Champions League, Chelsea beat Lille; Juventus stunned: Records broken
Defending champions Chelsea claimed a 2-1 win over Lille in the Champions League round of 16 second leg against Lille. Burak Yilmaz had put Lille ahead before Chelsea made a sound response. The win saw Chelsea win 4-1 on aggregate after they had sealed the first leg 2-0. Meanwhile, Villarreal sealed a terrific 3-0 win over Juventus to progress (4-1 aggregate). Here's more.
Lille started on a positive note before Chelsea grew into the game. Yilmaz scored from the penalty spot to hand Lille the lead as Pulisic equalized minutes later after scoring from a beautifully weighted pass from Jorginho. Lille had chances in the second half but didn't take them. Cesar Azpilicueta dented Lille's hopes after meeting Mason Mount's cross.
The first half saw Juventus strike the post through Dusan Vlahovic as the striker also had some close calls. However, all that was missing was the lack of cutting edge in the final third. In the second half, Villarreal stepped up as Gerard Moreno scored the opener. In the 85th minute, Pau Torres made it 2-0 before Arnaut Danjuma added the third.
Gerard Moreno has scored nine goals across the Champions League (2) and Europa League (7) since last season. As per Opta, this is more than any other Spanish player in European competition. Unai Emery had suffered elimination in all three of his knockout ties with Valencia and PSG (twice) in the Champions League before tonight's win over Juventus assuring his side progression.
As per Squawka Football, this is the first time in 19 years that two nations have 3+ teams in the UCL quarter-finals. In 2002-03, there were three teams from Serie A - Inter, Milan, and Juventus. There were three teams from Spain too - Barcelona, Real, and Valencia. In 2021-22, England have Chelsea, Liverpool, and City, whereas, Spain have Atletico, Real, and Villarreal.
As per Opta, at 36 years and 244 days, Burak Yilmaz has become the third-oldest player to score in the Champions League knockout stages after Ryan Giggs (37 years and 148 days) and Paolo Maldini (36 years and 333 days).
Juventus have now been eliminated in each of their last three Champions League last 16 ties. This is as many eliminations taking into consideration their previous 10 appearances in this stage of the competition.
