-finals

Thomas Tuchel is “proud” of his Chelsea players following their “deserved win” over Lille in the Champions League knockout stages.

Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic scored as Chelsea beat Lille 2-0 at Stamford Bridge in the first leg.

A lot has happened since the sides last met three weeks ago. Earlier this month, Roman Abramovich announced that he was selling Chelsea.

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This came amid his alleged relationship with Vladimir Putin. After much speculation, Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government last week. 

Some of the limitations now facing Chelsea include them being banned from selling tickets and merchandise to supporters.

They also cannot pay over £20,000 on travel expenses for games. Wednesday night’s trip to Lille was not impacted, but their upcoming games will be heavily affected.

Chelsea fell behind in the second leg as Burak Yilmaz scored from the penalty spot in the 38th minute.

Lille were not ahead on the night for long though as Pulisic equalised just before the interval.

With 20 minutes to go, Cezar Azpilicueta made it 2-1 as Chelsea ran out 4-1 winners on aggregate.

Tuchel stated post-match that his players “showed resilience to overcome difficulties”:

“Brilliant. It’s so nice so many fans are here to support the team, it feels brilliant. The quarter-final is a big step. We showed resilience and mentality to overcome difficulties,” Tuchel said (via BBC Sport).

“As a team, we did what was necessary. We dug in and got a deserved win. It’s difficult here.

“Chelsea has this kind of culture within the club where we work every day. What I found from day one was a football first mentality. Everybody pushes the first team every three days, everybody goes to the limit and is focused on football.

“We’ve been trying to implement an atmosphere. This culture is already installed and this helps us now to focus with difficult and distracting times because it’s always there.

“We encourage the players. It feels so good we can still produce results and I’m proud.

“We weren’t so good in the first half. The pitch was horrible and it made things complicated. It was a new pitch not ready to play on. The tactics weren’t right in the first 20 minutes, I take responsibility. Then it was more fluid.

“It was very important to calm everyone down. We were lucky with the post.

“We hope and expect to carry on because we want to compete. It took a lot of sacrifices, we fought hard to be in the last eight. We’re excited for the draw. We have a game in Middlesbrough three days later.”