Chelsea – Lille, live | Champions League | Brand

• Rafa Molina (Documentation)

• Rafa Molina (Documentation)

• See full narration

AND
he reigning champion enters the scene. the resurrected Chelsea from Thomas Tuchel starts its knockout phase of the Champions League against Lille, current French champion come to less in this 2021-22 in which it is 11th. Just like last season, Chelsea is performing better in knockout tournaments than in the Premier, where they were FA Cup finalists and Champions League winners. For now, he is already in the round of 16 of the maximum continental tournament and on Sunday (5:30 p.m.) faces Liverpool in the final of the Carabao Cup, in addition to staying alive in the FA Cup and coming from winning the Club World Cup. On the contrary, in the Premier he is completely out of the fight for the title, 13 points behind Manchester City.

This makes the set that directs Tuchel can put all his focus this season on repeating last season’s Champions League conquest. The meeting comes amid a new controversy against Romelu Lukaku. Chelsea’s great signing for this 2021-22 campaign had just seven touches on the ball in the match against Premier League Crystal Palace, the fewest in 90 minutes of Premier League football for any player since Opta began keeping the data, in 2003.”The data is what it is and reflects that Lukaku was not involved in our game“, affirmed the German coach. Before the LilleAs happened in the Club World Cup with two goals, the Belgian will have a new opportunity to vindicate himself.

Currently, Tuchel’s Chelsea is a rocky team, difficult to beat. The classic security behind the German has finally been seen again in a blue team that has barely lost one of its last 18 gamesreaping six draws during the current streak.

starting eleven of the Chelsea: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Thiago Silva, Rüdiger, Marcos Alonso; Kante, Kovacic; Zyyech, Havertz and Pulisic

The Lille He arrives with the maximum illusion “of the one who has nothing to lose”, as Tuchel summed up in the preview of the duel. Maignan, Soumaré, Ikoné flew from that historic complex of 2020-21… and now, his scorer jonathan david, who has not seen a goal for his club for just two months, on December 22 in the victory against Girondins. A major challenge for a team that was the leader of its group, ahead of RB Salzburg, Seville and Wolfsburg. “Nobody saw us as first in the group, but we have defied expectations. Against Chelsea we will have one more“, trusted his technician, the Frenchman Jocelyn Gourvennec. In his favor, the Lille will count on Chelsea facing their cursed round: they have fallen in the round of 16 six times, the phase that has left London out of the Champions League the most times.

starting eleven of the Lille: Leo Jardim, Çelik, Fonte, Botman, Djaló; Onana, Xeka, Andre; Renato Sanchez, David and Bamba